General comments? Seeing no further comments. Member for Kam Lake -- or sorry. Members, we're going to take a break before we start the motions.

---SHORT RECESS

Committee, I'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories establish a youth housing fund by the 2023-2024 fiscal year with sustainable multi-year funding available to Indigenous governments and non-governmental organizations to purchase, operate, and manage safe housing for children and youth in care. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. Just one moment. The motions are being distributed. You have no motions either?

All right, question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services create an Indigenous child and family services navigator position dedicated to youth who are aging out of care find stable housing and other supports. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs lead an all-of-government approach to ensuring all children and youth have access to sports with increased funding, subsidies, and vouchers for sports equipment and registration fees. Thank you, Madam Chair.

The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, one of the things I wanted to point out here is this is not -- I know that we asked for an all-of-government approach, but I also wanted to talk about the role that Education, Culture and Employment plays within this.

One thing that happens is that families who are on income assistance don't necessarily receive -- or so -- do not from ECE receive subsidies for children that they have for sports recreation, arts, any kind of extracurricular like that. This is a huge disadvantage to these children and youth whose families are using the income assistance program. What I know for sure is that what is referenced is that there are programs out there through Sport North that children can take advantage of. But I've helped families fill out that application form. It is a lot of information that's already available and in income assistance and it is a huge administrative burden for families. So I'm wondering if as part of this as well really would like the government to be able to look at how to streamline that process so that families that are on income assistance can also easily access funds to get their kids into sports programs as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I agree with what my colleague has said. And for me coming back to the young man and the youth I was speaking about before, you know, in trying to help him access funding for tournaments and such, often some of these things just don't fit into either what the Indigenous organization that he belongs to, what they need to have happen, whatever the government will provide for. And where I see sort of an example of this is if it's a tournament or one where it's not like an invite or a team that's going from the territory and the youth wants to go by themselves because there's going to be, you know, athletic scouts there, they've taken it upon themselves to get themselves invited to this tournament or to be involved with it and finding that they don't have access to funds for it, and these are the children -- especially the fact that -- or the youth, sorry -- that they are taking the initiative themselves and have a bright future, they have a goal they're working towards. So I think making it flexible for them to be able to determine that that's how they want to get -- that's where they want to get money for, then I think that would be a very, very good thing. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, just thinking about the motion here. I think some of the youth that I have in my communities are really, really, really athletic and really resilient little sports -- especially for hockey. I have some really good little hockey players in Paulatuk and Sachs and out shore communities. But for them to go play hockey into Inuvik, say, for their Gwich'in Cup or the IRC Cup, it's like probably -- maybe $1,400 return ticket. So stuff like that. Like, a charter going into the community could be up to about 12 to $15,000, and it's really hard for my youth to do stuff like that. So any opportunities that they do get, something like this would really help a lot of families and get a lot of youth out and get them -- get them wanting to work harder to strive better, I guess, and to excel in the sport in any sports, cross-country skiing, biathlon, all that stuff. But I'm really happy this is being brought forward because our youth really need it in our communities, and it's not only in my riding, but I know all other small communities in the North something like this is really going to work. And if we did this, it's going to go a long way to help families that are not, I guess, privileged enough, like, people on income support and stuff like that and youth getting excited for something to get of the community. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I think this is really good. It's good for our young people, especially some young people who, you know, are into high performance sports. And I know there are some youth that go to Yellowknife and some of these parents, they need funding to transport to go to Yellowknife. It costs money to come to Yellowknife and wait for your child while the child plays sports. And it's not just that only, but hockey equipment, you know. I know quite a few years ago, there was lots of hockey players and now we don't have as many, and I know that hockey equipment they are expensive to maintain, to buy. And if we have more sports program in the communities, we know youth are going to be busy, and they're going to be -- you know, they're going to stay out of trouble because I can tell you that in my community, we were without sport -- sport's complex for about almost ten years, and there's a group of kids that grew up without having that facility in place, and many of these youth, the only sports activities that they had access to was at the school, you know, so there's a school volley ball. So all the kids sign up, volleyball, soccer, you know those were -- that what kept our young people busy. So you can feel, see the impact of those youth missing out that ten years, you know, when we -- when we were without sportsplex. So I think this is really good because -- so people, families, single parents, two income family because of the high cost of living and some of them are not able to buy this equipment. So it's going to help families. So I really do like this motion, and I do support it too as well. Thank you.

Thank you. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When it comes to sports, you know, when I was younger, one of the things that I guess that really helped me out was, you know, playing hockey, I guess was the big thing. And it kept me busy. Plus the other thing it got me a job at the arena, so it helped me make money. But, you know, it kept me active. It kept me healthy. I didn't -- you know, it kept me away from cigarettes. It kept me away from alcohol. And when I see youth today, you know, everything is so fast paced. And sometimes I think they just don't know where to turn. They don't -- and everybody's so busy. Nobody has the time to really talk to them. And sports is one area where they can, you know, I think that they can -- you know, compete against themselves, compete against others, and get motivated. It provides them with a really healthy lifestyle. And, you know, we talk about health here, and we talk about the cost to health and all the issues, you know, and that's taking away, because -- you know, the other day I was thinking about myself is that I help people out, you know, when they got problems, when they can't get medical travel and that. And I was thinking, you know, I've never used medical travel for anything. And other ones that -- other people around here are probably the same thing. And so it provides that healthy lifestyle. You know, and -- and I see them, you know, taking that further. They end up being role models for other youth. They end up being role models, I think as they get older and for their children as well. So I think that, you know, any -- anything we can do to provide support and funding. And, you know, I want to go back to my favorite subject, which is the Hay River ski club. Like, they have quite a few, you know, members there, and you know, we're talking about, you know, skiing and biathlon, the snow shoeing and that. And the amount of work that is done there to support them, it's all volunteers, but the youth that I see there in the last three weekends I think in Hay River they've just been busy. It's always been ads on there. And the number of youth that go through it and -- that participate really benefit. It benefits youth. It benefits, I think, families and parents as well. So I think that, you know, anything we can do to support youth when it comes to sports is a big plus. You know, if we really want to make a change, I think that's a great way to start. And so, yeah, I'm for the motion, and thank you for that.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that Housing Northwest Territories establish a women's housing fund by the 2023-2024 fiscal year that provides sustainable multi-year funding to Indigenous governments and nonprofit organizations to purchase, operate, and manage housing for women and their children who are at risk of violence or have experienced violence. Thank you, Madam Chair.