Colleagues, I'd like to thank Annie Goose for the opening guiding words and the blessing today. I hope everybody had a good weekend and prepared to get to work for the next four days.

Ministers' statements. Minister from Housing NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the only way this government can effectively address the territory's housing crisis is through true partnership with Indigenous governments. As stated in this government's mandate, Indigenous governments play an important role in advancing housing initiatives that meet the unique needs of NWT communities, and we must work closely with them to ensure we are implementing housing solutions that have a real, positive impact on residents.

In this spirit of true partnership, Housing NWT has signed four formal agreements with Indigenous governments that support collaboration on housing projects. Mr. Speaker, agreements have been signed with the Tlicho government, Sahtu Secretariat, Deline Got'ine government and, most recently, I proudly signed the collaborative agreement on housing with the Gwich'in Tribal Council.

Building on the GNWT's existing partnership with the Gwich'in Tribal Council, this agreement provides a formal framework for intergovernmental collaboration on housing-related matters in Aklavik, Inuvik, Tetlit Zheh, and Tsiigehtchic, which will primarily happen through the housing working group. Together we will prioritize community housing planning, coordinated program delivery, and joint housing delivery. Together, we will improve housing-related programs and services in Gwich'in communities.

Mr. Speaker, the GNWT's formal housing agreements, memorandums of understanding and memorandums of agreement, are tailored to each Indigenous government and build on existing intergovernmental agreements currently in place, acknowledging the relationships that have already been built and work that has already been advanced. We look forward to signing more agreements with interested Indigenous governments over the lifetime of this Legislative Assembly.

With that said, Mr. Speaker, even where no formal agreement is signed, the GNWT has made it its priority to engage and work with Indigenous governments across the territory. The NWT Housing Forum, for example, is a body co-chaired by Housing NWT and an Indigenous government, currently the Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Established in early 2023, this forum promotes coordination and collaboration among participating NWT governments in the housing sphere and plays an important role in promoting information exchange and cooperation between NWT governments on housing priorities. I appreciate having an ongoing venue to discuss housing priorities with Housing NWT and Indigenous governments as we work together to improve housing outcomes.

Mr. Speaker, being from a small community myself and having travelled to communities across the NWT, I have seen firsthand the territory's unique housing challenges and how they range from community to community. By collaborating with Indigenous governments, we can maximize funding, provide more training opportunities to residents, increase economic activity and build the capacities of Indigenous governments. Through partnership, we can implement housing solutions that meet the unique needs of the communities and build a stronger, healthier NWT where residents are truly set up to thrive. Quyananni, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Housing NWT. Ministers' statements. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Ministers' statements. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During my campaign last fall, I took time out from door knocking to attend the Yellowknife International Film Festival to support local NWT filmmakers. I personally love film shorts and was pleased to attend the northern shorts program, which was world class.

One of the shorts screened that night was "She Gives Birth", a film that lays bare the anti-Indigenous racism in health services faced by many smaller communities across the North. When MLAs were briefed on the budget and told the midwifery program expansion was coming to a close, to better support our smaller communities and their needs for birth work, I was excited, Mr. Speaker. What was not relayed is that the program expansion coming to a close means the whole program in Yellowknife is theoretically done.

While this funding is targeted to provide services in the Yellowknife area, it ultimately makes midwifery services stronger across the territory by stabilizing a system that is currently fragile and offering viable options for local NWT midwives to be trained in a center with many births and to retain them over the long term. Midwifery services in Yellowknife were planned out for the next three years to provide outreach to small communities and support opportunities for Northerners to pursue midwifery education.

Mr. Speaker, no midwives were consulted on this decision. The program currently has two summer students, both of who are studying outside the territory to become midwives and desire to return to Yellowknife to practice. They told me on the weekend, quote, "if this program is cancelled, I'll have to work elsewhere and likely leave the NWT", end quote. They're also concerned that this means that they will have to pay back the funds they received from the NWT Health and Social Services bursary program.

Mr. Speaker, in less than 24 hours, the NWT Midwives Association had close to 70 responses to their survey seeking feedback from Northerners on midwifery services.

Mr. Speaker, why are we making shortsighted decisions that reduce service to folks who are giving birth and reducing options for students who began their studies in good faith that their work would help their fellow Northerners? I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as you're aware, the Department of Infrastructure are currently reviewing the operations of MTS. Mr. Speaker, the issues with low water and problems with our current transportation corridor are likely not to go away anytime soon. Mr. Speaker, I think it's time we started to look outside the box.

Logistically, it is the time, Mr. Speaker, to look at locating a significant portion of our MTS operations in a more northern region of our territory. The base of operations in Inuvik or Tuk could service upriver to Fort Good Hope and of course the communities in the Beaufort Delta region. Mr. Speaker, while as a government we are good at governing, that doesn't necessarily mean we're good at managing businesses. And, Mr. Speaker, this is by no way means a statement disparaging the important work we do, or our bureaucracy does, but it is my hope that as part of this review an analysis will be completed to the merits of privatizing this essential service. Maybe, Mr. Speaker, there are private or Indigenous companies out there that may have some of the outside-of-the-box solutions to ensure that this important transportation infrastructure continues to serve our residents that rely heavily, Mr. Speaker, on its ability to deliver goods and services to our communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Members' statements. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every community within the Northwest Territories should be accommodated at the same rate. Aklavik is no different. For years, the community has been left out in major projects. The community of Aklavik and its residents are isolated from the rest of the region during the spring and fall months of the year. Due to climate change, the opening of the ice road is happening much later, and the closing stages are earlier than previous years. The only access the residents have to the outskirts of the community is Bickish Road. Bickish Road access gives the residents the opportunity to go harvest wildlife and firewood for their subsistence use. Due to climate change, the shoreline to the access road is eroding at a rapid pace.

Mr. Speaker, not too long ago, maybe around 15 years ago, the shoreline was around 20 feet from the road. Today it is less than 10 feet. The community and its residents would like to ensure that this road is kept safe and in good use for many more years to come.

Mr. Speaker, in other regions of the Northwest Territories, most notably the hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, have been given assistance to save their shoreline from erosion. The community of Aklavik requires the same assistance because there's no room for expansion and once the access road is gone, so will some of the lakes that are adjacent to this road and that will have a negative impact on the aging infrastructure.

Mr. Speaker, the community's water source comes from the river that runs along the access road and when, not if, the road collapses into the river, it will have a detrimental effect on the quality of water. If we can save the road from collapsing into the river, the community and its residents may have the opportunity to continue with subsistence use and the health of the residents, maybe safe for the foreseeable future. The infrastructure of the community has to be looked at for the long-term impacts that climate change is having on the community of Aklavik and its residents.

Mr. Speaker, the community of Aklavik and its residents have been left out of the government's major projects for a number of years compared to the rest of the Northwest Territories. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The community of Aklavik and its residents have been left out of the government's major projects for a number of years compared to the rest of the Northwest Territories. Let us, the government, continue to let the communities survive and strive for many years to come as the model of Aklavik is Never Say Die, and only with the collaboration of this government and the community of Aklavik, that we can keep this community safe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it's clear that at our territorial hospital, Stanton, we have a crisis on our hands. Particularly since COVID, we've demanded more and more from our frontline health workers, staff have quit due to inadequate supports, services have been closed and relocated to Alberta, and we have increasingly relied on expensive agency nurses to keep services open. The staff that remain feeling increasingly taken for granted and undersupported. There's been a downward spiral in morale alongside an upward spiral in costs and inefficiencies.

Mr. Speaker, in my discussions with health care workers at Stanton, we have come up with an idea for a cost-effective solution that I want to present now for consideration during these budget deliberations. While it doesn't fix everything, it could help release some of the immediate pressure and set us on a path towards better staff retention.

The idea is to establish a task force. The task force could be staffed by two to three people who would act as navigators and brokers of solutions for frontline staff to address the low hanging fruit causing the greatest frustrations amongst health care workers, especially when it comes to workplace policies and procedures and labour relations. Who makes decisions about what can be exceedingly confusing within our health care system? A task force would direct staff to the person with the authority to address their issue and support concrete actions to address it.

Now, we currently have an office of client experience and a cancer navigator program focusing on advocating for patients and helping patients navigate the system. The task force I'm proposing would have a similar purpose, except it's for staff. It could eventually become a more permanent fixture in our system. Perhaps an office of provider experience.

The task force would need to be independent from management but with access to leadership in order to to be able to broker solutions. It should have similar authority as a senior advisor. Importantly, we need to choose members with expertise about our particular NWT health care system but not pull existing staff out of other essential positions. The task force needs to be action orientated and, on top of addressing individual cases, it should identify common problems and recommend systemic improvements both in the short and long term. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So establishment of this task force should be accompanied by a commitment by the Minister and NTHSSA to take actions wherever possible to show that we truly value our health care workers and are responsive to their needs. I will be asking questions of the Minister at the proper time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, when I stood in response to the finance Minister's budget last week, my criticism focused on the government's failure to take decisive action on the priorities of our Assembly. One of the most urgent of those priorities, especially for my constituents in Range Lake, is the dire state of our frontline health care services, especially at Stanton Territorial Hospital.

The deterioration of our frontline health care services is rapidly becoming a full-blown crisis. Our nurses are increasingly burdened with astronomical workloads as they try to provide adequate care in the face of staff cuts and unfilled positions. They often find themselves working short, and it is alleged that they are asked to take unsafe patient assignments that do not meet internal policies and the Canadian standards of practice. The ability for the hospital to manage at surge capacity is coming into question. The government's solution so far has only been to increasingly rely on private out-of-territory agency nurses, but this is only doing more harm than good.

Relying on agency nurses is incredibly expensive. These private agencies undermine the public nature of our health care system, and the agency nurses themselves come with little cultural sensitivity or training. Worst of all, they make our local nurses feel replaceable and undervalued at a time when their morale is already suffering.

Mr. Speaker, nobody knows health care better than the frontline professionals. They are speaking loud and clear. If the government wants to maintain quality patient care, they need to treat nurses and physicians with respect, they need to implement management structures that are flexible and responsive to their needs and, mostly urgently, they need to restore the competitive hiring edge the North once enjoyed so providing nurses with wages and benefits necessary to live in a region with such a high cost of living.

Nobody wants to imagine a North where these circumstances continue to spiral out of control, but we are quickly running out of time needed to turn this situation around. I have been meeting with nurses, physicians, and union officials for many weeks now, and many of my colleagues on this side of the House are on the same page - united on what needs to get done. The question now is when will this government get on the same page as us, nurses, doctors, and other health care professionals? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Mr. Speaker, when MACA pulled the trigger last year to devolve the elected government of Fort Resolution, they did so on their own accord. They put the responsibility on themselves to maintain the community emergency services and carry out all emergency planning. They have many policies and procedures designed to ensure that their department could follow through on an effective and responsible local government. The community was told everything would be done by the book through appointed officials who would uphold the law and respond to the community needs. For a full year, I tried to work with the department to help them follow through on their policies promptly, respond to their needs of Fort Resolution. I understood that the department took over the community as one territorial government was replaced by another and was patiently and optimistic that their new government would get stronger and grasp the situation. It has also been my goal to see MACA follow the law and provide the best local government they can for the community until Fort Resolution can return to normal elected administration.

Mr. Speaker, I'm disappointed to say that my constituents in Fort Resolution have been frustrated every step of the way, and so am I.

Fort Resolution still has no emergency plan for proper emergency services. There are consequences to this inaction. This weekend's fire destroyed four homes early Saturday morning. Emergency responders stepped up, but they were forced to rely on helicopters with backup buckets because their own intake lines no longer could reach the lake. For their efforts, several firefighters were also unfortunately injured with a broken hip and smoke inhalation. This is the second time in the recent months that the fires severely damaged homes in a community already suffering from a housing crisis.

I made the department aware of the fact that the receding shoreline has left the water intake lines high and dry long ago. The fire department has also been vocal about the lack of training that could lead to an unsafe situation. Now I hear that there's a wildfire burning 75 kilometers away from Fort Resolution. Time is running out for the community, and it's also running out for the families who saw their homes burn down this weekend.

What will it take for MACA to get its administration of Fort Resolution in order before more lives are put at risk? The community is anxious to avoid the fate of Enterprise, which is now full of burnt down homes that the territorial government has no ability to rebuild for uninsured homes. Mr. Speaker, I will have more questions for the Minister at the appropriate time. Thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have spoken in this House several times about my concern for elders and the hardship they face to pay for their house. I am concerned, Mr. Speaker, that the elders in my region have signed into agreements with housing that, in many cases, they did not fully understand. People signed into agreements with housing as this was the only option they had to maintain their home. What is happening in my region is that as people age and are no longer in the workforce, they struggle to make their housing payments on the limited income they have.

Mr. Speaker, I value the work of Housing NWT to assess people to enter a mortgage so they can own their own homes, but there needs to be more care taken to ensure that people are not being tied into mortgages they cannot afford. Mr. Speaker, I know elders in my region whose wages are being garnished through the Court to pay for housing arrears, housing arrears that have been sent to collections.

My concern, Mr. Speaker, is that GNWT could be doing more to support our elders. For elders who cannot make housing payments or fallen behind on payments, who are on fixed income and can demonstrate financial hardship, there should be some relief, whether it's a pause on collections, a forgiveness of all or some of the debt, the GNWT has the tools to ensure our elders live in dignity. We want our elders to remain in their communities surrounded by their loved ones and not living in poverty. The Housing NWT collection policy state "arrears should be forgiven where collection is not possible", end quote.

The Minister of housing has stated that work is underway with the Department of Finance to address mortgage or rental debt on a case-by-case basis. Mr. Speaker, we need to see the GNWT come up with creative solutions. I will have questions for the Minister of housing. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre. For three; is that what you're asking for?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I'd like to go back to item No. 3 on the agenda. I guess in this case, I seek unanimous consent for doing this. Thank you.

Member from Yellowknife Centre has asked to go back to number 3, seeking unanimous consent.

Member, seeing no nays, you may go back to your Member's statement.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, colleagues. And just for that, I'll be a little extra nice to Cabinet who didn't nay me today.

Mr. Speaker, De Beers might have said a diamond is forever, but I can tell you a diamond mine isn't, which leads to the question of what are we doing next to spur on our economy? The real question is -- and many Northerners are curious -- is what is the future of the NWT polytech?

Mr. Speaker, I support education. I believe we must work to support Northerners as we deserve the opportunities to teach our own, to train our own, to welcome the world. Mr. Speaker, higher education is a true investment into our economy. And as we all know, education can be one of the greatest equalizers of people. It can help raise families from poverty to prosperity, Mr. Speaker. But like many things, let us not forget a diversified economy needs to be foremost on our mind, and we can't just assume it'll show up here on its own.

Mr. Speaker, here is an unclear situation. Is the GNWT truly behind the polytech? If you ask Aurora College, it books strangely unclear, because they have a different perspective on where the polytech initiative is going. So when you hear the government say it wants to do this, it needs to do this, all I see is it dragging its feet in terms of financial investment. They can talk all they want but where is the money?

Mr. Speaker, I've been here long enough to know that when we hear vague statements that go nowhere, it's simply just daydreaming at best. Mr. Speaker, this government needs to put some momentum behind the polytech initiative before it becomes too late. Mr. Speaker, we cannot stand by bureaucratic leadership. Do not let that be the hallmark of this Assembly. Mr. Speaker, we need clear commitments from this government saying we will do this by when. We want to do this by now. Mr. Speaker, we are going to get behind this. We will, we will, we will.

If this government had courage, it would say something to the effect that we will create a hundred new social housing units. If this government had courage, it would say Mackenzie Valley Highway would advance by 150 kilometers, Mr. Speaker, or we'll raise graduation rates by 65 percent in four years. Mr. Speaker, my point being is that we need to see bold and courageous leadership, and we need to see the money in the budget. Mr. Speaker, in talking to Aurora College, they are investing themselves to create this transition. They are marching ahead because this government is not leading. So I'll tell you, this is the opportunity for this government to get out of the way or get behind, but somebody must make bold action. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Members' statements. Member from Deh Cho.