Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that would be a hard one to predict. I know that we did receive more applications than our allotment this year. It wasn't a completely unmanageable amount, so I was hoping to see an increase to our allotment in this calendar year to be able to continue to receive those applications and to process them. I would expect that if our allotment remains the same that we would expect to see a similar number of applications come through in the Northwest Territories, if not a little bit more, because of changes that are happening to the program down south as well. But I hope that I will have good news for this House and that we end up seeing an increase to our allotment for the program. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I recognize the important work that the local housing authority employees do every day in all of our communities. We have 24 local housing authorities operating throughout the Northwest Territories in 32 communities, so this is important work that they do. I recognize the impact and recognize what's happening today in one of our local housing authorities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the words of recognizing the important work and the impacts they have; I'm sure the employees do as well. That said, recognizing the important work and the impacts of the work that they do, it must come at a cost that they've been on strike for close to two weeks, a little more than two weeks, and as such, does the Minister know how much the strike has currently cost the LHO and what are they prepared to do financially to deal with this while the strike is going on? So I want to know some dollar amounts the department has been assessing the impacts of this strike. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have dollars amounts this afternoon. I can provide the Member some information, but I don't have dollar amounts in terms of impacts. I have been pressing Housing NWT to provide me more updates, daily updates, on the impact of the strike in Fort Simpson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will accept the Minister's office of updating on sort of the financial impact. Mr. Speaker, I want to speak to the partnership with respect to the bigger picture the department has with the LHO.

Mr. Speaker, does the department through its policy and financial support as the financial agent -- at the end of the day, are you -- are you the ones that will pick up the overall pending costs of any of these additional expenses required through this process while the workers are on strike as the funding agent for the LHOs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I asked Housing NWT yesterday for an update on how this works locally and territorially. And from what I understand, we as Housing NWT sign a community services agreement with the Fort Simpson Housing Authority to manage the houses, the public housing units at Fort Simpson. So we provide them a budget allotment every year, ask for audited financial statements every year, and that is what we do as Housing NWT. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary, Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was hoping the Minister was going to keep going on her own, but I'll prompt her with another question first -- or the last question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, does the Minister recognize that some of these problems could be solved today if the department would meet with the workers, you, including the officials, and sit down and talk with them to meet their needs? Because I suspect that the financial cumbrance of this whole issue can be easily solved over not only a box of Tim Horton doughnuts but literally 20 or $30,000, we could have good workers protecting our public housing as it needs to be. Would the Minister be willing to reach out to help foster a positive end to this strike for what's considered very little money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, officially I can't intervene in strike action as Minister of Housing NWT. Unofficially, I can have a private conversation with anybody but, officially, I can't do that. And I can't impact strike negotiations, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the 20th Assembly, this government put forward four top priorities, and the fourth priority of this government is safe residents and communities. Mr. Speaker, my community of Fort Resolution, the leadership there approached me about putting in cameras and looking at security guards and that, those issues that they brought to my attention. But in previous governments, I also raised this issue. But anyway, my question to the Minister is that is the Minister prepared to look at making a commitment to come up with a clear action plan as to how we're going to deal with this issue in Fort Resolution while moving the top four priorities? Thank you.

Which Minister are you directing your question to? Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am unclear of the issue that he's speaking of, if he can clarify that.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. The community's been asked to use their CPI dollars and operation and maintenance dollars to look at funding cameras to be put into their communities et cetera, but the money is just not there. And my question to the Minister, can we work together to come up with an action plan to help the communities put these much-needed cameras in place so that we could deter drug activities in our community? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So this doesn't really fit under municipal and community affairs. It's not really our -- in our department. We do fund communities. Our total funding allotment is about $110 million to communities for their -- to operate their communities. How they see fit to operate their communities with those funds, it's essentially up to them. I do know that some of the stuff that he's talking about, the Member is -- you know, the signage for an example, it can be -- about $10,000 of that can be used out of the CPI funding. So other than that, most of the stuff that the Member's speaking about would probably be best suited for the Department of Justice or -- yes, I'll leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. The issues that I brought forward here in regards to the activity that's happening in our communities, not only just in my riding but throughout the Northwest Territories, my question would be to the Minister, in order to meet the top four priorities, is your government prepared to work with Indigenous governments as to how we can work together to fund some of these activities that's not without taking the monies out of CPI dollars and the gas taxes that was paid or operation and maintenance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So with that, like I said we distribute the funds to the communities. You know, they -- it's not for us to tell the communities how to run their programs and services within the municipalities. At the end of the day, it's up to the communities. We are supporting safer communities. The Department of Justice, I know has done numerous things by adding, like, more officers and also another program to support the fight against organized crime essentially. So the department of MACA does not have the funds available to add to the services of, you know, fighting the drug activities and stuff in the communities. Again, our department has $110 million they distribute to 33 communities and it's up to the communities on how they want to see fit to operate. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Final supplementary, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well, then having said that, I guess my question would be is that we're already in year one of the four-year mandate we already are in as a government, but for -- to meet the commitments that is laid out in this government for safe residents and communities, is the Minister willing to commit to work with communities, Indigenous governments, and try to find new ways to get money from either Ottawa, or wherever they can get it, to meet one of the top four priorities because the issues in our community are real, and we just don't have the money to deal with that issue. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I don't disagree with the Member. You know, these are issues throughout all of the territories and all the communities. My home community is feeling the stress of illegal and drug activities. But the department of MACA, like I said, it's kind of out of our department so this may be -- I do support it. I am -- you know, my moral values tell me that these are things that we need to tackle and as a government it's something we said we're going to do. But it might be something for myself, the Member, and the Department of Justice to sit down and have discussions and try to find a direction that's positive for the communities of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.