Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to share very good news out of Ottawa. On behalf of the Government of Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced they will be matching contributions made to the United Way NWT. This generosity will have a direct positive impact on people affected by wildfires in the Northwest Territories, and I am deeply grateful for Canada's support.

The Government of the Northwest Territories also recently signed an agreement with Natural Resources Canada under the new Natural Resources Canada's new Fighting and Managing Wildfires in a Changing Climate Program Equipment Fund. This fund, which allows provinces and territories to cost-share investments for equipment such as vehicles, enhanced communications gear, and repairs to aging equipment, will be used for the purchase of aircraft, vehicles, dispatch consoles, and dust suppressants. Our agreement with Natural Resources Canada directly enables our government to procure specialized firefighting equipment and strengthen our capacity to manage wildland fires that present a threat to our communities.

Mr. Speaker, it has been truly humbling to see our neighbours across the country step up to assist those affected by wildfire and flooding over the last month. Later today, Minister Thompson and I will be releasing a statement outlining the incredibly generous support we have received from our neighbours in and out of the territory, but I want to take this opportunity to briefly highlight these good news stories out of Ottawa for my colleagues in the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 47-19(2), Homelessness Prevention: Supporting Pathways to Housing NWT Residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following four documents: A Way Home: A Comprehensive Strategy to Address Homelessness in the Northwest Territories; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 1461-19(2): Northwest Territories/Alberta Transboundary Water Agreement; Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 1492-19(2): Income Assistance; and, Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 1493-19(2): Federal Ministers Meeting with Regular Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because I don't have the background on this, and I haven't heard it in my previous almost eight years of being in this House, it could have been raised before, but I'd like to take notice on this question, Mr. Speaker, so that we can get the information necessary. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I can't give a commitment to offer any kind of an apology or set a deadline when I'm not aware of the issues concerning. So, again, I'd go back to my first offer to have a meeting with the Minister of education and myself and the Member to discuss what the concerns are and move forward from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can't acknowledge that because I haven't -- this is the first I've gotten that question with no head's up so I don't know the experiences of students after the GNWT. So what I'd like to propose is that the Member perhaps sit down with myself, and preferably the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, maybe the three of us, to discuss the issues and see what the solutions might be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Since I'm in charge of the homelessness strategy, which is a governing thing, the questions I think are more related to day-to-day operations of homelessness so on that, the Minister responsible for Homelessness is responsible. I'd like to defer that question to her. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I remember correctly, it was a commitment made by a housing Minister. I'm not sure if it was this government or the past one, I have a feeling it was the past one, that committed to doing the strategy. When that was said, I mean, because of my background being a social worker and working so long with these people, that I knew that it wasn't going to be just as easy as we've stated. So we soon realized that it wasn't only housing that was needed. It was housing, it was health that was important, it was justice, it was income support, education, culture and employment. The problem was, Mr. Speaker, is that we had two years of COVID and the same departments that needed to work on this strategy were struggling, working desperately to save the lives of people. So once COVID kind of subsided, we got a handle on it, it's not gone evidently, but once we got a handle on it then we've started to focus back on to this and it was brought to my attention, as I thought earlier, that it needed to be an all-of-government approach. So at that time then housing handed it over to myself as Premier for an all-of-government approach.

Mr. Speaker, it could have been done. I could have said that there was a strategy when I first tabled or brought forward the draft. But I realized really quickly that we didn't have the feedback that was needed. We did not ask the people, and I'm a huge advocate of asking the people that experience it. They have the expertise. So we took a step back and we spent time to actually interview people - NGOs, community governments, Indigenous people, the general public, and people with lived experience - so that we could actually have a more comprehensive strategy and the feedback from standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There's a number of things that we're trying to achieve within the homelessness strategy. I think the bigger one is to make sure that all departments in the Government of the Northwest Territories are actually working together instead of in silos, which we often see, making sure that people do have the wraparound support, the integrated case management that they need to succeed. Those are major objectives. But the other thing is data collection. And as I've said earlier, I've said many times, is that before I never realized the importance of data collection and so I always thought get the work done, nevermind about the data. But I was wrong, Mr. Speaker. And it's important to get data collection, not only to identify how many people are homeless but, as I've said earlier, is that since I've been in politics I'm seeing women on the street that have succeeded, that I knew that had been in the shelters for 20, 30 years and have become healthier, stopped whatever substances they were using, actually got into the field of helping people.

So we need the data to find out what worked with those people as well. We can't be doing services that we don't measure. So two things: Really integrated service, working together instead of in silos; and, making sure that we know what's working and what's not working and how many people we're dealing with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.