Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, one of the challenges of some projects is on -- when there's federal funding and moving too quickly. That has certainly been a concern. The other problem is not having enough planning time done. So, Mr. Speaker, something folks may have noticed in the last couple of weeks is that there often are planning dollars associated to projects rather than the big dollars associated to the announcement of the project. Mr. Speaker, it doesn't look very exciting in a budget but it means that we're actually putting something out, taking the time to do the design and planning, so that when we do come to the point of saying it's time to go get federal dollars, not going too soon, but going when we know what that project's actually going to cost, because when you get the federal dollars, if a project runs over, they won't cover the extra; it comes down to us. So if we want to keep those 75/25, couldn't agree more, we must plan before we go chasing federal money and before we put our own dollars to it. So that as you will see -- as I said, is a bigger focus in the capital plan now than it was several years ago, and I'm happy to say that we'll continue that focus. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, finally, has the Minister considered establishing targets for improvements? So a certain percentage of projects not going over budget anymore, have they thought about identifying kind of a plan for addressing this issue, setting targets to shoot for, and working to meet them to ensure that we are budgeting appropriately, managing projects well, ensuring that we are keeping projects within budget? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, happy to take that as a suggestion to establish targets. I mean, really, the target is for no project to go significantly over budget, and there's an obligation on all of our project management teams across departments to work to that goal. But, Mr. Speaker, again, always looking for opportunities to continue to do better. There's been a lot of change in the procurement space and the project planning space in the last few years, and again, very happy to take it away and see what more we can do in that regard. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance.

Colleagues, I'd like to recognize a few more honoured guests here today from the Yamoga Land Corp president, Joseph Tobac; Bob Overvold; and the North Slave Metis president, Marc Whitford. Welcome to your Assembly. Thank you very much.

Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this forgiveness arrangement has been an ongoing issue for a number of years. Housing NWT and this government's forgive hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in housing arrears over the last 20, 30 years. We have to work with the clients at this moment. And we're working with a housing forum, which includes Indigenous governments, to review our policies to make these policies workable for the people of the Northwest Territories. Right now many of these policies are almost impossible for many to accomplish, so this is work that we're doing with Housing NWT, and I hope to report this back to this Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. If the Minister is willing to review the arrears for some of my constituents next year once the new policies are sorted out, right now, Mr. Speaker, the Housing NWT is still evicting members from my community in public housing. Is there a way we could get this sorted out or put a pause on this for now? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's asking some tough questions on the floor of the House. But, you know, commitments have to be made, but I -- at this point, I can't make commitments in terms of pausing evictions. Many of the evictions that are happening today are those from illegal activities in public housing units. And that will be my ministerial statement tomorrow. It'll describe some of the work that Housing NWT is doing towards illegal activities.

Much of the evictions that are slated towards rental arrears are slowed down, some are paused. I'm pressing Housing NWT to work with the clients more and have these discussions at a local level. But in terms of illegal activities, that will be a ministerial statement for tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Minister. We have a single mother and cancer survivor who has to carry out 16 buckets of 5-gallon pail of raw sewage out of her bathtub daily. Her family showers at a neighbour's house during the winter months. Housing NWT has a budget of $193 million and $32 million in surplus this year. My question to the Minister is why can't Housing NWT provide this family with the full amount needed to repair her sewage system? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, another tough question. Thank you to the Member for that. I appreciate it, Rick. But these are some of the things that we have to do, the policies that we have to amend. Talking about this situation in one of the communities, these are tough discussions we have as Housing NWT. And sometimes policies don't fit but policies are rules and guidelines, and we have to look at those and see how we could make things fit for the community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Colleagues, please refer to titles and communities and not names in the House. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

She can call me cousin. If the Minister cannot make exception to policies, can she at least recognize that funding provided for a home -- senior home repair programs is totally inadequate and needs to keep up with the reality of these materials and their transportation to these small communities, essentially rise year by year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize, Mr. Speaker. I won't do that again. But, again, I commit to the work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

All right, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be to the Minister of education regarding autism supports.

Mr. Speaker, I'm aware of the inclusion program that they have within the program, an application-based program, but often I hear from working parents, Mr. Speaker, professionals, that they can no longer live here in the territory where they're struggling to take so much time off of work, whether it's for after school -- lack of after school programs, whether it's days off of school, short days, SIP days, you know, you name it. These families are reliant on the goodwill of their employers and their family, Mr. Speaker.

What can the Minister do to help support schools and families to provide further supports for families who deal with children with disabilities? Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by acknowledging the amount of work that families do to support their children, absolutely, of course. And children with disabilities, their parents are absolute champions and are they're biggest champions for their kids as well. So I just want to acknowledge the amount of work that parents do day in day out.

A few of the things that have been done within the school system in order to increase supports are, for example, working with education bodies to provide training within the school system to education assistants. I've spoken multiple times on the floor of the House in regards to the partnership with Douglas College in order to ensure that we're providing additional tools to the support assistants in classrooms that the Member spoke of earlier in this sitting. I do acknowledge that there is also a desire for additional supports and one of the other things that I do is sit down with the NWTTA, as well as education bodies, to learn from them what kind of additional supports that families are looking for and how we might be able to work together to afford those to the kids that need them. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Working through the the program offered under ECE is called Supporting Child Inclusion and Participation, Mr. Speaker. There are rare, and I mean exceptionally rare, program spaces for summer programs for young people who are dealing with disabilities, and today we're highlighting around autism but, I mean, all disabilities deserve their fair recognition in the sense that we need to find ways to support them all, not one over the other.

Mr. Speaker, two-week slots are rare -- rarer than hen's teeth, Mr. Speaker. So if you're lucky to get one of those, it's only for two weeks out of the eight-week summer, Mr. Speaker. Is there any way to find a way to address that gap that these parents have to struggle with day after day? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, absolutely, the SCIP funding is one of the methods that the department supports families. Another funding amount that is used to support families is ECE does provide $362,000 annually to the NWT Disabilities Council to support families that do have children with complex needs. In addition, I know that even day home -- people who want to open day homes, and specifically serve children with complex needs, have reached out to me as MLA and inquired about what types of supports they would receive from the department. And so the department works closely with people who want to pursue this as a career and open up day homes and daycares. And so we do have certainly subsidies but the Department of education does not operate and own the daycares and the day homes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One parent told me that they have to find a way to help fund the support worker to allow their child to be part of a summer program. So whether you're sending your child to a soccer camp or some other type of initiative like that, parents are paying out of their pocket. Is there any way the department can take this message back -- sorry, the Minister can take the message back to the department and say maybe there's ways we can help support and fund summer jobs programs so we can help expand these opportunities to these families and desperately excitable and engaging young people who want to be part of something, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister go back and see if there's a way to expand opportunities? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am all ears when it comes to suggestions around solutions, so I appreciate the Member's suggestion and will absolutely discuss with the department. And I appreciate that. Thank you.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.