This is page numbers 6125 - 6186 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was land.

Topics

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

I have chatted with the staff and talked about putting a transitional document. I know we do have a transitional committee here within the next government, but I really wanted to make sure that, with something as important as housing, that I would sit down with my staff and we would look at creating some type of a transitional document moving into the next government. Over the past two governments, we have made some really big strides and we have had some great leadership from our past Ministers who were responsible for housing, and I just want to carry that forward and make sure that we continue the continuity of the programs, the services, the partnerships, and promoting the programs that we have, and continuing to work with the federal government, our Indigenous governments and making sure that they are prepared for housing issues moving into the 19th Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In some ways, my questions continue on from my colleague. In my statement today I talked about the growth of the Housing First program throughout the NWT and the success it has had moving chronically homeless people out of shelters and into stable transitional housing. It's very clear that the demand for Housing First has outstripped supply. Can the Minister tell us what advice he is including in his departmental transition report on Housing First? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will just obviously continue on this theme here. Here in Yellowknife, we have been working with a lot of our partners in terms of addressing some of the housing needs. Obviously, we do have the Housing First program; we have the rapid rehousing program with YWCA; and the Yellowknife Women's Society, we did make a good announcement; we are working with industry to see how we can address housing here in the Northwest Territories; Northern Pathways to Housing program that we have in the three communities that I just previously mentioned, we have been working with ECE and working with Health and Social Services to see how we can increase our shelter funding for homeless shelters and how it's just a one-stop program for applications to address that need. So there are a lot of things that have been going on over this government, and any input that Members and any input that our leadership across the territories and our non-governmental organizations can give us, we are willing to work with them, and we just need to sit down and have those discussions. The big one announcement that we have given was the co-investment fund and how can we access that and have a bigger partnership to address homelessness and transition or even housing needs of the NWT.

Julie Green

Julie Green Yellowknife Centre

I appreciate that, not only does the Minister buy half-page ads to talk about his successes, he also gobbles up question period to do the very same thing. The City of Yellowknife has attempted to count the number of homeless people in Yellowknife, and I would like to know very specifically, without the words "community plan," is that work to understand to full dimensions of homelessness being undertaken in any other communities?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Obviously, the Northern Pathways to Housing program is one of our successes that we have seen, and we will continue to work on that. It's a piloted project. I just want to also say, Mr. Speaker, our staff have been doing a great job in meeting with our leadership, meeting with our non-government organizations to address homelessness, and we all need to work together. I think that's one of things that we came out of the housing summit that was up in Inuvik. We also have the Reaching Home program that we are pushing out, and our staff has been trying to get out to as many communities as they can across the NWT. Initially, we were looking at three community housing plans in this initial year, as a pilot program. After myself and the staff have been meeting with leadership, we have 12. I made a statement last week that we have 12 community plans on the go to address the housing needs in each of the communities.

So I just want to let all Members know and leadership, you know: reach out to us; we are willing to work with you, but we are going above and beyond to address the housing issues across the Northwest Territories, and our staff are working very hard to make sure that happens.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In Fort Providence, there is an interest in terms of establishing a trail from perhaps the base of the Deh Cho bridge all the way to Fort Providence, and the community wants to create a project to draw in more tourists at the same time as trying to create a decent option up there for people who drive long ways up north, to give them an opportunity to walk the historical trail along the Deh Cho. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: is there a program or funding available to create historical or interpretative signs for trails? Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within Education, Culture and Employment, there is no direct funding for signage for trails. However, the good thing about consensus government and the departments is we do try to work together, so I have spoken to my colleague with Infrastructure. There is actually funding within Infrastructure, probably within the community access program, that can be utilized. We are more than willing to work with the MLA if he would like some more information on that.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

I don't know where this trail is leading to, but I will try my best. Would the Minister have her staff in the Small Community Employment Support Program reach out to the community on how they can access funding for this project?.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

I would love to be able to say yes, I will do that right away, but I would rather, actually, just because I know how busy we are, if the MLA could send me an email with the request, then we would be more than interested to get the staff to action it. We will work with both the Departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Infrastructure because there is also money under the small business employment fund that maybe we can use to get people to actually do some brush cutting in the trails. There are other resources that we would like to be able to support, so, yes, if the MLA will send us an email, we will make a commitment to work hard to make this a success story in his his community.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

I was trying to highlight the Small Community Employment Support Program that has been in existence for some time. It is available for small communities to try to create employment projects in their communities. I am supposing that the Minister is quite familiar with that. I wanted to ask her: what are some of the successful projects that have been carried out so far with this program?

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

The small community employment fund is actually one of the successes of this government, in my opinion. It is actually putting money into the communities based on where the community thinks that it would be most appropriate. I can't stand here and say what successful projects are, because, in my opinion, every single community is a successful project because that community has defined where they want that funding to go.

One thing I would like to say, though, and I have said it to the communities that I have had access to, is that most of the applications that I have noticed coming in for the small community employment fund have been for one-time projects. I am trying to really stress to the communities that you can actually hire, for example, one person to drive that gravel truck, get that load of gravel, and dump it in the community, or you can actually start thinking more creatively and figuring out how we can actually make sustainable employment so that we can have our own truck and our own business with that. I am trying to get the communities to stop thinking so individually focused and start thinking about economic development, because that is the key.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.

Michael Nadli

Michael Nadli Deh Cho

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has touched on some key points in terms of, perhaps, long-term views of the Small Community Employment Support Program. Will the program continue, and what are the future plans for this program? Mahsi.

Caroline Cochrane

Caroline Cochrane Range Lake

As we all know, this Assembly is coming to an end at the end of the month here, so I can't commit that the program will always continue. I can certainly say that that program has been successful. I want to, again, thank some of the MLAs on the other side who have come forward to actually get it funded more. It is successful, it is working, and I am hoping that future governments will carry it forward into the next Assembly and in Assemblies to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Question 831-18(3): Charter for the City of Yellowknife
Oral Questions

August 19th, 2019

Page 6138

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Earlier today I talked a little bit about the need for the City of Yellowknife to maybe consider developing a charter for the City of Yellowknife. This is where we start to recognize some of the unique and evolving needs of the City. I just want to ask the Minister if he or his staff in the department are starting to see and understand that the City of Yellowknife is starting to take on a lot more different responsibilities and pressures. Is there a need for maybe developing a charter for the City of Yellowknife? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since I have been in the role for Municipal and Community Affairs, we have had some very good discussions working with the NWT Association of Communities, as well as the local government administrators of the Northwest Territories. This is something that is new. We are nearing the end of this government, and this might be something that might be pushed into the transitional documents moving forward. We are in our last week, but it is something that, I think, does need to be discussed to see how we can address the concerns from the Member, as well as leadership across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Cory Vanthuyne

Cory Vanthuyne Yellowknife North

Thank you to the Minister for his reply. If there were such a charter or devolution of responsibilities that were to come to the city, what would it begin to look like? Are there some kind of amendments that we would have to do to the Cities, Towns and Villages Act? Is there some special type of devolution agreement similar to the process that we had to go through when we dealt with the feds devolving responsibility to us? Just so people can get a little understanding of what this might look like, does the Minister have something he can share with us in terms of what the next steps would look like?

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

At this time, I have nothing in terms of what the next steps would be. Obviously, as I said in the previous answer, it is something that can go into a transitional document as something that might be taken under consideration for whoever is going to be sitting in this House. Those are the only next steps that I would say, to have those discussions moving forward, but it is really going to be on who is in this House next government to have those discussions. Like I said, we have a week left, and we will see what we will begin doing. I will make sure that our department has an indication that this is something that needs to be considered.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackson Lafferty

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.