Thank you, Member for Nunakput. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and communities at this time. Members' statements. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the privilege of listening to NWT youth speak about mental health, addiction, access to sport, climate change, reclaiming language, family violence, living in care and, the piece that links so much of this, housing.

One fifth of Canadians experiencing homelessness are youth between 13 and 24. More youth experiencing homelessness identify as male, Indigenous, and a significant number identify as 2SLGBTQIPA+. Youth experiencing homelessness are six times more likely to be victimized and nearly every youth that spoke to social development on homelessness prevention was or is involved with child and family services and has experienced homelessness. Every single one.

In the NWT, youth age out of care at 23, which is higher than other Canadian jurisdictions; however, increasing the age without supports still leaves youth vulnerable to experiencing or being at risk of homelessness. Youth aging out of care may not be prepared or ready to live independently. And, in addition, youth and all residents are faced with serious housing barriers. In many communities, there is zero percent vacancy rates for affordable housing. In addition, a lack of resources and high costs of living leave youth vulnerable to homelessness.

Other jurisdictions are preparing youth by developing legislation to support their transition from care, allowing youth who have exited care to reenter, funding transitional housing, and providing youth with self-advocacy resources in the transition process.

As the government finalizes its homelessness strategy, this government needs to prioritize youth and youth aging out of care. The homelessness strategy does not make commitments to prevent or reduce homelessness experienced by Indigenous youth in care and does not address creating safe spaces for 2SLGBTQIPA+ youth. These were both recommendations social development included in its review of child and family services, neither of which received adequate response. This territory needs to stop perpetuating the cycle of discharging youth and children involved in child and family services to homelessness. These youth need preventative supports and wraparound services. The NWT needs legislation making the provision of suitable housing for youth leaving care mandatory. The GNWT must immediately give child and family services the staffing and resource development capacity to proactively keep youth in care from homelessness like self-advocacy tool kits, accessible websites with working links to support this. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. Entering adulthood, Mr. Speaker, seems harder than ever these days. Youth transitioning out of care need the GNWT to immediately give child and family services the people and resource development capacity to proactively keep youth leaving care from homelessness. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Members' statements. Member for Hay River North.

Mr. Speaker, there's no place like home. And I think that the residents of Hay River know that as well as anyone. For the second year in a row, the entire community of Hay River, as well as KFN, have been evacuated in the middle of the night. And finally today, the majority of residents of Hay River can go back to the community and I am sure many of them are on the road right now. I am sure many of them were on the road yesterday. Unfortunately, our neighbours, our friends, our family, our co-workers, at KFN, they don't have that same luxury and so our hearts go out to them. I want to take this opportunity to thank a lot of people and I might miss some, but my intention is really to thank everyone. It is a big deal when two entire communities evacuate, and they have to go somewhere, and so a lot of people have to help.

And first and foremost, I want to thank those fighting the fires on both sides of the river. We have over 150 wildfire firefighters working on it, we have the structural firefighters in Hay River patrolling that side of the river, we have a number of first responders, and they are doing their part, and they have been working full out for the past ten days. So we are so appreciative of their efforts. Because of those efforts, the fire that damaged KFN and threatening Hay River has now been downgraded to being held from out of control. And Mr. Speaker, from what I've heard, the comments from firefighters who have been around for 50 years and those who are brand new, they have a lot of, I guess, respect for this fire. I mean, it's big; it's powerful; there's a lot of fuel out there for this fire. And so while it may be being held now, it is still threatening. So I want to make sure that even though we are allowed to go home, we are going home, that residents are prepared to leave on a moment's notice if they need to because that fire, it's only six kilometres away from my community. That's a few hours if the winds shift. So it can come back, so I want to make sure everyone has their gas tank full and a bag packed.

I want to thank all the communities, the individuals, and the businesses that opened up their arms to the residents of Hay River. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

It's no small feat to house and feed 4,000 people, and that's exactly what happened. I want to thank the staff and volunteers who are providing support at all of the evacuation centres. I want to thank everyone who's made donations. I want to thank all of my colleagues here as well. Every time I had to call one of my Cabinet colleagues, they answered the phone, a number of the Regular Members that reached out and offered their support. So personally, I want to thank them as well.

Mr. Speaker, this is the second year in a row that this has happened now. For those of us living on Vale Island, I believe it's the fourth year in a row we've had to evacuate. Residents were scattered all across the Northwest Territories, and Alberta, some went to British Columbia, I'm sure there's some elsewhere. I was here in Yellowknife, and I spent my days at the evacuation centre speaking with constituents and residents of KFN, and I want them to know that I did listen. I heard what they had to say, and I relayed those messages to Cabinet every single day. They talked about their accommodations. They talked about their safety at the evacuation centre. They talked about challenges housing their pets. They talked about their finances and the challenges, you know, affording to evacuate. And so I did bring those to the Ministers every single day, and I want to thank Cabinet for coming forward with a new evacuee financial support program; the first time it's ever been done in the territory. So that's very much appreciated. It's not going to make anyone whole. Not everyone's going to be eligible. But it will help those -- many of those in need.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say that this was -- this was a tough one. There was a different feeling this year from last year when we evacuated from the flood, and that's because we were still recovering from the flood. We're recovering from a number of drug poisonings. There's been an explosion in Hay River. It's been a tough year. People are stretched financially, emotionally, and nerves really are frayed. So I know yesterday when we got word we could go home, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, you know, we got to relax our shoulders a little bit, and you could see it walking around town there was a different mood. So I just want to make sure everyone who is home stays safe and is prepared in case the worst happens again. So thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Hay River North. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Speaker, I have a Return to Oral Question asked by Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes on February 13th, 2023, regarding the Impacts of COVID-19 on Education. The question is:

What is known about high school attendance rates through COVID-19, the attendance rates in small communities versus regional centres, and Indigenous students' attendance?

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment, or ECE, has publicly shared attendance data for 2020-2021 through the JK to 12 Performance Measures Report. In the 2020-2021 school year, many students returned to school only on a part-time basis and a few schools experienced closures due to COVID-19 public health orders announced by the Office of the Chief Public Health Officer.

The Northwest Territories school system was able to adjust the collection of attendance data to capture remote learning; however, the effects of the pandemic impacted and continue to impact the ability to compare current attendance rates to pre-pandemic rates.

Additionally, attendance rates for the 2019-2020 school year only reflect the portion of the school year that included face-to-face and in-class instruction - from September 2nd, 2019 to March 13th, 2020 prior to the schools closing. As a result, data for the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years remains incomparable to previous school years.

ECE publishes attendance data by grade, education body and community type, but not ethnicity. Further detail regarding the 2020-2021 attendance data can be found on pages 47 to 49 of the JK to 12 Performance Measures Report.

Overall, attendance in the NWT for the 2020-2021 school year was 79.9 percent. In Yellowknife, it was 85.3 percent, in regional centres 75.5 percent, and in small communities, 76.3 percent.

The 2021-2022 attendance data is currently being verified and will be included in the JK to 12 Performance Measures Report for 2021-2022, which is tentatively scheduled for release in June 2023.

In October 2022, ECE released the COVID-19 Impact Indicators Report. This report examined available data on the effects of COVID-19 on the NWT JK to 12 education system. The report found that attendance was difficult to properly maintain in 2019-2020 through to the 2021-2022 school period and that inferences from this time are therefore difficult to make. ECE will continue to collect, analyze, and report on data related to the impacts of COVID-19 to better understand the pandemic's effects on education and improve student outcomes.

Question: Does the department identify and support students to complete their high school education that did not graduate and are ineligible for post-secondary studies?

Once students have entered high school, they begin taking courses and earning credits toward graduation; a total of 100 credits are currently needed to graduate. Although there are generalities around the order in which students take courses, there are no strict rules around courses and years. As such, students can continue to take high school courses year after year until they complete the 100 required credits for graduation. For some students, this can take only two years and for others, this can take upwards of five years.

The Career and Education Advising, or CEA, Program exists in schools to assist Grade 9 to 12 students through a career exploration process. The CEA Program supports them in making career or education development and transition choices and accomplishing related tasks, such as work experience, career, post-secondary or other training, and community living.

There are eight Career and Education Advisors with three based in the Yellowknife Region, one in the South Slave, one in the Deh Cho, one in the Tlicho, and one in the Sahtu, and one in the Beaufort Delta.

Full funding is available for students up to 21 years of age, with partial funding available for students older than 21 years of age, to continue taking courses in high school. Students can choose to leave high school before graduating but they are never removed from high school for not meeting graduation requirements. If a student contacts the department or the Divisional Education Council, support will be provided so long as they are under the age of 21. If they are older than 21, individuals are able to seek supports through Aurora College's Community Learning Centres.

Question: Is there a funding cap through the SFA program for students who might need multiple years of university PREP?

The Student Financial Assistance, or SFA, Program offers full-time and part-time assistance to Northwest Territories residents attending accredited, post-secondary programs at an approved post-secondary institution. The SFA program supports eligible students who attend the Aurora College Occupations and College Access Program, or OCAP, and the University and College Access Program, or UCAP. There is no funding cap for students who access OCAP or UCAP. As long as the students remains eligible, they are able to access SFA funding for these programs.

While the SFA program offers assistance to students enrolled in OCAP or UCAP at Aurora College, the program does not provide assistance to students enrolled in other academic upgrading at Aurora College or any post-secondary institution.

ECE has completed the SFA program review and is proposing changes that will help to reduce the barriers students face in pursuing post-secondary education such as removing all semester limits for Northern Indigenous students and expanding remissible loans to all NWT residents. ECE believes these changes will better support students who need additional time to complete their post-secondary studies, including more time completing PREP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize Jamie Linington, the interim general manager of the Tu Cho Cooperative and president of the Freshwater Fish Harvesters Association which is a newly incorporated entity that is looking to transform the national entity into a harvester-led one. Jamie is also an intergenerational Metis fisher-owner operator and is unfortunately one of the evacuees from Hay River, which was good news for me because I got to catch up with her in person. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to acknowledge three St. Patrick High School students who are Frame Lake residents serving as pages in this sitting: Ava Maurice, Deniye Lockhart, and Kyla. Mahsi, merci, and thank you.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Minister responsible for Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to recognize two constituents from the Sahtu. I'd like to recognize Ms. Rhea McDonald who is working with us in the Legislative Assembly, and she is just completing her political science degree. I'd also like to recognize Mr. Robin Doctor from the Sahtu as well, too. He is celebrating 14 years with the GNWT and actually works for the Department of Infrastructure. Mahsi.

Thank you, Member for Sahtu. Recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Colleagues, I'd like to recognize Pam Williams, also Aurora and James -- oh, James must have stepped out. But I see this spring both Pam and James went to the Islanders game, which was Tom's favorite team, and it looked like you had an enjoyable time. It's a privilege to have you all in the House today. And I know Tom was a good friend to many of us and dearly missed. Thoughts and prayers are with you all.

And if we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber and I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to have people in the public gallery. Thank you.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the start of this Assembly, there was a lot of talk about an Indigenous procurement policy, and then the feds, they stepped up, and they created some targets for Indigenous procurement and as well as the Yukon, and we kind of seem to fall apart on that. And now our plan says we're going to identify some potential solutions and maybe get this work done. I'm actually a little confused whether we will have a clear Indigenous procurement policy in the life of this government. So my questions for the Minister of Finance is where we are at in regards to creating an Indigenous procurement policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we don't need to do things the way the Yukon or the federal government do. I know the Yukon process wasn't necessarily greeted with a hundred percent pleasantness from the Indigenous governments in the Northwest Territories -- or in the Yukon nor from their businesses.

Where we are on this one, Mr. Speaker, an Indigenous procurement policy has gone to the Northwest Territories Council of Leaders and our modern treaty and self-government tables. This is where it belongs. These are the groups that are going to be impacted. These are groups that need to have a voice and need to have a role in developing this policy. So we're taking this through that process. They've already met with officials. It's already on the agenda for the upcoming Council of Leaders meeting. The work is already moving forward in terms of developing the internal process that they'll be using to look through what steps they need to take to define an Indigenous business and define a northern Indigenous business and how we can work through ensuring that any policy we apply is in line and respectful of the treaty obligations that we have to modern treaty holders and our economic chapters.

So, Mr. Speaker, I'm not putting a deadline on this. The intention was never to force through a policy and to place it down on Indigenous businesses or Indigenous governments. It really is to work with them, and that work is now well underway. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I worry that this is going to get caught in negotiations and hopefully by the next Assembly, we'll have an Indigenous procurement policy. But I'm hoping for a clear yes on the business incentive policy. The work plan is pretty clear that in the life of this government, we are going to revise the definition of a northern resident, and we are going to increase BIP thresholds for tenders and RFPs.

Can the Minister provide us an update about whether that work to finish the BIP review will -- and amend the BIP policy will be done in the life of this Assembly? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, Mr. Speaker, as I had previously said the work is well underway and will be delivered in the life of this Assembly. There will be a change to the definition. We're going to be getting rid of the need for a Schedule 3 and getting back to focusing on what the objectives of the BIP really are, which is around investment in the Northwest Territories, encouraging investment, encouraging business growth here in the Northwest Territories, and supporting businesses that support that objective. That definition, as I've said, so it is on its way. It will be here in the life of the Assembly, and the Member will have plenty of opportunity to ask me questions about it before the August session. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the procurement review, there was a couple sections on leasing, and then the procurement review panel said that the GNWT should look into whether there was a different approach to leasing, and then the Department of Infrastructure kind of took that as we can't do any work until the procurement review is done. But I don't actually believe the procurement review is changing anything with leasing. I could be mistaken. But can the Minister let me know whether there is any intention to change any of our leasing policies related to procurement in the life of this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, leasing does fall a little bit out of the wheelhouse for me in the Department of Finance but certainly in terms of understanding what's happening as a whole-of-government, infrastructure and the Department of the Executive do confirm that they do want to look together at the improved real property policy. They do want to do that once the formal procurement processes for government procurement and public procurement are done, but also in line with the Indigenous procurement policy that I had just described a few moments ago. So that work will be underway once that is complete. It's important to -- again, we want to be integrated in the approach here, and we don't want to develop this policy around leasing knowing that there's Indigenous development corporations and Indigenous businesses that are interested in this area until the Indigenous procurement policy work is done.

Mr. Speaker, what I suggest is we can certainly add this to our work plan in this area so that there's a clearer timeline and a clearer sense of the work that's happening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I get that perhaps the desire to negotiate Indigenous procurement policy, which could potentially affect all areas of procurement, has, you know, paused some of that other work. I guess perhaps a review of a new work plan that clearly will take beyond the life of this Assembly of what is being done and when would be helpful. There was some recommendations about negotiated contracts policy in the procurement review. Some are small, some are larger about setting targets, some are about reporting. I'm a little confused what's being done there, or whether that also is completely dependent on first finishing a negotiation on an Indigenous procurement policy. So can the Minister tell me whether any changes to the negotiated contracts policy will occur in this government's term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are indeed some guideline changes coming through the Department of EIA to support more clarity around the negotiated contracts policy but, really, the challenges here are, as I think the Member's pointing out, the negotiated contracts policy's right now being used in place of an Indigenous procurement policy to really look at how we are supporting and helping grow Indigenous businesses in the Northwest Territories. So the Indigenous procurement policy really is what is going to be the focal point here with guidelines, as I've mentioned nonetheless in the interim, to help make the negotiated contracts policy more clearer. But as far as what we have done here, Mr. Speaker, the Department of Finance does have an improvement already in terms of our overall reporting. There's contracts reporting. There's an online dashboard. There's a lot more online information about how we procure, what's being procured and where. And importantly, Mr. Speaker, vendor performance management has already rolled out, continues to be enhanced, and is at a stage of ensuring that there's actual enforcement around vendor performance management. If we're at a point where we can enforce the contracts and enforce the expectations, we have on businesses to be hiring locally, procuring locally, that is going to be addressing the needs of our local businesses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Thebacha.