Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Glad to hear that. Can the Minister give us a timeline for when this policy funding review is going to be finished? Does she contemplate having it done in time for the next fiscal year? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his response. I think that was a no, but let's go on to busing. So can the Minister tell this House and the public: if the issue of increased costs for busing cannot be resolved, is he prepared to come forward to this House with a supplementary appropriation to make sure the school boards are not out? Yes or a no, Mr. Speaker, would be very helpful.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't know how far back that goes. It looks like we haven't actually even tried to keep pace with the cost of living or Consumer Price Index in terms of bolstering resources for that, so there has been an erosion over time.

Is the Minister committed to looking at the work that we do in consumer affairs with regard to possibly increasing the budget for next year's main estimates? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am going to try to keep this quick. We had a briefing from the Minister of Education last week on junior kindergarten. There were still some unresolved issues around this full funding of junior kindergarten. Can the Minister tell this House and the public whether the inclusive schooling formula includes students who will be in junior kindergarten? Yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I don't want to prolong a debate here. I don't think this is a good idea, but I look forward to getting the evidence from the Minister that this is not going to result in delays. I think this is actually being driven by the fiscal reduction targets again. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the Premier for that response, as well. So, if they weren't providing advice or support, can the Minister provide a little bit more detail about what we paid $126,800 for, exactly what kind of services? Maybe a few examples would be helpful.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate getting that information out. So the Minister says that it won't cause any delays, but does the department actually track the time that the department takes?

It is fine for the Minister to give her word, but I am looking for a little bit more objective information or data. Is the Minister committed to tracking the amount of time that is taken by the department in reviewing these changes and seeing if this reduction actually increases the amount of time the department requires to sign off on those changes? That is the kind of tracking and evidencebased...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I feel much more confident now about this, and I have known Mr. Hagen for years. I used to work at the Dene-Metis Negotiations Secretariat when I first came up here in 1985. The agreement that came out of that was to set up an integrated resource management system, the MVRMA is the implementation part of that, and I agree fully that that's what we should be pursuing. So I'm much more confident now than I was before I arrived in the Chamber today. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's all I've got on this section. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I sort of expected to hear that. I guess, even before I became an MLA, this was a concern that I raised with devolution, that there needed to be a time, you know, maybe after five years or even three years or something, to start to look at the implementation of devolution and how it has actually worked out.

This Department of Lands is a creature of devolution, quite frankly. A piece was taken from MACA and a few other little bits thrown together, but I think we need to start to think about evaluating how devolution has actually gone. Certainly, it was a concern that I...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I believe this is the section where we would find the closure of the Beaufort Delta Legal Aid Clinic. Is that correct? Thanks, Mr. Chair.