Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, there would be a means test, although I want to clarify. Sometimes means test limit. Low income people can't get into housing, so I am going to be watching that as well very closely because, if someone's making $87,000, I think in Yellowknife, you use 87,000, the philosophy is that they deserve to be in public housing. I never made $87,000 in Yellowknife when I was living in my $40,000 shack, so I need to make sure that, just because people are making less than that, that our government doesn't penalize them and say, you can't do it, because I think people can. We...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The only thing I will say is there are three pots; I am trying to remember what they are. It's capital, operating and maintenance, and wastewater? It has been a while since I've been MACA. Water and sewer. The difficulty that I have noticed over the years is that the communities keep screaming, "We need our $40 million, $40 million, $40 million," but we have almost matched them for the operating and maintenance and the water and sewer. The piece that is left is the capital.

However, what they are not including in that is that MACA has done an awesome job over the years...

During the Member's opening speech, I heard him say -- and I might misquote him, so correct me if I do -- that there are two kinds of workers; one that works for the government, government workers who get a lot of CCs. Now that I'm Premier, I get a lot of CCs, in all honesty. I wish I didn't get as many. Then there's ones who work for the goals of the government.

I came in here four years ago to actually make change, and it shows that I make changes. These wrinkles that I have on my face did not come honestly; they came from hard work at this table. I have already met with Indigenous...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mandate direction on negotiating tables change quite often. They are based on what we think will happen. Anything that has a change, if it is going to impact finances or land or anything, it has to come through Cabinet. It's not a decision that negotiators can make at the table. I know that a lot of people think that it should be, but the reality is that, if it costs money, it has to come through Cabinet table. They are constantly being updated on a regular basis. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No, it has been quite a while, actually, since we updated our core principles and objectives. They actually arose from an obligation from the Tlicho agreement, is where they came from. They are actually very simple. They are very simple principles, and our issue is that there has to be some kind of standard of care or principles that go across. It's not as easy as just changing them to meet the whim. We also have to take Canada's legislation, as well. For example, the Canada Health Act has principles that need to be taken into account. The new Canada legislation that is coming out with Child...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, discussions were had. This wasn't made on my own. It was a decision that I made. I hire. I terminate. That is done on my authority, but there is consultation that happened within that. I must also point out when people are appointed into positions such as boards, presidents, et cetera, that the Minister doesn't hire for but appoints, the Minister also has a time after that. There is usually a 60-day period that you can actually revoke those board appointments or presidents, et cetera. The termination of an employee or board member, et cetera, does not necessarily...

Again, I think it might be a communications issue. At no time have I broken the law. In fact, we have had more legal opinions on this than not. The Premier is responsible for hiring and terminating associate deputy ministers and deputy ministers. Appointments to positions are not contingent on the Minister having to hire or terminate. There are many statutory positions that the Minister is not responsible for hiring. In fact, very few positions can a Minister hire for. We are blending in two things that should not be blended.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Does that mean I am open to ask the MLA questions?

What I was asking for was clarification. My understanding, correct me if I am wrong, was that the question was: did the Premier give appropriate notice for termination to the associate deputy minister? If that is the question, then appropriate notice depends on situations, and that is in various acts. If somebody is giving you, for example, termination that I am going to leave my employment, it is customary to give two weeks' notice. If somebody is terminated from a position, the custom is you don't have to give notice...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a difference between the appointing of statutory appointments and employment contracts; totally different. There are actually a number of statutory appointments across the Government of the Northwest Territories. The appointment process appoints the individual to a position in the public service; statutory appointments are made by the Minister and assigns responsibility under the legislation. In some cases, a position may have more than one statutory appointment. For example, the territory executive director, who is not hired by the Minister, for Child and...

Again, I have not broken the law. There is a clear separation between employment contracts and statutory appointments. The Minister did say in this House and publicly, that there were discussions, and there were discussions. The decision of how that came about, the Minister was not part of; that was mine, but there were discussions. Nothing was done in isolation.