Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Glad to hear that it's not dependent on the MVRMA. I recognize that we have developed a new IGCS protocol and we're trying to honour our commitment to a co-drafting process, and I'm happy to hear that. Can I just get an update on whether we expect that to change the timeline for introduction as in the business plan? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see there is approximately a $600,000 increase to contract services. Can I have an explanation of what that is for?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can I get some information on this $25,000 for adaptation plans? It seems to be lacking a little bit in that there is no shortage of work to be done to make sure all of our communities and regional governments are prepared for climate change adaptation. Can I get some information on this fund and whether we plan to increase it? Is it subscribed to every year? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I understand that funding for the Chief Electoral Office is somewhat cyclical. If we look in 2019-2020, an election year, it's $1,486,000, and then from year to year, it's about $500 million. However, I see that there is an increase here. Can I just get an explanation why there is an increase outside of an election year? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see that there is about a $800,000, I'm doing math on the fly, decrease to conservation planning and implementation, looking at page 80, from $5,263,000 to $4,400,000. Can I just get a bit of an explanation of why we are decreasing our funding for conservation planning and implementation? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The document I'm mostly talking about is the fact that we built a giant building, and we decided not to lease it. My final question to the Minister here is: if, in fact, we are renting any of this $18 million to a non-northern landlord, will the Minister commit to conducting the cost benefit analysis of lease to own versus the policy and make sure we are not, in fact, paying a premium to any of these southern landlords? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I seem to recall there was an announcement of a number of positions across the GNWT in regard to this. Can I just get a clarification of whether there was any federal funding attached to those, and if so, how much?

That's the $18 million that I really would encourage the department to look at and see if we can make that a smaller number and give that to some northern businesses. One of my concerns is that our Leasing of Improved Real Property Policy only permits us to pay a premium to a northern business, and if we are going to rent from a southern business, it actually has to be cheaper to lease as opposed to own. I am a little concerned that, as these buildings have been sold off, resold, merged, and acquiesced over the years, we have fallen out of compliance with our own policy. My question to the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Sorry. I misunderstood that a little earlier, how exactly those positions get started. I see there are 23 staff here, but how many are actually working on the Waste Reduction Unit? I just want to get a sense of how well we're funding this. The Waste Resource Management Strategy is great; it has the potential to save us lots of money in making sure that, when we have to track how much it costs to put all of our buildings into landfills, we are doing that properly. I just want to get a sense of how many staff are actually in the Waste Reduction Unit to do that work. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Fundamental to any community's success is local ownership of land and buildings. Local landlords reinvest their rents into the community. They take more risk on local businesses, and they are key to a community's identity. However, Mr. Speaker, our capital city has a serious problem with local ownership. Thousands of our housing units and millions of dollars' worth of commercial office space are owned by southern REITs or various southern multi-billion-dollar investment funds. These landlords have long treated real estate as an investment as opposed to the offices and...