Jackson Lafferty

Good afternoon, colleagues. Colleagues, it is my duty to advise this House that I have received the following message from the Commissioner of the Northwest Territories. It reads: "Dear Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise that I recommend to the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories the passage of Supplementary Appropriation Act (Operations Expenditures), No. 1, 2019-2020, during the 3rd Session of the 18th Assembly. Yours truly, Margaret M. Thom, Commissioner." Masi cho.

Masi, Mr. Chair. It is part of shared services that we have assistants to these officers. As you know, we have a few of them, and we do have a clerk or receptionist who assists them. There has been a reallocation of that position. We did talk about that during our deliberation of how we can deal with those positions, so I will get Mr. Ouellette to explain more in detail. Masi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Part of the difference is we started paying to Members' pension. For the last 20 years, we haven't been paying to Members' pension, similar to across Canada. Most or all legislatures pay into Members' pension. We have been fortunate with a great economy over the years, but now, just since last year, we started contributing towards that, so that is part of that cost. Also, another cost is the transitional allowance for Members. Every election, we allocate upwards of six individuals who could be either retiring or losing their seats, so we have to subsidize for that. As you know...

Masi, Mr. Chair. As you know, we have entered the final year of the 18th Assembly, and this is the last operations budget from my office prior to the general election and the selection of a new Speaker in the 19th Assembly. It has been a distinct honour and privilege to serve as your Speaker, and I hope that I have met your expectations in terms of presiding over your debates in a fair and objective manner.

The Legislative Assembly is seeking an operations expenditures appropriation of $22,443,000. This represents an increase of $1,653,000, or a 7.9 percent increase from the 2018-2019 Main...

Mr. Chair, yes, those are areas that we have discussed how we can manage, and that is correct, what the Member has alluded to.

Masi, Mr. Chair. The funding allocation is not geared towards the Language Commissioner's budget, but it is overall to offset how we can enhance language development in the Legislative Assembly with regard to reporting and promoting more language. It is a generic contribution to the Legislative Assembly and would capture the Language Commissioner's area of recommendations, so we can work towards that as well. If I may, maybe Mr. Mercer will have more detailed information pertaining to this, Mr. Chair.

Masi, Mr. Chair. I have with me to my right, Tim Mercer, clerk of the Legislative Assembly, and to my left, Darrin Ouellette, director of Corporate Services. He is back again. The last time, we said it was the last presentation, but he decided to stay with us for another year, so we are thankful of that. Masi, Mr. Chair.

Please be seated. Good afternoon, colleagues.

[Translation] On behalf of the Assembly, I would like to thank Mr. Ernie Bernhardt for joining us today and leading us in prayer. Mr. Bernhardt now calls Yellowknife home, but he has spent most of his life in the Kitikmeot region of what is now Nunavut and was a Member for Kitikmeot during the 12th Legislative Assembly. Masi, Mr. Bernhardt.

I would also like to thank the pages we will have with us throughout this sitting. We will have students from Inuvik, Hay River, K'atlodeeche First Nations, Fort McPherson, Yellowknife, Detah, Tuktoyaktuk, Gameti...

Good afternoon, colleagues. Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to visitors in the gallery at this time. We have with us two elders from Behchoko. Noel Drybone is here with us and Louis Frankie from Behchoko, two of the respected elders from my community of Behchoko; and also with us Richard Charlo, my CA. Welcome to our Assembly. Masi.

Masi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this has been brought up before, if it was retroactive, and it's not. They do take into effect April 1, 2018, and it is not retroactive. MLAs' salaries were frozen for 2016-2017. That was the decision that was made at that time. Masi.