Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. We'll look forward to that in 2018. I had one other matter I wanted to pursue. It's the Safe Advantage program, which I think is run through our Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission. I think, overall, GNWT has had some problems with our compliance and ratings and have had to pay a number of fines in the past as a result of, I guess, our not very good performance. What kind of assurance can the Minister provide? Or tell us what's happening in terms of the Safe Advantage program. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think this is the right section. I'm just wondering if our witnesses can tell us what's happening with safe disclosure legislation, which is also known as whistleblower protection. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for helping me make the case for indexing of income assistance payments. I'm wondering, though, if he could commit to looking at this issue within the next year and bringing that back to the appropriate committee.

Mahsi. We've put one of the Ministers at the end of the row to work today, and I'd like to work with the other Minister opposite at the end of the row. Earlier today I did commend the government for the changes that they've made to income assistance, but I'd like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment whether income assistance payments were increased or not on April 1, 2016, and why.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I will speak today about some of the least advantaged, and unfortunately, least politically influential people in our society, those on income assistance. First, I want to congratulate the Cabinet on its decision announced in the budget address that income from the Canada Child Benefit, and the Northwest Territories Child Benefit, and spousal support will be excluded in the calculation of income assistance payments. I also applaud the announcement of amendments to the NWT Income Tax Act to enhance the NWT Child Benefit, including different benefit amounts for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll take the Minister up on his offer and put together some thoughts on this and pass those back to him because I think there are ways that we could ensure that we can maintain confidence in our staffing process by ensuring that we have a fair appeal process. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister for being so open and transparent.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I heard a mouse in the Chamber squeaking something from over there.

---Laughter

I think the Minister wants to take an early weekend, but I think this is the place where I should be asking questions about staffing appeals. What I find difficult in this process is we've already been through the business plans, there has been some really good discussion back and forth, and then we get a completely different document that I guess is not really as detailed or well laid out as the business plans, but we're trying to probe and get some issues onto the table. It's not...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That's certainly good news to hear that we passed this year and that there were no fines because, of course, as we want to set a good example as one of the main employers in the Northwest Territories and particularly as a public government. I presume that there's some sort of report that will come through this evaluation. Can the Minister commit to provide that report to the House? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. When can we expect to see the amendments to the Public Service Act come forward? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi. I do appreciate the Minister's commitment on that and I look forward to sitting in on the committee work on that particular issue. I do note, though, that we have a number of other income support systems in place where payments are made to families and individuals. I'm wondering if the Minister could commit to review whether we should be incorporating indexing into all of those programs as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.