Thank you. Honourable Premier.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do always say that a society is judged by how we treat our most marginalized populations, and I do agree that our smaller communities are some of our most marginalized populations. In fact, a lot of the people who come to our capital city are from smaller communities and end up in homeless shelters and struggling in our income support systems and all kinds of systems that are not fair. It is close to my heart, and I am glad that we are looking at things. What are we doing?

Health: health has a community-based suicide prevention fund, money for them, peer-support funds for people returning from treatment. Expansion of homecare is going to happen. The Child and Family Services and the Healthy Family Program is going to be expanded, and there is on-the-land treatment funding. I do remember the Minister saying it was undersubscribed the last time she had spoken in the House, so I would really advocate for communities to access that funding if it is still undersubscribed.

Housing: dear to my heart, it's why I came into politics. In the last government, and I am confident that this government will do it, as well, there was a direction from the housing Minister at the time, who just happened to be me at the time, that homeless shelters need to be built in smaller communities. The majority, over 90 percent, of people in homeless shelters in our capital city are from smaller communities. In that government, we did build homeless shelters, I believe, in three, and hopefully that will continue. The hundred lease-to-own units, that is in our priorities. We do not own any property in Yellowknife; they are all apartments so that all of those would actually be outside of our capital city. That is a good news story. I did hear the Minister just talk the other day about dealing with the insurance and the land tenure for housing, which was always an issue, so that is something that will help our smaller communities.

The seniors' income threshold was just changed, one of the best things. I do remember an MLA saying in this House that a poor senior had a screwdriver stuck in their oil tank to be able to protect it. I'm not okay with that. That was changed. The housing Minister did a great job in changing that so only seniors get their own income, not their families', based on to determine if they needed help. Reducing the municipal funding gap is certainly going to help communities, as well. All communities that request have a surplus.

Education, child and youth counsellors, in partnership with Health, is a huge asset for our small communities. It's tough for children in the smaller communities. The northern distance ed program is going to be expanded to five communities in this government. That's huge. That's showed success. In Ulukhaktok, three students were able to graduate grade 12 and go South without having to do upgrading. It shows it works. I'm a huge advocate of that, as well.

The small community employment fund: in 2019-2020, there were over 750 jobs that were given. In 2021, there are 431 jobs so far to 32 communities. We're looking at getting daycares. Universal daycare isn't as easy as just saying it's free for people or for low-income people. We don't have daycares in communities, so that has been a priority of the education Minister to try to get the infrastructure to get those daycares in communities. Universal is only good if you have the services available. For the polytech, the Minister has talked many times about actually expanding and working with the 22 community learning centres, not only the three campuses, but what can we do with the community learning centres, which will help their people as well.

ENR has several new and enhanced programs to support harvesters and families getting out on the land, such as the grubstake's start up money to get people out on the land and the CHAP program for community harvesters. For the territorial protected areas, we're looking at the guardianship program, waste reduction, forestry programs, research and monitoring programs, firefighting programs; over 800 jobs in small communities.

Finance is going to do a BIP review, Business Incentive Policy review, that will maximize, as was stated earlier, to have jobs in the North, which will help small communities. The Indigenous government procurement policy that we are doing, it's my belief that, if we help Indigenous governments to help their people, we help our own government. That will help small communities.

Three large infrastructure projects, some Members are really fond of and others aren't: Mackenzie Valley Highway, the Slave Geological, and the Taltson Hydro. Those are projects that will bring jobs for people. We have the largest infrastructure budget in the history of Assemblies. Those jobs are hopefully going to be for northern people as much as possible.

Increase in the regional decision-making is a priority of ours. That will help to make sure that the regions are heard. The resource royalty-sharing within governments that sign onto devolution was not so great this year, but the goal of that was to put money into Indigenous governments so they could help their people.

Through that, Mr. Speaker, I know in the last government we always said to the federal government, flow the money through us and we will disseminate to the communities. We have taken a different stance in this government. We've talked with Indigenous governments and said, "We will be your partners." We will go to the federal government together, and if it makes sense, we will actually advocate for them to actually take their money to the Indigenous governments. Sometimes, of course, we need programs to support for our own, as well, but my belief, Mr. Speaker, is that if we do help Indigenous governments so that they can prosper and provide programs to their people, to their membership, it, in turn, ensures that all people, all communities, will actually have supports. It saves this government money.

Mr. Speaker, we have a long way to go, but I do think that this government is on the right track. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Just let me rephrase that question. No. Seriously, what I would like to hear from the Premier is when we can expect to see more public housing in the NWT. What I want to hear is a commitment that this government will support the private sector in providing housing in the market communities while this government focuses on the non-market communities. I believe that, in the market communities, most people can afford housing. In the non-market communities, I think we are dreaming if we think that the private sector is going to go there and do it. I think that's where our money should be going. I just want to know if we can get a commitment that we will look at that focus.

That question is outside of my portfolios, and I don't have that information for the Member on hand. As the question pertains to the responsibility of the housing Minister, I suggest that the Member redirect the question as required by the rules of the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Yes. Keep our line of questions to the appropriate Ministers. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another area, and maybe this isn't directly for the Premier, but since she is the head of this government, I will ask. One of the problems I see is that this government has said that there is no appetite to provide addictions centres in the Northwest Territories. What I would ask is: will this government commit to looking into developing a relapse centre to help those who need a place to go for a short period when they feel they need relapse and where they can receive some temporary support? Maybe they don't want to develop a full-blown treatment centre here, but on the street and talking to people, what they are looking for is something that is short-term where they can go. I talked to one of the Ministers the other day, and she indicated that people would go up to her and talk to her and just look for that support. They do that with me, as well. I would just like to see something where somebody can go for a short period of time. I hope that the Premier would be able to answer that question.

That question is outside of my portfolios, and I don't have the information for the Member. As the question pertains to the responsibilities of the Health and Social Services Minister, I suggest the Member redirect the question as required by the rules of the Legislative Assembly.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just have one other question here, and I know the Premier can answer this one. I would ask the Premier what this government is doing to reduce the overall cost of living for residents in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That one does work more for the executive. The cost of living, we are not going to be able to reduce. The North is expensive. We're not going to be able to say that we are just going to get cheaper. Groceries are expensive here. Food is expensive here. Fuel is expensive here. Housing is expensive here. What we are looking at is programs to be able to support those costs of living.

The last government used to say that the best social program is a job. I never really agreed with that. However, I do believe that part of the best social program is having a job. If we can review our Business Incentive Policy, that will make a difference. The Minister of ECE is looking at doing a review of income support. That will make a difference. The housing Minister is working on how to be more accessible to people in the communities. That will make a difference.

I can't say that the cost of living in the North will be cheaper. I should say, though, if we can get people off diesel, that might make a difference, as well. We can't say that it's going to be the same price as the South, but we are doing as a government what we can to make sure that our programs, our services, address the needs of people, and addressing the needs of people means making sure that they can afford to live in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Honourable Premier. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.