Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to be able to respond to my honourable colleague from Inuvik Twin Lakes. I am happy to try to respond. The effect of this motion would be to delete the provision in the existing Elections Act to move our Territorial election into November if there is a federal election around the same time. Yes, to be clear and open about it, that is what the effect of this motion would be.

We had quite a discussion at committee about this. The Chief Electoral Officer in her report, as well, identified a number of problems with having our election that late in November. It...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the very clear answer from the Minister there. I don't really expect a response here. It is more of a comment that we are still underfunding our district education authorities for 2017-2018 by about $1.7 million, asking them to deliver programs and services within their authority for JK students and it is not fully funded. No matter what the Minister has said on this topic, or his Cabinet colleagues, junior kindergarten is not fully funded. Our district education authorities have to make up this shortfall themselves in some way to provide programming for our...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Recommendation 11 of the report. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to require the Chief Electoral Officer to submit an annual report to the Legislative Assembly describing work done under the direction of the Chief Electoral Officer pursuant to the act;

require the Chief Electoral Officer to submit a report to the Legislative Assembly after each election or plebiscite about the conduct of the election or plebiscite;

provide the Chief Electoral Officer with the option of combining his or her reports into one in the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The second motion is: I move that this Assembly recommend that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended to set the first Tuesday in October as polling day, and that the November alternative polling day be eliminated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just to be clear here, that $1.542 million, that's based on the current formula funding for district education authorities; is that correct? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Recommendation 10 from our report. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended as needed to provide:

that the Chief Electoral Officer is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly;

that the Chief Electoral Officer shall take an oath affirming that she or he will impartially and faithfully exercise the powers of the Chief electoral Officer and perform all duties fairly, objectively, and with due care;

that no proceeding may be commenced against the Chief Electoral Officer or a person acting for or under the direction...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First off, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of my fellow committee members, the Member for Thebacha, the Member for Yellowknife Centre, the Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, and the Member for Nahendeh. We all worked very hard to come up with this report. I also want to thank the Chief Electoral Officer herself. She provided utmost cooperation to the committee, answered our questions, she appeared at two public hearings. She came up with some very thoughtful, thorough, and comprehensive recommendations for us to consider.

We had three different reports that we looked...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can someone explain to me the figure of $2,283,000 for junior kindergarten? What does that cover? Is this additional, unanticipated enrolment, or are there additional things that are covered in there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is the eighth recommendation. I move that this Assembly recommends that the Elections and Plebiscites Act be amended in accord with Recommendations 2, 10, 13, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 34, 36, and 38 in the Chief Electoral Officer Report on the Administration of the 2015 Territorial General Election. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just in the eventuality that the work can't all be done this year, it could be carried over into the next year?