Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to pick up where my colleague from Monfwi just left off almost in terms of income assistance. But so my question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

The federal House of Commons announced two cash benefits to offset the impacts of the large increases in the inflation rate. These were passed I think about ten days ago in the House of Commons, Mr. Speaker. Benefits include the onetime doubling of the GST rebate to low income citizens and a onetime $500 benefit for low income renters. So I would like to ask the Minister if he and his staff...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I think the way that the motion had currently read was that it was a requirement that it be established, and it might require as much as $90,000. What this does is amend the Members' handbook, which currently reads, in section 114, and I'm just going quote this, "Members representing constituencies in Yellowknife are not entitled to a second constituency office in addition to the one provided in the Legislative Assembly building."

So with that current clause in the Members' handbook, there's a prohibition on Yellowknife MLAs having an office outside. So the purpose of...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. Look, our government just can't hide in the weeds forever on this. As several Indigenous governments and the Chamber of Mines have already written to the federal minister, I've written to the federal minister with views on the regional study, and I think it's fair to say that all the parties actually support this in one way or another. So, you know, and the Minister said that our government supports participant funding; that's great. But in the letter that was submitted, it also said that no ongoing projects should be...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I hear the words from my colleagues who are Yellowknife MLAs and, okay, both in the last Assembly and in this Assembly, I tried to get the Yellowknife MLAs to work together to actually open up an office outside of the Legislative Assembly. Clearly I was unsuccessful. The Yellowknife MLAs did not want to work together to do that, and I regret that decision. But, you know, I think this building is quite intimidating to come into. You have to clear through security. You have to set up a specific time to come and see your MLA. This is not exactly a userfriendly place for...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Lands.

The Tlicho government asked for a regional study of the socalled Slave Geological Province Corridor over a year ago, and a large workshop was held in June of this year. Can the Minister of Lands give us an update on the current status of proposed regional study? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, thanks, Madam Chair. I agree with my colleague from Yellowknife North on this. In the last Assembly, we worked pretty hard to ensure that our constituency assistants, they're now eligible for, you know, different kind of benefits. And we worked hard to try to promote them as employees here within the they're not within the civil service but trying to make sure that we could find some ways to keep our constituency assistants as well. I can tell you that I pay my constituency assistant more than $25 an hour, and I think they deserve a living wage, and this is probably in about the...

Thanks, Madam Chair. So I've been here for two Assemblies, and I can tell the public that this already happens. This is the case. You know, in the orientation Members are made aware of their options for pensions. There's a deadline. You get a reminder. This already happens. But I'm okay with accepting this but I can tell you from practice it already happens. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So I would encourage members of the public to actually read the report from the commission, particularly on this area. You know, we budget $30,000 a year as an Assembly to provide child care expense reimbursement for those Members that have children. And we worked very hard in the last Assembly to try to make this place more family friendly and to encourage young people to run for office and to make sure that they had the ability to participate and, you know, get child care expenses covered given the duties and the time and travel that it takes sometimes to be an MLA...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I think this was probably the result of perhaps just a misunderstanding on the part of the Commission Members. The Board of Management doesn't determine committee membership. And the balance, that's really up to the Regular MLAs ourselves to do with regard to the standing committees. We do that work, and we do it you know, we've done it a couple of times, more than that even in the lifetime of this Assembly, where we've had Members new Members arrive as a result of byelections and we just kind of assess people's interests and then assign people. People can...

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. Just for the benefit of the public, if this fund is established I guess it will be up to the Board of Management to develop some rules around how it's allocated and, you know, ideas around whether it's first come first served, or there's some set aside for each MLA on application. I have confidence that the Board of Management will develop some rules around those, and those will come back to the MLAs to have a look at. I do want to make sure that access to this is done in a fair manner and that, you know, those that may not be that there might be some assistance in...