Rylund Johnson

Mr. Speaker, I want to begin by thanking the Minister of Finance for her budget address last week. I also want to thank all of my colleagues for their dedication and hard work over the last year. We executed a model response to a pandemic, and, with vaccines well distributed, relief is in sight. Our Cabinet and public servants can hold their heads high in our response to COVID-19.

Mr. Speaker, it's hard to disagree with much of the new-initiative spending in this budget: $1.7 million for a small business tax cut which brings us in line with other jurisdictions and is most certainly needed for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Another one of the issues that I hear from Indigenous governments and negotiating tables is the NWT development of core principles and objectives. I think often, at the self-government table, Indigenous governments want to simply draw down power and not have service standards by GNWT for how they would then exercise that jurisdiction. I don't believe this government has updated the core principles and objectives since the last one. Is there any intention to do that or to let governments draw down powers and then, maybe after we have an agreement, work on what we believe...

Thank you, Madam Chair. One of the other mandate things is that we will review, update, and publish territorial principles and interests to reflect the GNWT's new priorities and mandate, and then, in spring 2021, we are expecting principles and interests to be updated and published. Can I just get clarification on what principles and interests are? Is there an existing document that sets out our principles and interests? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm happy to hear that, and I recognize that one step, as I said previously, is getting the portal. The whole other step is populating it, and how we actually start to publish and release our data. I have a few more questions about the eServices portal in that I think we've got some of the low-hanging fruit in fishing licences, the DVM, which is already online, kind of moving that into one place. I believe there are going to be healthcare cards, marriage certificates; some basic information was in there.

Ultimately, what I would really like is this information shared...

I look forward to bringing up this issue in the next Assembly as it was brought up in the last, as well. I understand we are now shopping for a new electronic medical records system. I heard that was 2023. Can the Minister commit that as part of going out and purchasing a new system, an online patient portal will be part of that system?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking back, I support the creation of ISSS, and in many ways, I actually do not think it went far enough in that, still, when I want to ask questions about data, I notice the corporate information management is in Infrastructure, and they have been taking years to get all of our departments on DIIMS; when I want to ask questions about ATIPP and trying to figure out that, I go to Justice; when I want to ask questions about open data, the policy actually lies with EIA, so despite a lot of resistance, perhaps just some centralization of information systems. I still do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In November, I passed a motion in this House asking the Northwest Territories health system to stop using fax machines to send health records. This is from a 2018 report where the Chief Information and Privacy Commissioner asked the same thing. There have been numerous breaches over the years, including some egregious ones such as health records being sent to CBC North in 2010 and 2012.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that the Minister in the reply can finally put an end to us sending health records. However, Mr. Speaker, there is a lot more to do in the area of electronic medical...

Thank you, Madam Chair. In the department's business plan and in the mandate, there are a number of issues related to increasing capacity in the healthcare system, and there is a specific health recruitment unit. Can I just get clarification whether that lies in the Department of Finance HR or in Health and Social Services? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That's unfortunate. We seem to be stuck in this never-ending cycle of getting a notice to bargain and then bargaining taking years so we can never amend the Public Service Act, and then we get another notice to bargain.

Is it possible to seek agreement from the union to bring the act forward even while there is a notice of bargain or to make the change that allows us to bring the act forward despite that happening? I'm just trying to see if there is a workaround with the union's consent because they themselves have identified some changes that that they would like for...

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Lastly, we are projected to go over our debt ceiling. I recognize we're not anywhere near our five percent overall debt servicing finances of Fiscal Responsibility Policy, but I think that number is a little skewed in that we fund half of our infrastructure usually with debt, and then we switch to P3s. The full amount that we actually owe under P3s given the contractual obligations isn't really reflected as debt, and I think this is creating an incentive for us to use P3s. It seems every project over $50 million, we're going to use as a P3, which means we're going...