Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, it's more than medical services. It will be all services. But that's good to know that we'd find someone else.

Mr. Speaker, this was -- this is a controversial decision. First Nations and Indigenous leaders have risen up to say that it's not okay, it's not something they'll allow on their watch. Will the Premier support those voices if there is a court challenge at some point, the GNWT can be in a position to intervene. Even if he can't make that commitment today, will he at least support those voices that are calling for Indigenous rights to be respected in the province of Alberta? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the Premier welcomes the western Canada Premiers to Yellowknife, there's a lot of attention on us today around some recent decisions that Premier Smith in Alberta has made, most notably, I think, my colleague spoke to some of the issues related to trans and nonbinary folks. And let's also talk about the constitutional crisis that the Premier's walking into for some reason. She's cut the threshold for constitutional initiatives in half in her province and is gunning towards a referendum on separation for whatever reason.

If this -- does the -- has the Premier discussed this with Premier Smith and what the result would be for the Northwest Territories if we lose a vital connection to Alberta? Because of course that's our logistic hub. It's a huge economic link. We really can't do without it. So has the Premier had those discussions, and can we have a position on this as a government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize my constituent Mr. Floyd Powder, former sergeant-at-arms here at the Legislative Assembly. Floyd is here to honour Eddie Powder, a WWII veteran who you spoke of earlier today. And thank you for being here again, Floyd. It's always good to have you in the chamber. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate Yellowknife's own, the Honourable Rebecca Alty, on her election to the House of Commons and further on her appointment to the Privy Council as Minister for Crown Indigenous Relations.

Rebecca was born and raised in Yellowknife in Chief Drygeese territory in the Akaitcho region. After high school, she completed a diploma in film and video at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology followed by a degree in communication studies from the University of Calgary. In 2018, she was elected as 15th mayor of Yellowknife, following two terms as a city councillor.

Ms. Alty joins a rather exclusive club of northern Ministers and is only the second from the Northwest Territories following in the footsteps of the great Ethel Blondin Andrew who was Minister of State from 2003 to 2006. [Translation] INSERT* [Translation Ends].

Northerners are often overlooked and under-utilized by Ottawa, but these appointments send a clear message that that is going to change. The NWT holds the promise of Canada's future, the Gray's Bay, Slave Geological Province strategic corridor, critical minerals, and our untapped energy potential and natural gas, offshore oil, hydroelectricity, and geothermal resources. We can be the center of North America's strategic defence and ensure Arctic sovereignty for all Canadians and the tradition of Indigenous people who have called this land home since time immemorial.

Mr. Speaker, the new federal Cabinet and its priorities represent a bright future for the Northwest Territories with growth and security for our people. I know that my friend Rebecca Alty will make good on this opportunity and be the voice of the NWT on the national and international stage. Congratulations, Rebecca. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've said a couple times today that Northerners sent us here to solve problems. I know that we've heard in this House that progress is slow by design and that we often lack the resources to get things done. However, I reject this notion, this notion of learned helplessness, that only prevents us from taking decisive action to the needs that must be met. We are the architect of our own systems, policies, and political priorities. We can change them if needed to get the results Northerners are looking for. And my fundamental question, I think to everyone here, is why do we think, Mr. Speaker, we have time on our hands? One year has already gone by, and we will soon be facing the end of the term. And in that time, we'll have either survived or been consumed by a trade war, our streets will continue to become unsafe, houses will be built at a snail's pace, and our debt will continue to rise as our economy continues to decline. That's what's being -- that's what the trend is, and that's what we're going to get if we continue to move slow on the problems that we face as a territory.

We're in the midst of a deepening economic crisis. It started with the closure of the diamond mines and also only worsened with the trade war launched by Donald Trump and the downturn in global commodities prices that continue to limit the development of critical minerals in the Northwest Territories.

Our expenditures are unsustainable. Our public debt is astronomical. Our economy has become nearly completely dependent on public sector jobs that we will soon be unable to afford. This is the moment Northerners find themselves in. So the question is, does this budget meet the moment?

Mr. Speaker, public safety is fundamental, and Northerners I speak to are far too often concerned about increasing levels of violence in their communities brought by gangs and guns on their streets. Last year, we put in millions of new spending for policing resources, but we are still waiting on the suite of legislation that will create the tools for law enforcement to tackle these programs head on. Not to mention that in recent days, we have seen potential major changes to the RCMP, commitment to decrease funding for community safety officer programs. So our resources are being diminished, not increased.

Why are we still waiting for these pieces of legislation, Mr. Speaker? We moved a bill in five days. And I know there's public consultations and all that, but let the House do some consultations. We ran on public safety. We put it into our priorities. That should be enough to get the ball rolling and move expediently on this stuff. Maybe it's an exemption to our normal process, but this moment calls for exceptional action, Mr. Speaker.

To quote the powerful statement of my friend for Mackenzie Delta from Hansard on March 11th that he spoke of today: At this time, I will not have any questions for this government because their solutions are few and far between to implement a solution to save our communities in combatting the drug crisis we are experiencing. The drug dealers are using our own residents to kill our own people just for a simple financial transaction. The only question to this House is what can we do today? And my question is, does this budget do enough?

More action is desperately needed to combat the drug trade, fight organized crime, and support our frontline police and paramedics, who are the true heroes engaged in an uphill battle against the worst social predators imaginable.

Turning to education, Mr. Speaker, the early learning and childcare system that we built in the Northwest Territories is not working. We've heard this loud and clear from childcare providers. They're still struggling financially. The system isn't working. And now we're locked into a five-year deal. The $3.5 million we negotiated last year will be spent by mid-March. That's a good thing. But I think the expectation was that money would move faster. Day homes have not been brought into the wage grid, and there's no plan to do that, meaning our day home providers are continually treated as a two-tier system where they are unfairly penalized because they're a private business versus a centered-based care. This is something we're hearing from the associations, something we're hearing from the providers, and if we don't make changes this system will collapse. That's what we're being told. That's not my speculation, Mr. Speaker. Voluntary fees are an option. They're an option in other jurisdictions. We've brought it up multiple times. There doesn't seem to be willingness to take that on.

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking a lot about defence and sovereignty, for good reason. Our country's under threat, Mr. Speaker. I'll say again no one is going to undermine our sovereignty. Canada will never be the 51st State but it's going to be a hell of a lot easier for our adversaries to undermine that position if we don't invest in our security. Even though we can't handle that alone as a territorial government, we see the Yukon government and other Arctic organizations investing in think tanks, policy studies, and committees that are building the framework to bring more spending dollars and defence spending into their jurisdictions. That's the kind of leadership we need. We need to have a very clear position that the NWT needs to be at the center of any sovereignty and defence plan that comes forward from the next Government of Canada and that we are the headquarters of these operations, that we have the most investment imaginable. That could bring homes, jobs, infrastructure spending, economic growth and, most importantly, safety and security from foreign adversaries. And I can't believe I'm saying that, Mr. Speaker. Usually we have to deal with much smaller problems in this House, but this is where we find ourselves in this moment.

Mr. Speaker, we still don't have clarity on the carbon tax, and we have a solution available right now. Bill 3 can repeal the carbon tax, move us over to the backstop so when Prime Minister-designate Carney scraps the carbon tax, or the leader of the opposition, if he is successful in his bid for Prime Minister, scraps the carbon tax, we are ready, and it goes away like that. The way we are currently moving, it will be another six, eight months, a year. Who knows? Northerners want this off the books. They're tired of paying a consumer carbon tax. Canadians are tired of paying a consumer carbon tax. We shouldn't be waiting. We should be moving. And we can amend that bill. We can preserve -- we've heard industry likes the rebates system that they use so let's keep that. That's what the committee heard. That's what the Minister's telling us. Let's keep that but get rid of the carbon tax now and be prepared for this change so we can move expediently, because now we're going to have to wait until May to make any changes. Regulations can change things but, again, Northerners want this off the books. They don't want the threat of it coming back, especially for a cash-strapped government.

Mr. Speaker, I've been advocating for the SPCA to receive more money. We know that the NGOs in the Northwest Territories do very important work. Unfortunately, that's not in this budget. I am hopeful, though, that the changes that the executive's putting in will afford them and other organizations the opportunity to access more funding. But I will be keeping an eye on it because we cannot continue to leave NGOs, who are doing this work, this critical work that is often overlooked, spaying and neutering pets, ground search and rescue, that are struggling financially to provide this important public service. So I hope to see that money move forward, and if it doesn't then we're going to have to have a conversation about that in the next budget.

There's no increases for the mineral incentive program. I know the Minister says that it's not the right the time, it doesn't lead to mines, but it's got a times eight economic multiplier. That's the government's own numbers that they're coming up with. And that's money that goes into our economy. That's local spending numbers. That's a great return on investment, and they're saying it doesn't make a difference. Well, if it doesn't make a difference, why is it still in the budget? Either increase this thing that has -- the only thing I could think of higher than that is perhaps energy -- clean energy programs or housing programs are the film credit which has a times nine multiplier. So when we're being told these facts and we don't see it on the paper, it starts to become confusing to me at least when we have a short-term way to create economic growth and invest in the minerals sector and send a clear signal that we're using our own limited resources because it's important to us, we should take that opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, we've heard a lot about the $41 million that are coming into this budget. It's part of a greater $150 million plan. I welcome that plan. But here's the thing: That plan's a previous commitment. It's something we secured in the last budget; it was just unfunded. And we have spent a lot of time, in fact 22 hours and 23 minutes, debating a budget, negotiating a budget, to get that money in place. And for me, when you say I have a plan, I'm going to give you the house; you want housing, I'll give you $150 million plan. I expect to see $150 million, not a notional plan that is unfunded. So this is a problem that we -- that the government created for itself by not funding that plan, just putting it on paper. We've now -- or they've now corrected that problem by costing it and funding it. So it is an achievement but it's still only, by my count, 213 new homes. And I could be wrong on that, and I hope I am.

Nunavut is on track to deliver a thousand homes by the end their term as part of their Nunavut 3000 plan. Now, they have other factors that go into it. They have different -- a different beneficiary structure and relationships with Indigenous organizations. But that being said, we could have those same relationships here. We could lean on them. But the relationships between NWT Housing and those groups have been fraught for years, which is why they went to Ottawa in the first place to get bilateral funding. But we have these -- a territorial housing forum. We have all these opportunities to find a way to collectively and collaboratively build housing in the North. I want to see those numbers go up. We have, again by my count -- and I hope I'm wrong -- 3,483 households in the NWT in core need. If you add the retrofits that are planned, we get close to a thousand, just under a thousand I think, new homes and new retrofits for people, for Northerners, which is great, but that's still 2300 homes short. That's the scale of the problem we're doing. And home is fundamental. It's the foundation for everything else that comes.

I believe wholeheartedly in the housing first model, that you need to have a solid foundation of a home before you can address other problems in our life. We have the opportunity to help people heal, to help people grow, and we continue to invest -- it's like pulling teeth to get the government to commit to a promise they made last -- the last government for this money.

Mr. Speaker, turning to the health system -- oh and sorry, I should add our plan, which not every Member accepted but certainly we discussed, and there was enthusiasm from many MLAs, was 500 new homes -- sorry, half that. I think we can do 500. I think we should do 500.

Mr. Speaker, turning to health care, half -- as I said earlier today, half of every month Stanton Hospital is gridlocked. A hospital in gridlock, it refers to a situation where in-patient beds are full preventing patients in the emergency department from being moved to an in-patient unit leading to congestion and delays. This, in addition to one of the -- from what I'm told is the least productive operating rooms in Canada is only exacerbating the stress at the -- the stress and the problems that are going on at Stanton. 60 percent of doctors want to leave the Northwest Territories; nine already have and there's a 50 percent physician vacancy rate. So my question, Mr. Speaker, is where's the plan? Where's the urgency? As far as health spending goes, it hasn't diminished which is -- or significantly. But there's a plan to diminish it in the name of finding efficiencies and finding savings. And I'm sure we can, but until we address the core issues, we're not going to see changes.

The NWT Medical Association is trying. They've written to our Cabinet about the critical need for government intervention to prevent disruptions in primary care and emergency services. They've rolled out programs like MD Connect that brings people together to build community and do things that are wellness related. They host reconciliation and cultural safety events and funding for physicians to individually pursue coaching to deal with stress in their lives and issues that they need professional development on. The College and Association of Nurses of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, or CAN, is working on a pathway for foreign educated nurses to work in the NWT. After this House said it's not possible, they're doing it on their own initiatives and it's moving forward, I think, by July of this year. So I applaud them for that work. So we see this progress going on elsewhere. We know there's a public administrator. But we haven't seen the plan. I haven't even spoken to the public administrator. I know people in my own personal life who have, and I haven't. And I know we're going to see that soon. But it's always been eventually, eventually, eventually, and this should be our top priority, to understand what's going on in our healthcare system and how it's going to change.

Mr. Speaker, I want to turn to another issue that was really a critical flash point in this review and in this sitting, and that's the closure of the CLCs. Now although Aurora College is an arm's length institution, I firmly believe that our government has the resources, the size to move quickly, and the political will to do a lot, whether it's using soft power to influence decisions or whether it's bringing these facilities within the mandate of the departments, there's always something that can be done. And if we don't do something, that's over 40 jobs that are going to be lost in small communities. And these are jobs that are not going to be -- those people are probably not going to stick around in most cases. They're instructors, there's nowhere for them to teach, they'll find other places. It's true the CLCs aren't working. Everyone will say that, including the instructors who work there. But the only way we're going to empower Northerners and achieve reconciliation and end systemic poverty is by investing in a strong education system that starts in the small communities.

We've heard directly from people working in that system and the CLCs, and I'll talk about the one case that I'm personally am aware of in N'dilo and Dettah, that trained over a hundred adult learners in 18 months.

Mr. Speaker, the ISEP program is the introduction to skilled trades essential. This is a new Aurora College program that was created and piloted in N'dilo, Fort Good Hope, and Hay River Reserve in the fall of 2023. Students from all three centres attended that fundamental program, and it was the first time it was the facility was full in many, many years. The program was so successful that the community wanted to run it again in the fall of 2024; however, the college wouldn't support the program so instead they partnered with Yellowknives Dene First Nation and used their instructors to cover the three trade components.

From these two intakes alone, many of the students are now apprentices; some at Diavik, some at Giant Mine, and a few in town. Mr. Speaker, to quote the feedback we've gotten about this, they are cherry picking the stats to make learning centres look bad. When you hear that from, you know, the people who are operating these facilities, who are on the ground working with students, and putting their heart and soul into these programs and getting results, it becomes very hard to know what the reality is on the ground. Are these CLCs working? Are they not? But even if that's the case, what we should be doing is putting a pause on it. We put pause on -- we put many pauses on things in the past, to look at how we can save the ones that are actually doing their jobs and close the ones that are not productive. And I don't think this should be Aurora College's responsibility. They should have never -- I've never supported them operating CLCs. They should be focused on their mandate of becoming a polytechnic. They should be finding resources to support the students they've got and build on successful programs. But they should be honest and clear about the stats that they're coming out of these schools because, again, when we see one side of facts versus another set of facts, it's very hard to know what the reality is on the ground.

Mr. Speaker, as we know, this budget marks the end of affirmative action policies that put Northerners first. Mr. Speaker, I know that this -- the policy's not attached to this budget but this budget will be the inflexion point moving forward for the GNWT. Mr. Speaker, the P2s have been cut and as have priority status for differently-abled people, minority groups, who have contributed so much to our territory. And I know that an easy way to kind of denigrate this position that P2s are upset about this is it's all white people who are very privileged, but for many people, many Northerners, they're hard working groups of new Canadians, the Filipino community that has made a home here and contributes so much to our economy over time.

Mr. Speaker, what else is missing from this budget moving -- moving forward from that piece is a senseless -- sorry, the continued downloading of benefits, the cost of benefits down to the people who they're supposed to serve and I'm, of course, talking about extended health benefits. I did not support the changes in the last budget, and I continue to oppose them now. Again, they're not in here but the benefits are, and -- but they still cost far too much. And if we're adding to the cost of living of even a single constituent, I feel that is a dereliction of duty on my part because I promised to fight the cost of living, not to increase it. And this is a policy decision that has directly increased the cost of living for Northerners and their families and working people in the Northwest Territories. And I know everyone -- we pay good wages in the North, but that doesn't mean people aren't living paycheque to paycheque. And if anyone thinks that's true, they're completely out of touch with the reality most families face, especially as we're looking to cost increases, cost increase at the grocery stores, for homes, for jobs, and potentially supply shortages as well.

Mr. Speaker, so I agree that this was a process, as the finance Minister said, a process that led, after 22 hours and 23 minutes, to this final vote in the chamber today. What we disagree is the nature of this process. This feels more -- this process feels more of one of convenience of a status quo that doesn't want to change rather than one of consensus where we move quickly to meet the moment that Northerners face themselves. And that's very important because when people look up, they're looking for this government for stability and seeing the same old, same old, but everyone getting along is -- we need to do more than that. We need to help people and meet people where they're at, and this budget just doesn't go far enough, so I will not be supporting it. Thank you.

Thank you. What does the Minister -- is the Minister aware of the current core need for homeowners in the Northwest Territories; what that statistic is. Thank you.

Thank you. No, and I appreciate that, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think by my -- I guess we can't ballpark things here.

When we're talking about new homes, can the Minister just define what NWT Housing means by "new home" so the public is aware of when we're talking about housing and creating doors and things like that for people to live in, it doesn't always have to be brand new; sometimes it can be a reno. So what does "new home" mean in the context of this conversation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of NWT Housing how many new homes will the NWT build over the remainder of this term of government? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And certainly with the -- there are always new opportunities, and perhaps this is one of them. That being said, the RCMP is saying loud and clear that they feel they've been underresourced by parliament. Will the Premier join me in calling for more resources for the RCMP so we can keep our communities safe here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.