Robert C. McLeod

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, as I said before that, where possible, we will make some amendments that might need to be made right away. I think the overall amalgamation of the two acts is going to be a very large piece of work. We will be more than happy to provide committee an update. As I committed to Member Beaulieu, we would be more than happy to give committee an update with all the work that we have going on, including an update on the Commissioner and Territorial Lands Act. It is going to be a huge undertaking.

What we would like to do is try to get some amendments in there to help...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct. There was, I think, eight of the ten jurisdictions that signed on to the enhancements to the Canada Pension Plan. One had to take it back to their government to have a conversation with them, and Quebec has their own Quebec Pension Plan. The Member's question is about what our position was. Unfortunately, we don't have a vote at the table. It is just the seven provinces. They allowed the ten provinces to have some input into this. I think it is two-thirds and the NWT, Nunavut, and Yukon don't have a vote at the table. Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We actually had two of the positions were vacant and we had three that were filled, so we determined that we would use those three positions that were filled, move them here. I think, at the end of the day, our goal would be to have all five regions staffed and with folks that we'll have them trained up to do a lot of the work that's required. Because my understanding is that a lot of the work now is just being forwarded to headquarters. So, if we can get them trained up and then build up their capacity, that they can go back to the region and possibly build up the...

I don't have that level of detail right now, but I will provide it to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

An evaluation is currently under way and the report will be provided to MLAs, and I can say from personal experience, having the MACA file and dealing with the Youth Ambassador Program since 2008, I've seen first-hand the benefits and a lot of the Youth Ambassador alumni that are actually doing quite well. We actually had some at the NWT Association of Communities AGM that was held a couple of months ago, and the feedback that we got from them, that they were so interested in municipal politics that they may consider a run for municipal politics in the future, or as early as this fall. We're...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. It's fully funded under the Department of Lands budget.

I am going to have to apologize to Mr. O'Reilly. I didn't quite hear the question. I apologize for that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Youth Ambassador Program is, in my opinion, one of the most important programs that we run within the Government of the Northwest Territories, and I think we will see some long-term benefits of the program. We've retained a consultant to complete an evaluation of the Youth Ambassador Program to provide suggestions on how we can improve this program in future years. The review is actually going to cover all ten years of the program's operations, and once the evaluation has been completed, the department will be in a position to consider program enhancements.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we are looking at the two acts and if there's any amendments to either act which would strengthen our position then we'll be looking at making some amendments and in the longer term going towards legislation, but I think that's going to be an enormous piece of work. So if we can make any amendments to strengthen the acts to our benefit then we will do that in the short-term with a longer term goal of eventually amalgamating both acts. I'm not sure we'll see the amalgamation in the life of this Assembly but I'm sure we'll start some preliminary work. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think the total reduction was $636,000 if I am not mistaken. It was for utilities, fuel costs for inspections program, restricted base funding for inspection response to spills. We withdrew a couple of positions. Then these Commissioner’s senior lands officers function in headquarters, we have reduced it from five to three positions. I think that is the total of the $636,000. Then we have one sunset of $80,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.