Sorry, Member, could you -- ECC or ECE? E, okay, thank you. Thank you, Member. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this working group is responsible for implementing and coordinating activities to support the multi-year Giant Mine Remediation Project Socio-Economic Agreement, or strategy, and a staff member that we do have sitting on this group is a labour development and standards division staff member, and their role in this group is, I think, a very important one because they provide information on labour market information, training needs, and also employment standards perspectives. Thank you.

Okay, thank you for that. So I'll go to a different aspect. So one of the needs identified by the working group, Giant Mine working group, was for a coordinated training hub in the North Slave region, which I understand the GNWT has been working with a third-party organization to establish. Will the training hub increase the amount of training available to Northerners for remediation work, or what is the hub expected to accomplish?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's correct, ECE did partner with an external entity to develop the North Slave regional training hub. And the goal of this was really to provide and improve coordination between employment-related training and potential projects coming to the region. And so I can say to the Member though, in 2023, so last year, ECE shifted its focus to what's called a North Slave regional training partnership, and this was developed under the federal strategic partnership initiative in collaboration with the federal government. And this partnership was established to encourage collaboration between regional training partners and to provide leadership as well in identifying and responding to short and long-term market needs and potential within the market to make sure that we're prepared for what's coming and that we're responding with potential training opportunities for Northerners in the region. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have a tremendous amount of training opportunities and education opportunities for people here in the Northwest Territories. And I believe that, really, the response to this question is an all-of-government response where really it's about making sure that, A, people have access to this training; B, that people are prepared to enter into any kind of training that we are making available, and so I think that this is a coordinated response as far as making sure that people can put food on the table, that people have access to food, that students are going to school, and that it is a domino effect from there. And so I think that as Northerners, we all have a role to play in ensuring that people have access to this, and that includes us in this room making sure that we are putting information out there and connecting the residents that we serve with opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Minister mentioned a few minutes ago the SNAP program, the apprenticeship program. Has the SNAP program been able to link apprentices or students to work at the Giant Mine Remediation Project? Or what is the plan if not? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I might add that might have been my influence from the 19th Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I'm very excited about the SNAP program. The SNAP program has grown tremendously in the last number of years. What the SNAP program comes down to is employers willing to employ students and having the capacity to take students on in order to create those opportunities. So it's something that people are going to hear me talk about over the next four years, ad nauseam probably, in this House because I think it's such a tremendous opportunity, but it's really reliant on that relationship. While, you know, we are not the -- ITI, sorry, is not the lead department on this relationship, really the lead entity on this is the federal government and they have contracted Parsons to kind of do the contracting work out at Giant Mine. It is really -- would need to be a relationship with them in order to, if they want, create that as part of their contracting requirement. But, really, I think the better way of going about this is making sure that employers know that this opportunity is available and that we want to support them in order to help create a skilled workforce of tomorrow. Thank you.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as mentioned that we had set the four priorities a few weeks ago, and housing is one part of the top priorities for -- of the four. CMHC funding expires in 2038. My question to the Minister of Housing NWT is that what are their plans for the next 12 years as CMHC funding expires? Mahsi.

Minister of Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for raising this issue. The Member is correct that the NWT social housing agreement signed in 1997 allocated $21.2 million in annual operational funding to support the delivery of the Northwest Territories Public Housing Program. The funding has declined and is scheduled to be fully exhausted by 2038-2038.

Since 2019, Housing NWT has been able to mitigate these annual funding declines with funding supports provided under a new bilateral agreement with CMHC. The funding under this agreement is being used to offset the decline in CMHC funding up to 2027-2028. Housing NWT has been meeting with CMHC to discuss new or extending the bilateral agreement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, going forward, as we mentioned that the policy of the housing corporation doesn't -- sorry, Housing NWT policies doesn't work for Indigenous governments. Going forward, though, can maybe -- or is the Minister planning on giving Indigenous governments more control of their housing during their term? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT is actively engaging with Indigenous governments and they're actively engaging through the NWT Housing forum. So they meet and then meet like annually discussing housing initiatives across the North. So Housing NWT's new mandate is to place a focus on collaboration with partners, including those Indigenous governments. Collaboration can take the form of intergovernmental agreements that outline priorities for both parties, but this collaboration can also be more informal.

We are pleased to see Indigenous governments take on an increasing role in housing and are pleased to see that the federal government is now flowing distinction-based funding to Indigenous governments.

All governments have a role to play in the housing crisis in the North. We recognize that there's no one size fits all solution, and each community and government has different needs, capacities, and aspirations. Only through collaboration and working in partnership will we be able to effectively address the North's housing crisis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year the housing Minister stated that she was advancing multi-year capital plans that involved delivery of 510 homes. Can the Minister of housing provide an update on this plan? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, again, to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So Housing NWT continues to advance a multi-year capital plan which includes the construction and repair of over 500 housing units. The scale of this work ranges from modernization and improvement projects for housing assets in the communities to new construction, including duplexes for seniors and a large multiunit residential building plan for Yellowknife. These 500 units include 100 new public housing units for the territory. Of these hundred units, all are either under construction or complete. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year my colleagues and I brought up some -- the deplorable housing conditions. Has there been any progress addressing safety concerns in public housing making homes healthier to live in? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, Housing NWT routinely assesses the conditions of its housing assets through a comprehensive unit condition rating. And these unit condition ratings are done every couple of years for each housing unit across the territory, and we have 2,900 units across the territory so a lot of unit condition ratings. Through this work, Housing NWT prioritizes the health and safety of housing units. Housing NWT's preventative maintenance program, which is administered by the local housing associations, also targets the safety of housing units. Tenants in the housing units are encouraged to contact their local housing association with concerns around the health and safety of their unit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Oral questions. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on August 8, 2023, the Government of the Northwest Territories announced improvements to income assistance program for seniors with disability. The GNWT provides benefits aligned with the Northern Market Basket Measure. So I just want to ask the Minister how does income assistance recognize the higher cost of living for families with more than two children? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciated the Member referencing the press release from August. Unfortunately, the Education, Culture and Employment Income Assistance Program, which was slated to be brought into force before we began the 20th Assembly, has unfortunately not been brought into force yet and so those changes have not yet occurred. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.