Kevin O'Reilly

I thank the Minister for his response. I think it's an easy, quick thing that we might be able to do to at least start us down that path, so I appreciate his commitment there. I am wondering, though, about phased introduction of 911 service. One study proposal is to expand the dispatch centre already in place for the City of Yellowknife, and in fact, in the Yukon, Whitehorse introduced 911, and it was rolled out to the communities. Will the Minister consider that sort of option here for the Northwest Territories?

Great. Thanks. I'm quite familiar with what CIMP is all about, so glad to see those federal dollars continuing to flow. The next question I had was about the environment fund. This is something I had some direct experience with, because I used to be on an advisory committee for the Minister on this. It looked like at the end of 2015 16 that the fund was actually in a deficit position of $356,000, but we are looking at making that up in the next year. I just want to ask the Minister if that's correct and what sort of actions are being undertaken there to bring it back into positive revenue...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, who holds responsibilities for community emergency measures and response. My first question to the Minister is: what are the phone numbers for the police and fire department and ambulance service in Yellowknife? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I note here in this departmental budget and some of the others that there is funding shown for implementation for a number of the agreements with Aboriginal governments for the Tlicho implementation. It varies quite a bit from one year to the next, so I'm just wondering what's going on. Is that part of the original contribution agreement, or is it based on some sort of level of activity or work that's being done? I'm just wondering if the department might have some explanation here that would help me. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate your efforts at chairing this meeting. I appreciate the response from the Minister. Why I am raising this is that I have had representatives from both Dechinta and College nordique contact me in an effort to try to find out the status of these submissions. That is why I am pressuring the Minister to find out what is going on with the proposals. I understand he has now committed to getting back to them within a week or so and that is great. If the response is that those proposals will be considered in the context of developing an action plan, that is fine...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions to follow up on my colleague from Kam Lake. It is my understanding that Dechinta and College nordique have submitted proposals to the department for core funding to help them get established. I think those proposals have been in with the department for several months now. I am just wondering whether the department has responded to those proposals and what that response might be or when we can expect to get our responses. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks Mr. Chair. I just want to indulge the Minister. I think I may have asked this question yesterday, but I see that the contributions in particular, there's a line item here, literacy funding and there's a rather large amount of $2.3 million. Presumably this is some funding that the NWT Literacy Council would be able to access or maybe is accessing. Can the Minister confirm for me that the GNWT's not looking at making any reductions in funding to the NWT Literacy Council? Thanks, Mr. Chair. This might be project-based, but if there's core funding being provided to the organization, is the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm a little confused now if I wasn't before. There's the Canada Child Benefit, the NWT Child Benefit. Do we have to change our Income Tax Act to ensure that people can take full advantage of both of those benefits and when would those changes actually legally come into effect? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Might we see a conservation areas act, or whatever it gets called, move forward before the end of this financial year, and the Forestry Act as well? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I know that I've asked the Minister some questions about indexing of income assistance over the last week, and there was some further discussion of that to increase that appropriately even here in the House today. I understand that there has to be changes brought in, legislative changes, in terms of the NWT Child Benefit, the Canada Child Benefit, but when I look at our schedule, it looks like that legislation's probably not going to get into the House until October or November, and presumably at the end of that session we might need the Commissioner to sign off on it, so...