Rylund Johnson

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...

Madam Chair, I show some frustration on that. The department has done a lot of work on the EPA and the Waters Act and has spent thousands of dollars working with Indigenous governments and stakeholders. It's in the business plan, and I'm now hearing that we're waiting on the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act, which operates on federal timelines. Is that also the case for the Air regulations, that we will then have to delay the Air regulations pending the MVRMA?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps trying not to rehash the entire debate about the tourism act and whether it has accomplished its goals. I think the problem with going to NWT tourism is that part of the reason we brought the tourism act in was to get a lot of people licensed who weren't licensed. I know that's still a problem. I have constituents who run tourism operating businesses who are not licensed and probably don't want to go talk to ITI. As part of that view there, can the Minister look to how we are bringing people into the licensing scheme? Charging them $500 doesn't help. s I will...

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's hard to get past me. My first question is: my understanding is that the $3,800,000 we see for SEED this year is actually quite oversubscribed and that we have found some internal money within and managed to spend more than is in the budget, for which I am very happy. I think SEED is one of our best programs and probably is some of the best return on investment we get for creating business in the NWT. Can I get an updated figure of how much we have disbursed in SEED funding over this last fiscal year? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have no doubt that there are spinoff economic benefits from a large southern paddle company or a hunting outfitter coming up here and running their lodge. I actually talk to a lot of the lodge owners who run them seasonally, and they're great businesses. I just question the justification for us actually giving them money, especially when a lot of them are historically quite competitive in running good programs. I look forward to seeing those numbers. I have made this request before. On to another point, though, we waived the $500 tourism operator licence fee for this...

I'm actually not all that concerned about the tendering of the licences, but I have been previously told that this was one of the barriers to adding a satellite station in downtown Yellowknife. I will get to the point. Is the Minister willing to implement the option of, whether it be a reverse vending machine or a drop-and-go or a partial-hours, some sort of way that those with mobility issues can drop their recycling off downtown and get money for it?

Thank you, Madam Chair. One last comment: I actually like seeing these line items of Mineral and Petroleum Resources Act implementation and when a department goes out and creates a unit and staffs it and makes it very clear. I would encourage all other Ministers, when you have large pieces of legislation or regulations to implement, make a unit, give a manager with that title. It creates clear accountability, and it creates clear funding. It also kind of shows where a government's priorities are at. I'm not sure this aligns with my priorities, but I think this means people aren't doing things...