Bob Bromley

That sounds good. Thank you for that. Sorry, I had one more. The regime should not apply in those regions where Aboriginal land rights have not been recognized or settled. Is that the case currently? Thank you.

The board should reflect a co-management model where Aboriginal and public governments each appoint half of the members. Is that the case in the board created by this legislation? Mahsi.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. So, when an exploration company, for example, wants to stake mineral claims inside a community, which has happened inside some of the Tlicho communities, obviously, and understandably, people were very upset, and a clear basis for denial of access, but I believe there is archaic legislation related to a free entry system that does provide a right to exploration companies to do that. Am I correct in saying this legislation does not correct that injustice and would not be able to deny access in that case? Thank you.

That’s really all I had on the general comments. I think, obviously, we and the general public would be interested if there was a schedule available as of April 1st or whenever the Premier could come up with it to help the public and Members prepare. I think that’s just a notice that that would be appreciated as soon as that was available.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate this opportunity to comment and ask a couple of questions. Several times now I have heard a clear commitment from the Premier to conduct a review, and basically, as soon as possible starting or immediately after April 1st, and I appreciate that. I think the Premier would agree that there are plenty of good reasons to do this, not the least of which is, really, including the opportunity for the public to become familiar with this legislation and to provide their comments on it and also to assist in their role of providing oversight and input based on their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking about Yellowknife here. I asked, what’s the Minister’s assessment of the impacts of this on the services to the students? No answer. He went off in a different direction. I asked what collaboration and support. I didn’t hear any collaboration and support. They’ve had meetings, dictatorial results.

Will the Minister commit to working with our school boards to provide the new investments required with these new responsibilities that he is asking of them? Mahsi.

We spend a lot of time and money dealing with the symptoms of poverty: $5 million approved just yesterday to top up payments for child placements outside the NWT, child protection orders resulting from neglect, high rates of alcoholism. These are all symptoms of poverty. We need to deal with the root cause itself: poverty. Substantive changes in income support such as those suggested will yield returns on such investments through savings in education, health and social services and corrections, and enhance economic activity.

I will have questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table two documents. The first is called “Income Security for all Canadians.” The second is an infographic that has a lot of good stuff in it, called “The Case for a Guaranteed Income – Lifting People from Poverty: Fairly, Efficiently and Effectively.” Mahsi.

Thank you. I think there are a lot of people out there that could make suggestions that are caught in these poverty traps, but I’ll take the Minister’s offer and work with him on that.

I know the Minister and I have the same goal here, so I hope he takes these points as constructive and friendly suggestions.

Would the Minister commit to including the six recommendations I made this morning on income support in the anti-poverty work that he is doing? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions for the Minister of the social envelope today, Minister Abernethy. The Minister has been working hard on an Anti-Poverty Strategy and more recently an Anti-Poverty Action Plan. The strategy and plan are based around five pillars.

Could the Minister explain which pillar addresses the poverty traps that are built into our income security programs that I’ve been talking about for the last three days? Mahsi.