Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Perhaps I'm a little less stubborn than my colleague from Frame Lake, but I share many of his sentiments. Ultimately, I will be voting in favour of this capital budget. I think there are a number of problems, but I believe our Cabinet and our government are aware of them. One I would like to see addressed is some of the smaller infrastructure at times. I'm happy to see that $2.5 million for our municipal funding gap, but we know there is plenty of more work to do. The Department of Infrastructure's deferred maintenance budget is growing every single year, I think...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. And now to the most important motion, the one that adjourns this House until February 3rd. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, November 5, 2020, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, February 3, 2021;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to February 3, 2021, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, or...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I am a little frustrated. The way I see this, there are three options. One, we contract with Dettah, and we make sure that a fire hall that has struggled to get insurance and get a full crew of volunteers happens by April 1st; two, we contract with the City of Yellowknife, who has been extremely resistant to providing services; or, three, in the next few months, we construct a fire hall on the Ingraham Trail, which also seems extremely impossible. My question for the Minister is: what is the plan to make sure fire services continue on the Ingraham Trail? Thank you...

On my first set of questions, the Minister said there was presently a working group and that we were dealing with the City of Yellowknife. My question is: has an offer been made to the City of Yellowknife of what they would need to continue fire services for the Ingraham Trail?

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I've got a refusal to do a feasibility assessment. I've got a refusal to do a roadmap. Can I get something from the Minister that he can give me an idea of what we think it would cost because I honestly don't know? I don't know if there's already enough money that we could roll this out tomorrow or whether it is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Can we do some preliminary costing, Madam Speaker?

Numerous studies have said that the biggest issue for implementing a guaranteed basic income is actually jurisdictional; it's getting the federal money streams to line up with the provinces and territories. I know every time the federal government rolls out a new program, we in income assistance have to go change and see whether we are going to include it or not, is the first decision. Then we have to recalculate the seniors' subsidy; sometimes, pensions get involved; sometimes, income assistance gets involved. It causes this bureaucratic mess of programs not aligning. The federal government...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would also like to recognize Debbie Molloy. She does great work as the President and CEO of WSCC but also great work as a Yellownife North constituent. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I do view this as a tool that ultimately allows many of our public servants, the majority of which are in Yellowknife, to get into our communities to work with Indigenous governments. I believe partnerships could work the other way, where we bring Indigenous governments, employees into the public service. I think we in this House agree that self-government is the future, but we also need to build that agreement and understanding within both bureaucracies. My question for the Minister of Finance is: is she willing to put together something and reach out to our Indigenous governments and make...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I appreciate my colleague, the Member for Deh Cho, bringing up the history of this because I think the Affirmative Action Policy is a white elephant. A white elephant is a possession that its maintenance is out of proportion to its usefulness. The Affirmative Action Policy, after decades, has failed to deliver on its promises. Indigenous employment remains at 30 percent. Even P2s, which are unconstitutional according to various reports, have not increased. They remain at 12 percent in the GNWT. I think what's happened is: consecutive GNWT governments have looked at...

Yes. I'm glad to hear that. I think part of my reason for talking about this is just so that everyone in the public service listening, knows that they can go to their management and asked to be placed in an Indigenous government for a period of time, that they can go into the communities and get first-hand experience because, as much as I think cultural awareness training is a step in the right direction, there's really nothing that replaces going to work for an Indigenous government and seeing their struggles. Is the Minister willing, as part of our whole public service renewal and a number...