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Statements in Debates

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Merci, Monsieur le President. The 18th Assembly collectively developed a list of priorities that Cabinet then took and turned into a lengthy wish list. That was the first time that a formal mandate was developed. At the end of the 18th Assembly, Cabinet claimed it had completed 202 of 230 mandate commitments. The advice from the Transition Matters Special Committee was that there should be fewer priorities and fewer mandate commitments. I am not convinced that we achieved that with the priorities that were tabled in this House on October 25th. As this sitting presents the first opportunity to...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thanks, Madam Chair. Okay. Maybe I can just get the Minister to agree that she will find out what that date was and give me and the Members of this House the chronology of events around this misstep or failure to budget properly for the tax bill from the city. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thanks, Madam Chair, and I want to thank the Minister for that response. I guess I have a few comments I want to offer. I want to echo some of the frustration of my colleagues here this evening. Not a lot of this is actually new. The request, though, certainly for a $135-million increase in short-term borrowing is something new, and it comes at a difficult time, at the beginning of this Assembly. I have asked questions in the last Assembly about the deficit for the Northwest Territories Health and Social Services authority. If you look at their annual report, the latest one that is available...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thanks, Madam Chair. "Fall of 2019," can we get a little more precision to that? Was it September?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think I'd like to start by asking, I think I heard there were some cash-flow issues with regard to federal funding for the large infrastructure projects. I had understood in the budget for 2018, or the current O and M budget, that we had already hired, I think it was, three extra staff at the Department of Infrastructure to help with better reporting and getting money out of the feds for these projects. Am I hearing that that's not working? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the Minister is new to this file, but I can assure the Minister I sat in the House in the 18th Assembly, and we knew months in advance of the day that the new hospital was going to open on May 26, 2019. That was the scheduled date for months before that, and it must have been known to the Municipal and Community Affairs officials as well. How is it that our system failed to flag this and that the city was going to provide the assessment and that we would have to pay that to the City of Yellowknife? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Great. Thanks. That is what I had suspected and appreciate the response from our witnesses. This will be an ongoing cost into the future. The total supplementary appropriation, I think, is for $4.5 million, essentially. The Minister said $3.5 million is for the City of Yellowknife. What is the other $1 million for [microphone turned off]?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. It was certainly my understanding, having sat in on the committee meetings, that that was the intention of the committee, and I thought that's what the bill was going to do. In any event, recent media reports about the use of vaping products in southern Canada and the US describe an epidemic in use by youth, and that manufacturers and retailers have specifically designed advertising to entice youth. I've had this raised to me by teachers at schools in my riding. Can the Minister tell us whether her department has taken any...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

I want to thank the Minister for that comprehensive response, and I also want to acknowledge the work of the Standing committee on Social Development that had the forethought to anticipate this issue with vaping products, because there is a lot of news coverage on this now. I take it from the Minister's response, then, that the Tobacco and Vapour Products Control Act is going to take full legal effect on March 31, 2020. Can she confirm that again for me?

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 1st Session (day 3)

Merci, Monsieur le President. Once again, I want to thank the Premier for that. I guess what I am most worried about is where the initial direction is going to come from for each of the Ministers and the departments. Yesterday, the Premier suggested to the Member for Yellowknife Centre that people could go and walk into her office and talk to her about priorities. That's not a very efficient or effective way of doing this. It doesn't recognize the role that standing committees should play in terms of consensus government, so I have suggested privately and publicly that the Premier be prepared...