Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. This consultant seems to have already concluded the NWT is doing just fine with regard to its competitiveness and royalty regime. Can the Minister explain what this consultant has been asked to do and when that consultant's work will be made public? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. And thanks for that from the Minister. I guess yeah, I get that there's money for this but what I think you need to do is to change the messaging a little bit. Probably more than a little bit. But you want to instill some confidence and rebuild some trust here that there is more money for day home operators, for child cares, and it's coming. And some of that needs to be coming out of this budget. And you need to make that the message now, because you're restricting their ability to raise money, you're also increasing their costs. You're not telling them that you're going...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Yesterday I spoke on attempts by this government to engage the public and mining industry on mining royalties. Other work on mining royalties came to my attention when there was a presentation at the November 2022 geoscience forum by a consultant apparently hired by ITI. This consultant is the same one who conducted a ninepage peer review of the Price Waterhouse Coopers benchmarking study that found that GNWT is doing just fine with royalties and taxes from mining. That peer review was in agreement with the benchmarking study and its conclusion that the NWT is...

Okay, thanks for that. So has the department actually done an analysis to say gee, you know, as a sector, they've reduced income with the capping of the fees as X amount and the increased expenditures is Y amount, because of the training requirements, certification, the pay grid that's going to come in, so we need to increase it by Z amount. Have we calculated X, Y, Z? Thanks and does X plus Y equal Z. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. So over on page 44, the contributions, the last item supporting childhood inclusion child inclusion and participation, and it shows $1.7 million. I just want to verify what the uptake for that program is and whether it's actually oversubscribed in any way. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Okay, thanks. Yeah, that's helpful to understand. So I think I've asked this question before maybe but GNWT has quite an extensive inventory of artwork, you know, across, you know, in different buildings. There's some in this building. There's some really cool stuff actually in the Caucus room. But I don't think we actually have an inventory of all of this artwork and some of it is of tremendous value, dollar value, not to mention heritage value. Is there an inventory of this, and what's the role of ECE in preparing an inventory?

Yeah, okay, thanks. Maybe something for the transition plan. Of course I know the last time I asked the Minister this, I think it was close to a visit, about changing the name of the facility, which seemed to be tied to actually fixing it up. So are we ever going to change the name of it? And as I understand now, there's no obstacles in the way, there's no protocol stuff, we can just change the name to something that's more reflective of northern culture and heritage. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thanks, and I agree with that assessment. I'm just a little bit concerned that we haven't found a way to extend that benefit, in particular to our students that are born here and largely educated here. And I would suggest that the department make another run at that and try to do that because I think yeah, I think that's the right thing to do. We want to encourage all the students that go to schools here to go off and get as much education as they can and come back and stay here. And I think we want to try to eliminate barriers. So I'll just leave it at that, Mr. Chair. Thanks.

Thanks, Madam Chair. It's one of my favourite parts of the ECE budget. I understood that there was some kind of revenue study being done for the museum. Can I get an update as to what happened with that? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks. It was almost like a Minister's statement. All good news. No, seriously, that's good stuff.

I have had one Yellowknife resident who is nonIndigenous ask about why the removal of the 12 semester limit for basic grants is only being done for Indigenous students. Have you looked at is that federal money or why is it limited to Indigenous students? Thanks, Mr. Chair.