Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. One of our colleagues is fond of saying that the best form of income assistance is a job, but there are a substantial number of people, 1,700 people in Yellowknife who are working full-time but not earning enough to get themselves out of poverty. My question to the Minister is whether he is aware of the living wage movement and whether it is something he supports? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to report today on efforts to introduce a living wage in Yellowknife. The principle guiding this work is that people who work full time should not be living below the poverty line. Eleven Yellowknife organizations with a total of more than 300 employees have now signed with a pledge to pay their employees the living wage.

First, a little background. In 2015, a northern non-profit commissioned an economist to calculate a living wage for Yellowknife. The calculation was based on a 40-hour work week. It included expenses such as food, shelter, transportation...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So what I understand, then, is this is like a grubstake; it's an advance on the work with the money expected to come in by the end of the season. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like some clarity around the costs associated with the marine operations for this calendar year. Is this an item that is brand new to the budget in this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am drowning in the rising tide of the minimum wage, so let me finally ask the Minister: when will the minimum wage be reviewed again? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I just want to be clear that I am not talking about the minimum wage. I am talking about a different wage altogether. It's called a living wage, and it is calculated on a community-by-community basis according to the expenses that a family would have in that community, the level of taxation, the kinds of benefits and so on and so forth. So it's different in every place. It's not a minimum wage.

There are several ways that the government could support the living wage, such as providing funds to calculate the living wage in communities outside of Yellowknife...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. Mr. Speaker, Outreach is continuing to get more businesses and organizations to take the living wage pledge. I salute Alternatives North for leading this work and all the living wage employers present and future.

Thanks to the Minister for his answer. Can he give us an indication, of the 49 schools, how many schools have opted out?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues. As I was saying, the teachers said they work 52 hours a week, but the sample size is very small, because only 15 per cent of teachers took part in the survey. Surely there are more effective ways to measure teacher wellness, including their sick days, long-term disability, and retention in the profession. It would also be useful to see data on these points from jurisdictions with fewer instructional hours.

Mr. Speaker, the Minister has yet to produce a solid evidence-based rationale for these changes to instructional hours. I am challenging him...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, just a month ago, I stood here and noted the obvious. We Regular MLAs were at an impasse on budget negotiations with Cabinet. Today, we have a resolution which will pave the way for passage of the budget appropriation bill. It's a compromise we all worked hard on.

Mr. Speaker, it's important to note that we are not all of one mind about budget 2017. We have made some progress on the size of the cuts the Finance Minister originally proposed. They have gone down by a third, from $150 million to $100 million. That, in itself, is an achievement. Regular MLAs...