Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I sometimes wish that I could have a federal Minister in front of me. The fact that there is $15 million and a lot of positions presently being funded by our federal government, do we have a sense of the stability of that funding? I know this is a question a federal Minister would have to answer, but is Jordan's Principle's funding going to disappear anytime? That is a huge amount flowing directly to our schools.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my concern is that, in a number of regions, I believe Jordan's Principle funding is essentially propping up our education or early childhood systems, whether it's speech therapists or educational supports. Do we presently track how much Jordan's Principle money is entering our system?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate those comments, and the standing committee will be taking out the Official Languages Act, so I look forward to continued conversations. I, ultimately, believe that we don't necessarily need to be the flow through. If the feds are willing to fund the Indigenous governments directly, that's great.

I wanted to switch gears here and talk about the line items. Arts, organizations and operations funding and the NWT arts council. There's a number of fundings for arts here. Just, generally, do we have a sense for every dollar we invest in the arts, what the return...

No, thank you, sir.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at the funding for Indigenous languages, $6,285,000. I believe this is largely flow through money to Indigenous governments to run their programming. I know there's been a number of federal increases to Indigenous languages programming. I'm just wondering if this is all GNWT money or this includes the federal funding that exists for Indigenous languages.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice, regarding cannabis. Madam Speaker, we find ourselves here, a year and a half after cannabis legalization, with the promise being, after one year, we would have private cannabis stores in the Northwest Territories or at least be along the road. My question is: when will we see our first private cannabis store in the Northwest Territories?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I recognize that the RCMP control their hiring practices, and I do appreciate the Minister's commitment to continue working with "G" Division. However, I think there is a bit of a political aspect missing from this conversation. I am looking at the federal financial committee's recommendations on budget 2020, recommendation 29, thanks to our MP, Mr. McLeod. It says, "Recognize Indigenous police services as central services under the law; ensure they can obtain long, stable term funding like other police services and expand these services in the northern territories." I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just building on my colleague's comments regarding corrections, I think there is large recognition both professionally and best practices, that, if we can avoid putting people in corrections, we save money. We are spending millions of dollars constructing this new facility in Fort Smith. I question whether we should have just provided housing and addiction treatment to those people, but that is a different question. Can the Minister just explain, I often hear the new Fort Smith Correctional Complex referred to as a therapeutic model, how that is different from North Slave...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Our job here is to be legislators and to debate policy, and I am consistently frustrated that I find myself getting into the implementation and the operations of our departments. Earlier today, I heard the Minister of Lands commit that the land within municipal boundaries, there is a working group in place; hopefully, within a year, we have a process document; and then after that, we may see the land transferred. Unfortunately, I have to ask questions of every Minister to ensure that this is happening, so my question is for the Minister of Municipal and Community...