Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I just want to as well echo what my colleagues from Yellowknife had said, is that and, you know, these are mental health dollars as far as I'm concerned as well. You know, we're coming out of a pandemic and, you know, we know that there's there's issues out there. And, you know, when I look at this COVID relief funding and, you know, it's not there anymore and now is when we actually need it to, you know, promote sports and get people back back, you know, playing hockey, skiing, you know, jogging, whatever, biking, you name it. And, you know, it this money...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to go to the infrastructure, community infrastructure gap as well.

You know, it when I look at it and, you know, and I think about how it's we're ever going to close it, it sounds like we're not going to be looking to the feds, really, to provide any support, and it sounds like the department doesn't really think that the feds can provide the support that's required. But I find it I guess it's unreasonable to place that burden on taxpayers when in the North here, it's bad enough that the cost of living is high and it's only going to get higher as we go...

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, they're going through a review process and that's to figure out what's going to happen in the future. I'm not asking the Minister to tell me what's going to happen in the future but to just give me some idea of the criteria that's used to you know, moving forward in how they're doing the review. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to go to the line item there, senior citizens and disabled person's property tax relief.

The community of Hay River has a large number of seniors. And one of the issues that came up was this tax relief program and, you know, they heard that I think that there was possibly going to be a review, and I think a lot of them or some of them took it to mean that they were it was going to be discontinued. And what I'd like I guess is for the Minister to just explain to me I guess how this program works? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, I'm glad that, you know, that something's happening and, you know, one area that we could probably, you know, do something with and I think this has been alluded to is that the Office of the Fire Marshal, when you look at, you know, how much money we put into it, well, we know it's probably understaffed and that you know, and I know it takes a while to you know, to review documents. So we either got to put more money into it or, you know, farm some of that out, which it sounds like we might be doing because our or building seasons are short. The price of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess that's where the confusion lies, is that, you know, we put the onus on the Office of the Fire Marshal and legislation there. And so, you know, when I look at what the fire marshal does, I thought it was kind of just related to, you know, anything that to do with fire aspect of it. But it goes on it goes on to into getting into the structural design and all that as well, which people are which I know which which companies are kind of having a problem with because what's happening is that, you know, architects, structural engineers who are doing designs, you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we need to be bold if we want to see change. So I ask the Minister, will the Minister commit to a temporary suspension of the Affirmative Action Policy and departmental targets and replace it with a oneyear moratorium on nonIndigenous hires and transfers throughout this government in favour of a focus on Indigenous recruitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And now 30 years later, will the Minister commit to finding workable solutions to overcome those barriers? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, prior to 1989, this government recognized an inequity with respect to Indigenous representation in the GNWT public sector. In an attempt to address that inequity, the government of the day drafted the Affirmative Action Policy. It was a spirited attempt to place Indigenous people into the public sector workforce.

Mr. Speaker, I had the opportunity to discuss that intent with one of the original drafters. He explained to me that the intent was to increase Indigenous representation, period. Through vetting and additional drafting revisions, the objective...

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, and I'm glad that, you know, that's happening. And, you know, I just wanted him to, you know, come and say that again so people hear it. And, you know, we need to look at a you know, we people like to see timelines because we're always, well, we're working on it but, you know, we come up with something, and, you know, it might it probably won't happen this Assembly. Maybe it'll happen next one, the one after that, I don't know. But I think that what's going to happen here is we're just going to see that that gap ever increasing. And, you know, it's going...