Rylund Johnson

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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the priorities of this Assembly was to increase food security to locally produced, harvested, and affordable food. There was a number of mandate commitments made in there. And my experience as a Member is that that mandate item is presently the responsibility of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Health and Social Services, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Lands. And I've asked many questions about food security, and I've found it very difficult to try and get those departments to coordinate on the importance of this issue...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, and the Minister is correct. In 2018, the Standing Committee on Government Operations recommended that some plain language documents would be provided. And I'm glad to hear that committee recommendation has been followed through with. So thank you to the department for that.

Mr. Speaker, when I was looking for the last major analysis on the GNWT's human resources practices, I had to go back 20 years to Grant Thorne, a law office, and the consultants then found that the appeal process is perceived as not conducive to an independent and fair hearing and it leads to a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I want to begin by focusing on the staffing appeals process. And I've read the staffing appeals process guidelines a couple times, and as far as I can tell, they are so narrow that the vast majority of applicants don't even have access to an appeal. So my first question is, what percentage of people who apply on GNWT jobs are eligible for an appeal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Here's what CBC published in an analysis piece about this plan: Most of the plan is firmly focused on the government's own operations. For an economic recovery plan, it includes remarkably little discussion of the future of the economy.

This is what the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce had to say about the plan: The inclusion of vague action items like "seek to assist" the tourism, aviation, construction, hospitality and mining sectors to position for survival and eventual rebound fails to inspire confidence in our current government's ability to support the economy...

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess just stepping back, a number of jurisdictions have provided rebates for staycations where if you go on, you know, a staycation in the territory, you send in your receipts and the government gives you a 20 percent or some percent rebate. And the reason I like this model is it encourages tourism within the territory; it encourages, you know, some competition to still remain in the market so that we're not just subsidizing people who have essentially shuttered their doors to a breakeven point. It allows operators to actually exist with some revenue. And I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'll save some of my questions for Dr. Kandola when we can reopen the Yellowknife DMV.

During COVID, the DMV was completely closed for a period. But they were actually offered more and more services online and some of the traditional inperson services were being done by email. I guess my question to the Minister of Infrastructure is what is preventing all services from being offered online? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.