Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Justice responsible for the maintenance enforcement program.

My statement outlined the complexities of adjusting the amount of maintenance enforcement payments and the difficulties of enacting these changes. The Minister told me that an automatic adjustment regime would be coming into place at the beginning of the year. Can the Minister tell me the status of this improvement? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks. Maybe I'll take another try at this. Okay, so there are staff presumably in this activity, and I'm just going to turn the page over to seven. So I would have thought that there would be at least a collective agreement increase but what we actually see is that the budget for this activity actually going down at a time when a collective agreement increase should be here. So where's that money being found, and why is it this activity getting less money in 20222023 than the year before? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I know that this activity's usually near and dear to the heart of the Minister but it's the only activity within MACA that we actually see a decline in funding over time. Look at 2021 and, you know, to 20222023, and it's a decline of money. Maybe there might have been some bump up for COVID, I don't know. But this activity, the money's actually declining. Can I get an explanation for that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay yeah, thanks; I look forward to getting more information about that.

I just want to turn over the page now to ground ambulance and highway rescue and, you know, in a former life, I was a Yellowknife city councillor, and, you know, I'm not sure if this funding has actually changed from when I was a city councillor. You know, that was back in 2006 if I remember correctly. And then, you know, the city said that they weren't going to provide emergency services on the Ingraham Trail anymore because of I guess the inability to make much progress on this. I hear that COVID has caused some delays...

Thanks for that. Yeah, I appreciate that the Minister's going to talk to committee but I think it has to be a bigger conversation. The public needs to know what's going on as well and have an opportunity to have a say in this. So is there going to be some kind of public options or evaluation report, or how is the public going to be engaged in this as well? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Wow, we can't continue to run this at a deficit. I don't have the tell the Minister that. But, you know, the way that this was set up and I was in the last Assembly so was the Minister was that we would run this for a few years, put a cap on the fees, but now is the time to look at this and, you know, I think we're going to need to increase the fees. That was always the objective of this. The taxpayers should not be covering the cost of 911. It was to be a user pay system. And so when is that going to happen? And thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So on the 911 program, what is the extra $540,000 actually for in 20222023? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I got so excited, I jumped ahead one question. So I know that the Minister I'll just have to surprise him right now.

But I'm just wondering if there's any kind of annual reporting or tracking of how long it takes for these crossjurisdictional payments to be made for child support? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. The sooner the better. Of course, it's one thing for the changes to be made and another for those affected to be informed. So what activities does the department plan to carry out, first, to identify those maintenance orders affected by the change; and secondly, to inform child support payment recipients that a new regime of annual payment recalculation is being introduced? Sorry, Mr. Speaker. Those are questions for the Minister. Mahsi.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Well, I guess I just will put on the record that it's disappointing to see a decline in funding for sport, recreation, and youth from what we had in our main estimates last year compared to what we're going to do in 20222023. At the same time that there should have been a collective agreement increase, we're spending less money on sport, recreation, and youth. And I just don't think that that's sends out a good signal. Thanks, Madam Chair.