Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. First I want to thank the committee that did all of the work on this bill because I do sit on two other committees that are quite busy; I didn't delve into it quite the same way they did, and really looked to that report to inform me as I have struggled with this bill and my position on it.

When I look at the choice in front of us, I realize we really just don't have much of a choice. We're either going to you know, as everybody has said, we're either going to look to the federal legislation if we defeat the bill here today and not then the GNWT obviously would not be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, just sort of reiterating what I said before. I think this motion is really key for the government in order to ensure that we don't lose any more spaces. I know that there has been talk about new spaces being created. But those were all in the works before this issue around the child care funding and the subsequent changes. You know, I do think that there is an opportunity for this relationship to be repaired. However, it is going to take, I think, the will of the department and the Minister to want to recognize that regardless of how they feel about forprofit...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, without reiterating everything that my colleague said, I also found this to be a very frustrating and disappointing bill to work on. I do also appreciate, though, that there has been the back and forth with the department and to try and come to some sort of a solution here. But I can't help be left feeling like this is yet again another instance of where a federal program or a federal idea, federal funding, is being pushed on us without proper advocacy from the government to the federal government to understand that it just doesn't work for us here. And there's...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister explain how often she consults with stakeholders who enter the RFP process? I want to make sure that we're actually giving our contractors time to meet the needs of the contract. If that contract doesn't come out until April, they have missed the window for winter roads and, you know, knowing how the barging goes, I doubt private industry wants to rely on that. So can the Minister explain how often is she actually meeting with industry stakeholders about RFPs. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's always really frustrating to ask how things are being done to then just get an answer that they're being done. So I'm just going to leave it at that. But that's quite an odd answer. Can the Minister explain if projects are looked at as a whole both within her department and across the entire GNWT to see if there are savings to be had by planning these projects together. These could include maximizing their buying power by ordering bulk materials or sharing labour and transportation costs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the cost of doing business in the North is expensive. There’s no doubt about that reality. However, I often wonder if a lack of coordination from the government hinders our ability to support our communities in terms of infrastructure planning and management.

Spring is here, and I want to ensure we are positioning both government and industry to be successful in advancing important infrastructure projects during the upcoming construction season. The NWT has many unique operating environments and a short window in which to bring in materials. Yet the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I mean, I feel this is, again, just a really, like, no win type situation. The intention of this bill to begin with was to smooth out this bizarre CPI high, you know, number that we currently see and this is sort of an artificial one and isn't expected to continue on like that and it now has somehow involved into some conversation about what we should be doing to sacrifice ourselves as MLAs to show solidarity to our constituents. And to me that really sort of wreaks of virtue signalling. We make $114,000 a year base salary. If I went to go work for the GNWT with...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I first want to start by thanking thanking some of the constituents in my riding that do run day homes who actually were the source for some of these suggestions, particularly which really struck me was, you know, making the change of the age limit. That one being very critical to my constituents. But also the one that really struck me that I hadn't thought about was the substitution list, which the day home providers are saying that basically because they know that they're sick day will then result in, you know, six other people or potentially parents having to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This was what I was referring to in my earlier opening comments. And just that I think that if there is going to be an establishment of some sort of a complaints process and, like I said, would give the staff within the department a lot of sort of control and influence over people's lives, that there has to be some sort of mechanism in place or process in place that everybody can refer to that outlines the investigative process. If we ever were to look at, like, the way that accidents are investigated under health and safety plans, there's a very clear way that you go...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I too want to commend my colleague on the other side for her work and effort to work with us as Regular Members and with our chair and yourself to come to some sort of a solution here to feel like we were actually heard in what we want versus just being told no, there's not enough money, which I think becomes really frustrating on our side when we do see inefficiencies and such in the government to then be told that small amounts of money are not available to us for very important things that we know can be effectual, then to watch and see government waste on the other...