Statements in Debates
That is the kind of answer I am looking for. Thank you to the Minister. There has been almost $5 million designated to support early childhood care and education during the COVID-19 pandemic by GNWT. Supports include a subsidy to lower childcare costs for essential service workers, wage top-ups, funding for cleaning supplies, and money available to assist with reopening. Of course, we don't want to take steps backwards. The child carers would like to maintain this positive momentum. Will the Minister commit to continuing these additional supports for childcare beyond the COVID-19 pandemic?
Thanks, Madam Chair. I did give the Minister a heads-up that I would ask her some questions about some of these matters. The line of $23,400,000, that's to help cover some of our extraordinary costs related to the pandemic. Can the Minister tell us how much we've actually spent on self-isolation where we helped put up our residents, and in some cases, essential service workers, in hotels and pay for their meals and so on? What have we spent on that so far? Let's start with that. Thanks, Madam Chair.
That's great news from the Minister. I am glad to hear that we are weeks away from flipping the secrecy onus. I certainly pushed very hard to get the public registry as part of the legislation. In my statement, I also referenced the extraordinary power and discretion of Cabinet and the Minister in deciding what, how, and when benefits might be secured from mineral development through enforceable agreements or plans. Can the Minister tell us what the implications of the Acho Dene Koe First Nation court case are in relation to securing benefits under the Mineral Resources Act, and when will...
Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to be fair here. I support spending more on climate change, but without getting into the action plan itself, it is probably in the neighbourhood of about 50 pages. As I said, pages and pages and pages of action areas, potential partners, potential resources, but none of it is costed. This was a criticism of the action plan when it was being developed from SCEDE. We tried to encourage the Minister of the day to include some costing with some of this. Now we're being asked to approve $1.4 million without knowing what it's going to be spent on. I want to invest more on...
Thanks, Madam Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that. I am a bit disappointed to hear that this is just a one-time injection of cash. I guess we just have to revisit this in the next budget. Is that the way that this is going to get handled? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Merci, monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Earlier today, I mentioned the recent Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories decision on the Acho Dene Koe First Nation case on the relationship of community investment plans to regulatory requirements under oil and gas legislation. Can the Minister tell us whether she has read or been briefed on this important case and what, if any, changes her department is going to make to ensure that Indigenous governments and all Northerners benefit from resource development? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks, Madam Chair. That was the first part of my question. There were two parts, though. The second part was: can I get a commitment out of someone, a Minister, to share that in draft form with standing committee before it's finalized and released? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thanks, Madam Chair. While I have the MACA Minister's ears, I am going to suggest a couple of things here. What we need is an annual update of what that municipal funding gap is. It should be reported publicly so that we know what that is. It should be given to NWTAC, as well. If we have made a commitment together, as a priority, and Cabinet is willing to work on this, of closing that gap, we need a plan to do that. I know that things keep changing with COVID and all the rest, but we need to have a plan for how we think we are going to invest in that municipal funding gap for the rest of this...
Thanks, Madam Chair. The increase to the Community Harvester Assistance Program, as I understand, this is probably even an over-subscribed program. Is there going to be some effort to continue to increase that, especially in light of the pandemic and so on? What is the status of that program? Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I lived through the development of a number of these bills in the last Assembly. Some of my colleagues in this House survived that as well, and I don't want to go back to that where a bunch of bills or regulations come on us all at the same time without sufficient resources to the public. I'm already aware that there's a number of NGOs, Indigenous governments, as well, that have, in the past, talked about the need for more resources to engage in these sorts of co-drafting processes. I see ITI coming to the well, that's great. I'm glad ITI's doing that, but I'm concerned...