Rylund Johnson

I am happy to hear that. Would this policy similarly allow more flexibility in hours, such that if a worker wants to work later, on weekends or evenings. Perhaps we could get the Department of Motor Vehicles open on weekends if our workers were a little more flexible. Will the plan include that, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have seen significant change to the way we do work during this pandemic. We have seen parents juggling both childcare and their jobs, virtual care being delivered from back porches, and work emails delivered in the middle of the night. I, myself, have practically moved my office into my constituency assistant's living room.

If the work week doesn't change as a result of the last few months, we'll have learned nothing, Mr. Speaker. I am not just talking about within government, but globally. Two lessons I believe we should take away from the recent response to COVID-19...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to seeing the continued work on the long-term care review. I think we already know what it's going to say, is that, despite the beds in the capital plan, which I fully support, there are simply not enough for the rate that our population is aging. I wanted to get a sense of going forward, this budget line item, long-term care and supported living. As we bring each of these new long-term care facilities on board, do we have any projected financials of what this line item would increase or the increased costs as we bring those units online? If I could get a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that, and I will pester my other colleagues in Cabinet to try and get you some more policy staff. In the interim, to me, one of the hearts of a guaranteed basic income is allowing people to work and have that income not be penalized. I recognize that, in Section 21 of the regulations, there is a formula for how people are penalized as they earn income on Income Assistance.

Right now, I believe this punishment is disincentivizing people from working, especially if you're also in public housing. By the time it comes around, if you've been earning a little bit...

I appreciate that answer from the Minister, and I do recognize that the seniors and disability streams, the goal of those programs is not to get people back into the workforce. I do think, at the heart, both a guaranteed basic income and income assistance's goal is to get people into the workforce, but on their own terms.

I previously asked questions to the Minister regarding looking into a pilot project for a guaranteed basic income, and he said we simply don't have the policy staff. Given we are now in a global pandemic and entering into one of the largest economic recessions of any of our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In this House, we have the honour of debating and discussing some of the larger policy ideas. One you will hear me speak about over the next three years is a universal basic income.

Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate that, despite the fact that I talk about this large, very lofty program that would change the nature of government and society, and it's a program I fundamentally believe in, I don't believe, since we're having that debate, that all other conversations around social assistance programs are just kind of put on hold. One of my concerns is that I recognize that a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, a report authored by Andrew Robinson and Lachlan MacLean entitled "Climate Emergency: Getting the NWT Off Diesel, Cost-effective investments to reduce the NWT greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent within five years." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I recognize that, perhaps, times when I say it can be implemented tomorrow, the program delivery model still needs to be there, and it will take some time, and I appreciate that many of the hard-working ECE staff have been redeployed. I guess that was almost a yes that the Minister is willing to work with me and have some of these further conversations. I'm concerned that he feels he doesn't have the policy staff in the department right now. What efforts are being made such that the department has the staff who can actually develop a program or a roadmap so that we can have a meaningful...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke earlier today about a guaranteed basic income, but I would like to start by focusing on what the closest program we have to that in the Northwest Territories is, income assistance. My question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: is our current Income Assistance Program working? Are people actually incentivized to get a job, or is it simply just keeping people in a cycle of poverty? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The reason I ask this question is because I have no doubt that those eight people who are trained in epidemiology, this is the most important time in their career, and the most important time for the decisions they are making for all of our residents. A lot of that has been behind closed doors, and I haven't seen a lot of that data today. I think there is sometimes a hesitation on the part of scientists to give data to people like myself, who have no idea what to do with it. I was hoping the Minister could commit to bringing forward some sort of report of modelling, the data we have, an idea...