Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Firstly I would like to thank MLA Martselos for bringing this point of privilege. I want to begin by explaining a bit of procedural issues for those who are watching.

This current point of privilege is not the sole adjudicator's report, it is not the motion recommended in that, this is a point of privilege to anything that was outside of the four corners of the report and as such we should not be speaking about what was within the terms of reference of that report. However, I do think that it is important that this point of privilege is raised so that the entire context...

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today. That is the motion for mandatory vaccination, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted.

The motion of requirement of proof of full vaccination by Members of the Legislative Assembly, I will read this again, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS COVID-19 is a communicable disease which has and continues to put the lives and livelihoods of residents of the Northwest Territories at risk;

AND WHEREAS the chief public health officer of the Northwest Territories has recommended that all eligible residents become fully...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Wednesday, November 24th, 2021, I will move the following motion: Now therefore, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Hay River North, that each Member of this Legislative Assembly must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 prior to attending and participating in a sitting of this House, its committees, or any proceeding of the Assembly.

And further, that a Member who is fully vaccinated where two weeks have passed since the person's final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine approved by Health Canada has been administered.

And furthermore, that Members must...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that. I think that was almost a yes, and it even led into a bit my next question.

Mr. Speaker, I really do believe there is potential to leverage this money we're being spent by getting creative with our leasing portfolio, by approaching Indigenous dev. corps and saying listen, if you want to build us a building or buy an asset, we will give you the long term lease. They can go and then finance such a project. We could do a similar thing to nonprofits with the 160 housing units we presently rent from one landlord. Why don't we distribute that to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, a new seating plan. Mr. Speaker, as I've spoken about before in this House, there is a rental monopoly by Northview in our town, our city of Yellowknife. Going back to the history, this is largely something that was created by the GNWT. In fact, the original founders of Northview were former GNWT civil servants who took advantage of government contracts. In time, as with many of these REITS, they got bought up and became larger and larger to a point where approximately 50 percent, as Northview advertises of the rental space in our town, is owned by one company, and our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So of those 16.5 percent of people who applied for GNWT jobs who were eligible to appeal, when I look and try to figure out exactly what the grounds of an appeal could be or within the process, I have a hard time let alone those people who just didn't get a job, Mr. Speaker. So my question for the Minister of Finance is what information is provided to an unsuccessful candidate who would be eligible for appeal, at 16.5 percent, to help them formulate and understand the grounds of an appeal. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I bring up my concerns about human resources today, I want to acknowledge that the vast majority of GNWT hiring is fair, it succeeds in getting the best candidate for the job, and that our HR staff are hard-working and do care about increasing  creating an inclusive public service. Human resources is not an easy profession, and I thank the staff for their work. However, Mr. Speaker, as an MLA, people don't complain to me about successful hiring. They come to me with HR processes that fail. And, Mr. Speaker, our human resources program must be about building trust...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know the Minister has spoken to this in the House, and I understand the reality that it's cheaper for ECE to put people in public housing than give them the rental accommodation allowance, but you know, that's  I think net overall, it is a  it's more expensive to not have people housed, and we know there are about 900 people on our housing waitlist who are costing the government money by being in the shelter program, by being in transitional housing, by picking up the slack in other areas. So I think a wholeofgovernment approach is to get everyone housed. And one of the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe right now the Housing Corp rents about 200 units, and it rents it off of very large southern landlords. I propose that those lease agreements would be suited with Indigenous governments and nonprofits or northern people in the private sector. So I know a number of Indigenous governments have wanted to take on housing, but the O&M proves a barrier. So the more that the GNWT can enter into longterm lease agreements with Indigenous governments, the more security they can have in O&M and taking over their housing for their citizens. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my knowledge, there are very few, if any, bilingualrequired positions in the GNWT where the bilingual is an Indigenous language. There are a number of bilingualrequired HR positions that are French. And I know there is a bilingual bonus for people who speak one of our official languages but I think, really, in the HR hiring process, especially for an area such as the Indigenous Languages and Education Secretariat, those Members who speak an Indigenous language are not getting the appropriate credit and additional scoring on priority on their applications within hiring...