Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President.

WHEREAS the Integrity Commissioner received a written complaint and carried out an investigation pursuant to section 100(2) of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act;

AND WHEREAS the Integrity Commissioner submitted an investigation report dated October 3rd, 2023, to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly into the conduct of Ms. Katrina Nokleby, MLA Great Slave, by returning to and remaining in Yellowknife after it was ordered to be evacuated in August 2023;

AND WHEREAS the Integrity Commissioner has concluded that the MLA for Great Slave violated...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Just one more question of for my favorite Minister, and I'm sending it with love, the site is located in the Northwest Territories but the first phase of the remediation work was awarded to an Alberta company with no local benefit requirements, even though some Indigenous governments wanted to do the work. So I'm going to ask the Minister if he can explain how GNWT is going to ensure local benefits moving forward, you know, we're trying to build a remediation economy, so how are we going to get local benefits from our remaining work? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. So we've had some inspections done. But it doesn't sound like much work is actually happening at the site. So, you know, given this lack of activities and reporting on the site over the last seven months, I'm hoping that the Minister can explain the schedule and remaining work to be done at Cameron Hills. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Obviously, effectiveness of our Student Financial Assistance Program is a cornerstone of postsecondary success. We say our program's among the best in Canada. But actual graduation or completion numbers tell perhaps a slightly different story when it comes to results. So can the Minister tell us whether the effectiveness of the Student Financial Assistance Program has been reviewed recently and what, if any, further changes might be coming in light of this new jobs in demand report? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. The Minister's got me convinced. It's good. This is a good and useful report, and I commend it commend it to and those that prepared it.

In terms of educational gaps, a number of them come to mind between what our residents have currently achieved and what will be in demand. So can the Minister tell us how this report will influence our postsecondary education planning and work currently underway to close gaps between educational outcomes in regional centres and smaller communities? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I have some family in the gallery today. Renee O'Reilly, my wife Suzette; they've had to put up with my ravings over eight years. So thanks for being here today, I and couldn't have done it without you. Thank you.

Yeah, thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I love Private Member's bills. I'm 50/50. I appreciate the comments from the Minister but sometimes if we don't have deadlines, things just don't get done. And I'm just going to leave it at that. I support the bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. Again, I have to go on record as to why I'm going to vote against this bill. I've said, though, that there's good things in this bill like response to at least three independent reviews that were carried out. That work can and should have been done, quite frankly, years ago. So those are the good parts of the bill. The part that causes me a lot of concern is the name change. And I'm not opposed to the name change in principle. I don't personally think it's a great thing. But I think it's not a good I don't condone a process, Mr. Speaker, where we start off...

Yeah, merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that, but posting this to a website I just don't think is going to cut it. I tried to read this stuff last night. It's highly technical stuff. And the document that's out there for public engagement right now is three pages. There's no references in it. It's not very well done in my humble opinion. It doesn't even explain that we're going from 2003 guidelines to a new set of guidelines. I think the Minister needs to beef up the public engagement/public communications component.

So can the Minister undertake to talk to his...

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Mahsi.