Member from the Sahtu, your time is up to conclude your statement. Members' statements. Member from Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as my friend from the Sahtu has said, critical minerals are the future of the minerals industry, not just in Northwest Territories but in the entire world. And in that mix, rare earth minerals are vital to the modern digital economy because they're such a necessity for high technology devices, the demand of which increases exponentially every year. Rare earth minerals are particularly key to the transition to renewable energy and decarbonizing our economy. The industry is centered in the Asia-Pacific region because the People's Republic of China accounts for 70 percent of the world's supply. China also has access to South American minerals because of complex trade deals with Latin American countries and the fact that they're built around initiative gives them access to South American rare earth markets.

Mr. Speaker, that's why Nechalacho Mine here in the Northwest Territories had so much promise to deliver a supply chain outside of China's control over the market.

Mr. Speaker, Vital Minerals is a company based in Australia that is also developing a rare earth mine project in Tanzania in addition to the Nechalacho Mine here in the Northwest Territories. The project was commenced in 2021, and Vital hoped to mine 25,000 tonnes of concentrate per year by 2025. Unfortunately, changes to the market caused issues with financing this project and shortly after June 2022, there were concerns with the company and they closed their processing plant in Saskatoon in 2023. So here, the situation we have today before us, is a large investment from a Chinese state-controlled company called Shanghai Resources has bought a near 10 percent stake in Vital Metals with a promise to bring that total up to 18 percent. And, Mr. Speaker, this kind of foreign investment is of grave concern to Canada's national security. It also is of grave concern to the future viability of rare earth mining and the rare earth industry in the Northwest Territories because China has used rare earths and critical minerals as part of their national strategy to maintain dominance over that market. And if things continue, we won't have a Nechalacho Mine in the Northwest Territories. It will be shut down, and we'll be forced to participate in that supply chain which is just not working for ourselves or our allies or for our efforts to decarbonize our economy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to offer folks a content warning of this statement which will contain graphic description of a hurt child. These kinds of firsthand accounts break the hearts of members of our NWT community every day. This is an account of a pediatrician in Gaza.

In the first few hours of my work, I treated an approximately one-year-old boy. His right arm and right leg had been blown off by a bomb and flesh was still hanging off the foot. He had a blood-stained diaper, which remained, but there was no leg below. I treated the baby while he lay on the ground. There were no stretchers available because all the beds had already been taken considering that many people were also trying to use the hospital as a shelter or safe place for their families. Next to him, there was a man who was on his last breaths. He had been actively dying for the last 24 hours and flies were already on him. All the while, a woman was brought in and declared dead on arrival.

This one-year-old had blood pouring into his chest cavity. He needed a chest tube so he wouldn't asphyxiate on his own blood, but there were neither chest tubes nor blood pressure cuffs available in pediatric sizes. No morphine had been given in the chaos, and it wasn't available.

This patient in America would have immediately gone to the OR but instead the orthopedic surgeon bandaged the stumps and said he couldn't take him to the operating theater because there were more pressing emergencies. And I tried to imagine what was more pressing than a one-year-old with no hand and no legs who was choking on his own blood. That to me was symbolic of the impossible choices inflicted on doctors in Gaza and how truly cataclysmic this situation is.

Mr. Speaker, I will have questions for the Premier at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Members' statements. Member from Monfwi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Mr. Speaker, I'm going to be questioning regarding the elders' housing. Mr. Speaker, population [Translation ends].

We also know that the majority of older seniors, those seniors who are no longer working age, are mostly Indigenous. We also know, Mr. Speaker, as seniors age so does the number of households that require major renovations. Mr. Speaker, many of our Indigenous elders are living in homes with disrepair or beyond repair.

Mr. Speaker, what are we doing to help our retired elders, those who have made the NWT their home their entire life? How can we help them with repair to repair their homes with ease?

I am hearing from constituents in my riding, Mr. Speaker, that elders on retired fixed incomes are being asked to upfront $1,000 to be eligible for various housing repair programs.

Mr. Speaker, we know that the cost of living has gone up. I am concerned about the income threshold for these programs. How has NWT Housing considered the increased cost of living when deciding income threshold? Not only that, we know government application process is a barrier for elders whose first language is not English.

Mr. Speaker, our elders need housing liaison workers. They need people to come to their home, speak their language, and assist them to obtain support from Housing NWT. We have elders trying to live at the same time some of them are caring for their grandchildren without running water in their homes. Mr. Speaker, our elders deserve more respect. Housing NWT can provide better support services for our elders to age in place. I will have questions for the Minister of housing. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Members' statements. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over recent years, many have stood up in the House to warn that our territorial financial outlook was worsening yet the government of the day just keep kicking the problem down the road so that hard choices will fall onto someone else's shoulders. Now it sounds like we can't ignore our finances any longer.

I understand that there's talk about cuts coming on the horizon. Like every northern family, the government must come to terms with reality and live within its means. My people understand that our territory can't keep spending more than we take in every year, but the communities in my riding of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh are concerned by this talk. They receive less than 5 percent of the $2.2 billion from the finance Minister's table and worry that now that there will be less investment in our riding.

Across my riding, there are critical problems with housing, homeownership repairs, infrastructure, and across access to services. My people can't afford to lose out on support they have waited desperately for. To my constituents, it seems like the government just keeps growing. They still see a fair relationship with the GNWT and fewer coming budgets that work for their needs and will be imposed on to them, just like the old days of the colonial system in the past.

The Premier says he wants to make another shot at renewing the relationship between First Nations and the GNWT. That makes me hopeful. I believe the path to fiscal responsibility offers this new government an opportunity to put words into action. They can choose to balance a future approach to fiscal restraint by ensuring services to Indigenous people and nations is protected and progress is made on the vital priorities of the smaller communities.

The people of Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh shares my optimism in this new government and have not lost hope in the future of the GNWT that works through cooperation and consultation. When this happens, we can find the solution together and build a prosperous economy that will see our territory thrive. I look forward to asking the Minister of Finance questions on this topic. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my recent constituency meetings within my riding, the concern of rent scales has come to my attention by many of the attendees. They are frustrated because it does not work for everyone living in the public housing units.

Mr. Speaker, there are many factors that are related to the cause of this failure in the way that the rent is calculated. The current rent scale is calculated based on the previous year's income. Once your income tax is submitted, the local housing authorities calculate your rent for the whole year. We are experiencing high unemployment rate as with other regions, and most of the residents of my riding are employed seasonally. Some of these people do not even qualify for employment insurance yet their rent is based on the previous year's income.

Mr. Speaker, the current rent scale is landing many of the tenants with huge arrears with the housing authority. The residents are willing to work but due to the lack of employment, these individuals are still required to pay the set amount that was based on the previous year. The residents also require homeownership options for the families who have permanent employment but are paying high rent each month. There's a lady in Tsiigehtchic who informed me that she has been employed for three and a half years and pays $1,450 per month in rent. In the three years of paying rent, the total amount is in the excess of $77,000 for this one person. Meanwhile, there are other tenants who pay $70 a month, and these individuals have paid around $3,000 in the same timeframe.

Mr. Speaker, we as a government must be reasonable and try to make the living arrangements more equal for all the tenants of the Northwest Territories, whether it is restructuring the rent scale or reintroducing homeownership options for the select few who are taking it upon themselves to work for the betterment of themselves and their families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about the carbon tax because I fear that much of the discussion in the media is missing the point. Many of my constituents have come to me with their alarm and disappointment that the message they hear coming from this government's leaders is that carbon pricing hurts people because there are no economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels in the NWT so let's scrap the tax. The important message that's being lost, however, is that climate change hurts people, that climate change costs us dearly, and diesel and heating oil have many downsides including the expense and contamination of diesel spills.

Our status quo dependence on diesel isn't safe, and it's not cheap. And there are renewable energy alternatives. Some of them aren't even new technologies.

Since time immemorial, many northern peoples were heating their homes not with heating oil but with wood. Efficient, clean burning stoves are now more available and affordable than ever with subsidies by Arctic Energy Alliance. And district biomass heating systems for larger buildings are proven to work here, if we could just get all the different players organized.

In the NWT, we have some of the highest per person energy consumption and GHG emissions in the world, and our communities suffer the most from the effects of climate change so we cannot pretend that this is not our problem. My constituents and others across the NWT have told me that they are determined to be part of the solution.

Now, I want to be clear that I don't believe that high emissions or rampant climate change are the fault of individual Northerners just making bad choices. That's where our current carbon tax system falls short because it simply tries to incentivize individuals to behave differently, but people currently have limited options, so it just ends up feeling like punishment.

What residents need to see is the carbon tax revenues being used to create low carbon choices and options for them. That's where the municipal, federal, and territorial governments need to lead the way. People won't leave their cars at home until there is more convenient public transit. People will not invest in electric vehicles until there is clean, robust electricity system and charging infrastructure. Industry will not develop the supply or demand for renewable diesel until there is a clear regulatory framework for clean fuel standards. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This whole time we've had the illusion that fossil fuel technologies are the most economic because we've been subsidizing them with our tax dollars. So the whole point of a carbon tax is to help us plan for a cleaner future by noticing the real price that we are paying for fossil fuels. Carbon pricing should be acting as a kick in the pants to governments to find tools to bring down the price and increase the availability of cleaner alternatives. So carbon tax is not our enemy but if you want residents to do their part to address climate change, first our government has to do its part. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize my CA, Myrtle Graham, who is here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. And welcome. If we have missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to your chambers. I hope you are enjoying the proceedings. It is always nice to see people in the gallery.

Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As a follow-up to my Member's statement earlier, I've been told that each program is going to get more money or get new money for a proposed new funding mechanism. But when asked, they couldn't tell me, for example the Children's First Society in Inuvik, what that amount would be. For the new funding mechanism, if the department knows all the programs who get more money, why can't the CFS, Children's First Society, get those funding numbers now so they can plan for it? My question is for the Minister of ECE. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Minister from ECE.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you very much to the Member. I was very excited to hear the Member refer to the virtual meeting that NWT Early Childhood Association had with their stakeholders because I was able to sit in on that meeting last year as a Regular Member, and it was -- I found it very helpful to be able to hear the personal stories of what people in the territory are going through.

Mr. Speaker, what I can tell the Member is that the Government of Canada has announced overall funding to this sector and, specifically here within the GNWT, for $49.5 million over a five-year period, and that's the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. In addition to that, we have the Canada NWT Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreement in the amount of $10.2 million. That's over a four-year period. And I'll leave it there and wait for the next questions from the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, has the department determined how that money will be allocated to each region and each -- Children's First Centre?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the dollars aren't awarded or allotted by region. They are subsidies that are provided to child care providers across the Northwest Territories. So it would be -- the subsidies would be in relation to how many children, if those children are full-time or part-time, and information that is specific to each child care provider, whether or not that is a daycare provider or a day home. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, have those numbers been provided to each individual daycare what that subsidy will be?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've had the opportunity to actually at this point, in my term as Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, to sit down with the association and have a very frank conversation with them about their concerns and about what they're looking for. I know that the department right now is working with the sector in order to do engagement and feedback on where they're at with establishing what the wage grid is. And so given that that information has not been solidified with the sector, that's why there is no final determination of what those dollars are. So right now, the department is working with stakeholders in order to find out, based on the dollars that we have in the territory, where they can work with one another for what the sector is looking for in conjunction with the dollars that we have within the territory for child care. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.