Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Daycare Act.

Bill 68 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2022 and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

On March 1st, 2023, the standing committee held a public hearing and clausebyclause review of the bill with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Six motions to amend the bill were carried by committee and concurred with by the Minister. The committee thanks the Minister and department for their...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I actually had an opportunity when I was in grade 11 or 12 to go to UBC Connect, which was very much the same thing, and even coming from Abbotsford, BC, which is not that small, it was still very overwhelming to come into Vancouver. So definitely I think that's wonderful, and I'm glad to hear it's not just about those specific programs or instances that I see on more advertised.

So my next question comes back around to the funding to the schools. So it's my understanding that due to the high cost or increases to insurance lately that the schools that the GNWT has...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So first I just wanted to start and I do apologize, if I'm repeating others. But the healthy food for learning program, great program. I can't say enough about having and helping kids have access to healthy food.

Given that we are seeing a high cost of inflation, which is affecting food prices, grocery prices, etcetera, and I've had actually people reach out about how important and more we need help here, I'm just wondering we're staying pretty stagnant; has there been any sort of assessment of, like, the needs of this program; is there more money that's going to be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I won't get into the debate about what I feel about the comment of, like of the forprofit being the designation between helping and not helping. I would actually want to reterm that as the, you know, for barelyprofit or barelyforprofit would be more accurate, I think.

My question, though, is when this money was announced, you know, I had hoped that we would be able to look into putting money into small communities to pay relatives, etcetera, that take care of grandchildren or nieces and nephews and such. And then upon my conversations and my many conversations with day...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So is that safe then to say are we up to capacity then, and that amount is the amount we actually need for compensation and benefits, or is there still vacancies and some of that money ends up freed up later? I'm just kind of trying to get a gauge if that's, like, the actual number for the compensation and benefits. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess just sort of more out of, like, a bit of curiosity, is there any way, and I'm assuming this has probably been looked at in the FPTs and such, but that people could create a legal challenge around the fact that they weren't able to come in person to a sitting? Is there anywhere it impacts people's rights that they're only able to come virtually? I am just curious to know if it opens up the government to any sort of liability or challenge? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm just curious to know a little bit around how lessons learned during the pandemic with having some of the stuff moved towards more virtual or having defendants appear remotely by camera, etcetera. Has there been an improvement to our system? I think a lot of us can see in other areas that COVID firmly, you know, forced us to upgrade and become, you know, evolved quicker in our work. So I'm just wondering how any of this has translated into court services for the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess it's good that there's been no final number before now so that we don't have to listen to how the cost of the supply chain has driven that number up and that's the reason why nothing has advanced on the project. So I'd say that's a good thing here.

Can the Minister speak to how much of that $20 million will be retained using northern businesses and how much of it is sole sourced to former bureaucrats? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The problem with the theme day is sometimes your questions get asked and answered ahead of you getting your opportunity, so bear with me. But I'm really excited to hear that one of the routes that the Minister says they're looking at is the west side of the lake. I just want to emphasize that given my statement today, about allowing for future development, I would prefer that versus going across the lake; therefore, we could have expansion off the power lines on the west side of Great Slave.

That being said, can the Minister please tell me where the total costs for the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm not trying to get super hung up on the numbers changing from the COVID year because I do understand that a lot of that had an impact. Again, I sort of have the same question around the sheriff services. You know, there's a $400,000 increase from the COVID year to the next. And I'm just curious to know, again, is that just a rebound from COVID, or is that an actual increase sort of in funding, if that makes sense? Thank you, Madam Chair.