Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. This past weekend I had the pleasure of playing hockey on the ice surface at the new Ko Gocho Complex in Behchoko. The WIMPs, or Weekly Improvement for Mediocre Players league, was invited to play a game on the new ice surface on Saturday evening with a team of young players from Behchoko. Special thanks to Dolphus Nitsiza and Chris Hunt for organizing the game. The WIMPS have been around since the early 1980s, and I am proud to say that I have been playing with them for 30 years. Yes, after 30 years I can still occasionally push the puck into the net, but more...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am looking at the same page, 254. I see that we collected a whopping $4,000 for access to information and protection of privacy fees. I know this was an issue that was posed in the discussion paper that came from our government recently, but why do we even bother, because I am sure the administrative costs of collecting the money is probably even greater than $4,000. Is this something that the Minister is looking at in terms of updating the act and working towards more open government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe this is where the rental office is located, in the Department of Justice. There has been some discussion in this House about the backlog of cases there, and it does not look like there is any additional funding for the rental office in next year's budget. In fact, it has actually been declining over time, if you go back to 201516. What is the plan to deal with this backlog, if we are not actually going to increase the funding for this function? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that answer from the Minister. Is this something that is going to be done in time for the business plans for next year so that we could see an allocation within the business plan for seniors' involvement in organized sports activities? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think that was a maybe.

---Laughter

We may have to pursue that further. So one last question: can the Minister confirm then that, when his department and he himself talks about full funding for junior kindergarten, that's really in reference to the current formulas which do not include junior kindergarten students? So full funding does not really include junior kindergarten students? Can the Minister say yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know I have raised the issue of support for seniors in sports. I think I got some kind of a commitment out of the Minister that this was something that they were going to evaluate. Could the Minister tell us where their current thinking is at, if we can get support for seniors in sports? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I would like to thank the Minister for his short answer. Can the Minister tell this House and the public whether junior kindergarten students are included in the formula for Aboriginal language and culture funding for schools? Yes or no.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am looking at page 326. I'm at the top, program details. Consumer affairs is listed at $150,000. Last week, I raised in the House concerns around our weak Consumer Protection Act, and I was pleased to hear the Minister say that there was supposed to be some sort of a plain language brochure that goes out soon to help consumers understand what their rights are under the existing legislation.

When was the last time there was any change or increase to the consumer affairs line in the MACA budget? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Premier for providing those details. As I understood, the trip to Ottawa that all of Cabinet went on was precisely as part of this federal engagement strategy and the three pitches that they made when they were down there. In any event, I will move on.

One of the commitments that we made in our mandate was increasing transparency and accountability and strengthening consensus government, so a knowledge of the lobbying activities of the executive would help make us more transparent and accountable. Does the Minister believe we should have lobbyist registration...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that commitment from the Minister. It still seems rather counterintuitive to me that we are asking communities to do more land use planning for themselves, yet we are cutting the capacity within the department to approve the land use plans, the zoning bylaw changes, and so on, that they come up with. It just does not make much sense to me. Thanks, Mr. Chair.