Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would like to see an increase for the Office the Public Guardian, but I guess I am even more concerned in looking at the business plan. We have asked them to do quite a bit of work, and they are already backlogged in getting people into guardianship. Is the department, somewhere else in this budget, providing policy support to that office so that they are not tasked with decreasing their wait list and completely reforming public guardianship? Are we providing policy support? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I heard the Premier say that the $34 million budgeted for this fiscal, assuming we went a full fiscal, would actually be about $6 million lower. Can I just get an updated figure of the $31 million we budgeted for the fiscal we are presently in, how much of that we got back from the federal government? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Admittedly, my understanding of why the health authority is able to run a deficit in the first place is not fully understood. Are there any plans to simply not allow them to run a deficit and then, if they needed to, come back through a supplementary appropriation process so that there is a little bit more ongoing tracking to this House? When they wrack up debt, it's not like it's a different debt; it's still the GNWT being held, and I think, at one point, we are probably going to have a conversation about whether that $120 million of debt is written off and brought into...

Thank, Mr. Speaker. I will make sure to ask questions to ENR on this matter at another time. Part of the reason for my concern is that I know many of the people on the project team and I know the work they are doing. It's great, but there is clearly an environmental focus there, as there should be within ENR. I question some of the targets in that they are targets; they are not legally binding. They are not the kind of things you would see in a socio-economic agreement, not that the ones the GNWT currently has are binding either. Is the GNWT willing to conduct some reporting of northern labour...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. I just want to start with a general comment of: I recognize main estimates are largely set by the Department of Finance and how they are set out, but this is $337 million on three pages, which makes it larger than any department. Maybe just ECE total department budget is there. I know that the reason for that is not really intentional; it's a Finance thing and how the department is organized. I think probably a look needs to be done and, when we table the budget, some more information on how we are spending $337 million be provided both to MLAs and the public...

I'm glad to hear that, and I hope, in fact, we can have our entire territory speak with one voice. I think a great way to start doing that is that there is currently a petition tabled by our MP for the territory on behalf of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation calling for an apology and compensation for Giant Mine as well as supporting the Yellowknives Dene to develop the skills necessary to work on remediation contracts as well as conduct long-term monitoring at the former site. I think this is a very reasonable petition, a reasonable ask to make sure that we do remediation right in this...

Thank you. The human resources function here, which actually lies in the Department of Finance, is being asked to do a lot of very specific health information, including recruiting nurses, travelling, staff satisfaction surveys across the department. We plan to measure the decreased caregiver distress. There are a lot of metrics to be done in human resources. It's very specialized work for health. To date, I have been concerned that, perhaps, the general HR function is not up to that, and it really should be in the Department of Health and Social Services. I want to be confident that the $6...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have been waiting patiently for this Cabinet to present its post-COVID economic recovery plan, and I'm starting to think they are at a bit of a loss. If they're looking for ideas, they have to look no further than the great constituency of Yellowknife North where $947 million will be spent over the next 18 years remediating the Giant Mine site. However, the GNWT seems to have absolved itself of any of the responsibility to capture the economic potential of the Giant Mine remediation project. This is to say nothing against the project team and ENR, who are doing an...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My understanding is that this is the unit that is kind of responsible for updating our long-term care projections. I know, in the capital budget, we passed a number, but the department is looking at adjusting some of the numbers. Also, I believe there are some lessons, perhaps, to be learned from COVID-19.

Every time we bring on a long-term care bed, obviously, there is more funding needed within the operations budget. Do we have increased funding for long-term care in this? Sorry if I'm wrong about where we would find that. Due to the capital budget requirements to build...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have asked this previously, if we can look at somehow lowering the assessment or the lease rate that agricultural leases pay. I know the lease rates are quite generous, but there are some perverse incentives here. Every time an agricultural lessee builds infrastructure, then their assessment goes up, and they end up paying more tax. There's a bit of a perverse incentive to build large greenhouses. I recognize we are only having to deal with six farms, but one day maybe that can be 12 farms.

As part of this work, can we look at a subsidized rate for agricultural leases? I...