Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Justice. As I said in my statement, the Yukon government is piloting a program to train people to write Gladue reports. The purpose of these reports is to inform the court of the Indigenous offender's background so that the judge can take this information into consideration for sentencing. My question is: has the Minister given any thought to funding a report-writing program like the one in the Yukon here in the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the witness for that explanation. Of this money that is coming to the territories through the new bilateral agreement, with all the caveats we've previously heard about, how much of this money is going to be allocated to the North Slave? Thank you.

Sure, Mr. Chair. My observation is that, rather than having an additional $1.5 million available for modernization and improvements, there is actually $750,000 available. My question is: could the difference have been made up in another way, rather than reducing minor modernization and improvements? Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister's willingness to find that information. I hope she will be able to answer the next question, which is whether the thresholds can be changed, and what effort would it take to change them and raise them?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The social justice organization Alternatives North just released its updated calculation of the living wage required by families in Yellowknife, and, for the first time, there are calculations of the living wage for Hay River and Inuvik, as well.

The living wage is calculated using a national framework to ensure results are consistent among jurisdictions and over time. The calculation is for the most common family type, two parents working full-time, one child in childcare full-time, and one in elementary school.

Mr. Speaker, the principle of the living wage is that, if you...

I appreciate the Minister trying to answer that question, as well. I also wonder, as well as adjusting the threshold, whether the child benefit thresholds could be sensitive by region to higher-cost-of-living situations and lower-cost-of-living situations? Would it be possible to target the thresholds in that way, by region?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and they concern the living wage, and particularly the NWT Child Benefit. What we know from the most recent calculation, which was the same as 2017, is that this reference family of two adults and two children would not qualify for the NWT Child Benefit. My first question for the Minister is: how was the threshold for the NWT Child Benefit set? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Minister and I share the same goal of assisting parents to help their children grow up with everything that they need in terms of food, accommodation, and so on, so that the poverty cycle is broken, especially by people who are working full-time. My final question here, and likely for the same answer, I realize, is whether the NWT child benefit could be indexed to inflation. The federal government recently took that step with the Canada child benefit, and it means, of course, that the benefit retains its value. That is an important feature, so can the Minister also look...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.