Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Madame la Presidente. In June this year, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, who is now the Minister responsible for Seniors, sponsored a motion calling for creation of a seniors' and elders' strategy. As pointed out in those debates, action on this growing sector of the population is now guided by a 2014 strategic framework that focuses on health-related aspects of aging. The motion called for expanding that vision with an integrated strategy that takes into account issues beyond healthcare. The successful motion called for a strategy that "provides a whole-of-government approach to...

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for that response. If this comprehensive review has been going on for months, can the Minister commit to share some of that information with this side of the House so we have a better understanding of what legislative changes the Cabinet is looking at making to better allow us to respond to the pandemic? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that. One of the sections, 2(2), says that an order will only come into force seven days after Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight actually gets a copy of that. I've never seen a copy of an order issued under this legislation, so I don't think it's ever been used. I'm just wondering if the Minister knows, we went to great lengths to pass this legislation quickly, why it hasn't been used? Can the Minister explain why this legislation is yet to be used?

Merci, Madame la Presidente. Yes. One of the hallmarks of developing this new legislation was the strong consultation and input with stakeholders and even Members on this side of the House. It was, I think, a good way of bringing forward legislation, and the Minister even spoke about that himself. Can the Minister, though, tell me when we can expect to see draft regulations to finally realize the potential of this legislation, and will he commit to share those regulations with standing committee for their review and comment? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

I want to thank the Minister for that early Christmas present. A major change that was introduced in the amendments was extending the legislation to include records held by municipalities. In the spring of this year, the then Minister of Justice told me that a working group was formed with representatives of communities to ensure that they were going to be part of the process to develop those regulations. Can the Minister tell us what is going on now in terms of the application of ATIPP to community governments, and when will this actually happen?

Merci, Madame la Presidente. Today, I am going to return to the issue I first raised in the winter session regarding the implementation of amendments to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. As I pointed out then, a lot of good work and cooperation went into the new legislation with excellent changes introduced as a result of extensive consultation with GNWT departments, public bodies, the Information and Privacy Commissioner, and the general public. Improvements included the reduction of mandatory exemptions, the power of the Information and Privacy Commissioner was also...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I wish to speak to this bill. The main purpose, as I can see, is to reduce the small business tax rate from 4 percent to 2 percent, and I'm sure the Minister of Finance will explain at some point that this is to bring our small business tax rates in line with some of the other jurisdictions in Canada. I am not opposed in principle to reducing taxes, but I think we need to look at the issue of tax fairness. This will result in our government losing some revenue, and I'd like to know how much. I think the public deserves to know that, as well.

I am mindful that the...

I want to thank the Minister for that. Why I'm raising this is: back on April 11th, just at the beginning of the pandemic, I contacted the then Minister of Justice by email suggesting that our government look at the possibility of an omnibus bill to make sure that we have the right kinds of things in place to properly deal with the pandemic. We've seen a few of these things roll out over the last few months now, but can the Minister of Justice tell us whether there's further changes, legislative changes, that are being contemplated to better allow us to respond to the pandemic?

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I have some questions for the Minister of Justice. Back in June, we made some extraordinary efforts to pass something called a temporary, variation of temporary time periods COVID-19 Pandemic Measures Act. What this piece of legislation does is: it allows Cabinet, by order, to extend or adjust a date, deadline, or other time period prescribed in any act that our government has in place. I'd like to confirm with the Minister of Justice whether we've actually ever used this legislation. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Yes. As a former city councillor here, we do not want to implement this on top of municipalities without ensuring that they actually have adequate resources. One of the other major elements of this review of ATIPP was looking at ways to improve training and development of resource materials for all the different departments. Can the Minister provide a timeline for when this training is going to be completed and new support materials developed?