Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When this was first brought to us as Members of the Legislative Assembly, I did talk a little bit more to the Member from Kam Lake, who was bringing this forward. At that time, my biggest concern was around the money. Within this, what will be coming up later, is that introducing that, if this goes through, that there would be an extra $30,000 that can be utilized a year before the election or during the year of the election. I have always been about fairness and I have tried to maintain that fairness throughout all of my work here at the Legislative Assembly. This doesn...

The act does state that we have to have an administrator in place, so that position will stay until we get the new advisory committee initiated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The competition for the position closes at the end of this month, and then we will be starting the interview process as soon as that's done, so we are assuming that the person will be hired before the end of this calendar year.

Mr. Speaker, I want to recognize the recipients of the 2018 Minister's Culture and Heritage Circle this morning. For the youth award, we have Miss Alice Twa, and her parents attending, of Yellowknife, on her behalf, her parents, Erin O'Rourke and Cameron Twa. Thank you. Our individual award went to Tishna Marlowe of Lutselk'e. Our elder award went to Joanne Tetlichi, of Fort McPherson. The group award went to Old Town Community Association of Yellowknife, represented by Lisa Seagrave, Rosalind Mercredi, and Dave Kellett. Our Minister's Choice Award went to the Designated Gwich'in Organization...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This one was the most worrisome for myself. My understanding is this gives the person $30,000 they could spend during the election period, usually a month, and then an extra $30,000 for a year before. This does impact people who live in poverty. Again, like I said before, we need to make these Chambers as accessible as possible. I don't know very many people who live in poverty who could come up with $60,000 in a year, so therefore I will not be supporting this motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Like I said, when I first got the audit, I was actually really impressed with the progress that we have made, but when I read the audit and it said that we need to do better with our alert messaging, that was a concern. Health and safety has to be our priority.

We are working closely with MACA. My understanding was that they did, actually, when they did the testing of the alert messaging, the radio station did have the French translation, and it was missed. It didn't happen. That is not okay. That is not an excuse. What I am saying is that we need to work closer with MACA. We need to make sure...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do want to thank the MLA for bringing that forward. We are committing to doing a meeting with the parents; I just want to address on that. I know, in my heart, that there are going to be upset parents, because when we went there first, we have not got a consensus about parents. We are not going to get 100 percent satisfaction.

Like I had said earlier, addressing the question that was just asked, the technical report is just in the hands of our technical people. That should come across my desk, I would say, within the next couple of weeks at the latest. We just got it.

We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just start by clarifying that I am struggling with French, but I am going to try to do the best to answer appropriately as per the interpreter. Thank you for the translation on the mic.

My understanding is that we want to know what formal mechanisms can be used to address and improve on the services identified within the audit. The audit looked at four different areas. It looked at service delivery, how we deliver our programs; active offers, do we even offer people to be able to have service in French; our signage; and our display of public information or our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't have that knowledge at this point, but we will commit to providing that to the MLA by Monday at the latest. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, later today, I will table the Government Response to the Findings and Recommendations of the Aurora College Foundational Review marking an end of a year-long review process.

This review has provided an opportunity to step back and evaluate where we are today and where we need to be in the future. Post-secondary education is essential to the growth and prosperity of our territory, and Aurora College continues to play a critical role in providing residents with options for obtaining that education in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, in order to better meet student needs and...