Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, we are in many of these clauses saying that spouse includes people who are not married but co-habit. I don’t expect the Member would think that we would continue to prohibit that definition from being changed. That’s one of the things that we are recognizing. There is no discussion of marriage in this act. As I said in my opening comments, until the definition is changed by the federal government or a court decision is made in our jurisdiction, then the definition of marriage remains the same. But a spouse doesn’t have to be somebody who is legally married to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We certainly can examine that as we go through the whole review of the income security policies that we have. The National Child Benefit was a benefit proposed by the federal government to assist working parents, to encourage people to take that step from income support into the world of work where that was possible. All jurisdictions across Canada agreed that nobody on income support would be worse off, and we have made sure that is in fact the case in the Northwest Territories. We have increased benefits to people who are on income support since the National Child...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We’re proceeding with it now because it is not in any way tied to the definition of civil marriage. As I said in my opening comments, this has nothing to do with recognizing civil marriage and, in fact, half of the amendments in this act also extend benefits and obligations to common-law couples. We’re not talking common-law heterosexual couples, so this bill isn’t dealing exclusively with same-sex benefits. But as Members are aware, there have been a number of court cases throughout the years that have found that laws have to respect the living situations of same...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to assure the Member and this House that the government shares that concern. Children are the most important asset that we have and we need to make sure that we protect their potential to develop as they should. Yes, I can assure the Member that the process of reviewing our income security programs that is being led by my department will keep children in mind as one of the priorities as we’re undertaking that review.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is to deal with one of the concerns that was raised by Egale Canada and Out North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I certainly will.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are changing the definition of spouse so that it no longer means people who are married, so common-law couples will be included now as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know where the Member gets the idea that the funding that we offer to school divisions now is prescriptive. There’s about $125 million that goes to schools. The only part of that that is prescriptive is the $7 million that’s stipulated to go into aboriginal languages and culture, and the $16 million that has to go into special needs. Other than that, it’s wide open. The schools can use the money as they see fit. We give them money that we say this portion is allocated for transportation, but we don’t require them to spend it on transportation. They can put the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that clause 10 of Bill 17 be amended by striking out “section 6 of Bill,” in proposed section 1.1 of the Workers’ Compensation Act and by substituting “section 6 of Bill 17,”.

Madam Chair, this motion amends clause 10 to correct the internal reference back to Bill 17, Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act, in a new application provision being added to the Workers’ Compensation Act.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Let’s take an example. If a person is a member on a board, like in our Conflict of Interest Act. For instance, if one the Members here…They have to declare the interest of their spouse. What this amendment does is make sure that that condition exists under the Conflict of Interest Act. So a member of a board would have to then be aware and public of the interests of their partner, whether they are same sex or heterosexual. Right now, that is not covered. Right now, the Conflict of Interest Act doesn’t provide the same protection to the public that you find in some...