Mr. Speaker, I want to start by saying there's simply not enough supports for women who are struggling in those positions. That is part of acknowledging the crisis that's underway. That is part of, you know, being honest as a government about the crisis that Indigenous women and girls face every day in Canada, including in the Northwest Territories.

That said, there are supports through Health and Social Services. There are supports, I believe, within ECE for -- depending on the nature of what's being sought. There may be supports with MACA. There are supports in Housing. There are different opportunities throughout this government. And even residing within the Status of Women, there are some small pots of funding for activities that different NGOs, different organizations, might want to put on.

So, you know, I can certainly try to put together that information, provide it to the Member, provide it to the House, and see what we can come up with in general. But, you know, again, acknowledging that it's certainly -- there's more to be done. I'm not sure where the Member's questions might go next other than to say that, you know, I can try and look into putting that list together across all departments. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I will be doing a written statement on this as well.

Indigenous women living in relationships and raising children in small communities carrying a much heavier burden unlike non-Indigenous women in the territories. Can the Minister explain what type of specific support services are available for Indigenous women living in small communities?

Mr. Speaker, I can't speak, Mr. Speaker, for Health and Social Services, for ECE, for Municipal and Community Affairs, for the Indigenous governments, for EIA that supports those Indigenous governments. So I'm in a bit of a difficult position in that I can't speak to things that may be happening across other departments or other modes of government. What I can say, Mr. Speaker, we are right now at the point of having done engagement on a draft action plan responding to the national inquiry. I do believe that within that there will be some further information trying to bring together, in a better place, the details and the information available so that Indigenous women across the territory better know what supports are available and so that every Member of this government and of the Northwest Territories understands where the gaps are so that we can work to fulfill them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In December 2021, the Government of the Northwest Territories tabled a draft action plan to respond to the Calls for Justice on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. What action have been completed since this document was tabled in the House ten months ago?

And also, I will be doing a written statement for all the Cabinet, a classroom assignment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what has happened since the draft plan was filed is that we've been doing engagement with communities and community partners since that time so as to be able to provide a final, final action plan. And the director of the gender equity unit over the course of the spring, summer, and early this fall had, I know, attended in person herself a number of different communities. There were sharing circles, sewing circles, various different ways of trying to have coffee time, different ways of trying to have engagement opportunities across the territory.

It was, to be quite frank, Mr. Speaker, more challenging than I would have liked it to be to bring out the kind of engagement that I would have hoped we would have had on this. But that effort was being made, and I am very grateful for the staff at the gender equity division for the work they've done to take this out and to engage directly with individuals in communities. We're now at a point of drafting it, putting it together, and hoping to -- and expecting to have it ready to provide to the House this fall. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister responsible for Finance.

We do get unexpected questions in the House, Mr. Speaker; I wasn't expecting that. As far as I know, we don't track someone who may be not nonbinary or otherwise nonidentifying by traditional genders. I think that's an excellent point, and I will bring that to the Department of Finance. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I was talking too much; maybe the Minister misunderstood my question. I'm asking about how does the department track employment by gender, including Indigenous breakouts. It was really difficult for me when looking through this research work to discover exactly how that breakout is. I can find stats by men and women and I can find stats by Indigenous and non-Indigenous, but I can't find that all mixed together. So if the Minister could comment on whether that's happening and if not, could she commit to doing so? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I got so excited about the idea that I may have missed what the question actually was. But so there is tracking that is done. Indigenous Aboriginal women, Indigenous nonAboriginal women, non-Indigenous -- nonAboriginal women, and the same for people who self-identify as being male, or men. And, you know, Mr. Speaker, just to remind folks, because I know that the nomenclature gets a bit challenging, we continue to use "Indigenous" to mean born in the Northwest Territories, and then "Aboriginal" to mean what we now generally would refer to as Indigenous. That is language that comes out of the now somewhat dated Affirmative Action Policy. And all of those things are tracked and then they are tracked based on seniority and whether they are in management or not. And I believe, in fact, with the commitment under the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework, we are breaking that down even further into levels of management. So that should be available in business plans for every department, and I can certainly assist the MLA if there are more detailed findings that she would like me to find for her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as I had acknowledged, my constituency assistant, she doesn't have a lot of time to go in and pull that all out of every business plan. So I guess my point being more that maybe having that presented altogether and conglomerating that kind of information instead of having it spread across the departments would actually allow us to be looking at this as more of its own issue. So I'm glad to hear the Minister committing to helping with that.

As I stated in my statement, there is a lack of supports for Indigenous men and clear pathways for them to get into the public sector. So can the Minister describe whether any of this data does exist or they're collecting it or some of the challenges? I guess I'm trying to see how is the department bringing in the socio-economic factors that are affecting Indigenous men into the recruitment and training programs? I know that's a long, convoluted question, but I know the Minister can answer it. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I think I should watch the clock when I try to answer this one. But there's quite a number of things that are happening in the Department of Finance right now, all of which I am hopeful will see a real change in being a more reflective public service. And so just as a very, very quick rundown, of course there is the Indigenous Recruitment and Retention Framework which does look at the specific challenges department by department as to why we are not attaining a level of 50 percent representation by Indigenous people and including within that the fact that, as pointed out, Indigenous men tend to be less represented. So that is underway, and specific plans attached to each department with their targets are all due to be released this fall.

More generally, Mr. Speaker, there is also, of course, the fact that we're looking to have a GNWT-wide human resources plan. Seems surprising, perhaps, that there isn't one, but at least we are fixing the problem as identified which will then bring again greater will clearer and greater opportunity for that sort of overall wraparound approach that we're looking to have so that we are a representative public service and a consistently representative public service.

And the last one that I'll raise, Mr. Speaker, there is already a commitment through the Affirmative Action Policy, and that work is well underway. In fact, I believe it will be out for engagement with our colleagues across the floor here as well as with Indigenous governments very shortly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the good thing about Minister Wawzonek is she answered a lot of my other questions when she's answering an earlier question. So I guess I just want to ask, and maybe leave a bit of a comment more, but can maybe the Minister speak a little bit about the trends for Indigenous male employment, Aboriginal male employment, in small communities. This is a priority of our Assembly to increase employment in general in small communities. So, you know, given that males are so underrepresented in the public service, what is she personally doing to ensure that that changes? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, so, you know, again part of what -- it's a bit of the same question -- or a bit of the same answer, unfortunately. But I do want to emphasize that I'm certainly putting a lot of attention on the Affirmative Action Policy. This is something that drives and governs how hiring takes place right now. It determines whether there are priority categorizations for different individuals. And if that policy, that is meant to be doing the thing of bringing greater representation, is not achieving greater representation, and it has not for some 30 years, then we do need to look at that underlying policy. So I certainly have pushed that to be reviewed. And as I said, you know, we are at a point now where I think it'll be coming out very soon for an engagement, for a look by Indigenous governments, by Members from this House, and if that underlying policy can be updated to be brought and be made more appropriate, to be made more effective, then I think that's probably one of the biggest single things that we will see start to change the dial. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've already provided the Minister responsible for NWT Housing a cost and achievable in a time-bounded proposal to take an inventory of home repairs and replacement needs in my riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. As of April 1st, 2022, Housing NWT implemented changes to homeowner -- home repair eligibility and deadlines.

Can the Minister confirm that these changes will ensure that all necessary homeownership repairs will be completed in the Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh riding within the next four years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for asking the question. I'm very passionate about the portfolio and I appreciate that, you know, we have conducted our renewal for this government, and also we've updated our mission statement and our values as well. So I appreciate the Members keeping my department up to power in our commitment within this government.

For the Member, for this current year, I'm pleased to say that we're going to be investing $12.1 million into the 2022-2023 in Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh; $11 million of that is to complete 16 public housing unit repairs in 24 housing units, $912,000 for homeownership repair programs for private homeowners and minor repairs for Housing NWT units. Also I'm pleased to also include that we have supported a community initiative project in the Member's riding as well, too, of a $100,000 to complete their community housing plan as well too. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I'm surprised to hear that they're looking at spending some money in my riding.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has cited the National Housing Co-investment Funds as a potential funding source for homeownership repairs. Can the Minister elaborate on what "potential" means when there being enough resources to ensure repairs and replacements of homes in my riding will be made possible through that fund? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And once again, thank you to the Member as well. The Member has also received, I want to say approximately seven units that were delivered into his riding that were supported through the co-investment application so your riding was successful in the application process.

What Housing NWT has been doing is that we support those 25 percent requirements of the federal government to have those applications submitted. This government has also committed to Housing NWT of $5 million over the next three years to support those federal engagement applications as well too. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In her written response to my proposal, the Minister did not address the matter directly instead citing Housing NWT partnership with Indigenous governments on their housing strategies. Can the Minister confirm that she has reviewed my proposal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And absolutely, I did take a look at the proposal that was submitted. But unfortunately we don't provide funding directly to Members; therefore, we are working with the Indigenous groups in the appropriate riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.