Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I wish to plagiarize a Member's statement brought forward by my predecessor, Cory Vanthuyne, Member for Yellowknife North. I think many of us are aware that the only thing to get done in this House is persistence, persistence through Assemblies. The idea and the topic of my Member's statement today is a Yellowknife city charter.

This request has been made by the City of Yellowknife in response to frustration from getting traction out of the GNWT. For as long as the property and assessment and taxation act has existed, municipalities have been asking for it to be...

Yes, thank you. This just, once again, goes back to that accountability piece. It is going to be very easy for us to, you know, create 125 new jobs if we create some programming and then claim those new jobs that emerge, but my question is, you know, is this taking into fact the labour market forecast, the needs assessment, which says we're going to be losing jobs over the next four years? Is this a net increase of 125, or is this just 125 that can be directly correlated to GNWT projects and programs? If there's not an answer to this right now, I am glad to have ITI or someone come back to...

I suspect that I will ask this question at a later time. I think there needs to be some analysis of whether we are just providing $5 million flat or whether we are closing the gap by $5 million, because those are different numbers. My next question is: this is coming in the next three budgets, 2021, 2022, 2023; is the anticipation that those will all be equal amounts of the $5 million and whether it is $5-million-plus? Will it be equally distributed?

Thank you, Madam Chair. The municipal funding gap, it is not exactly a fixed target because it grows with inflation. Can I just confirm whether we are going to close the gap by $5 million, factoring in the fact that it is consistently growing so that this priority would actually cost something more than $5 million? Is that correct?

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's clear that the GNWT Department of Justice got their hands all over this one. I want to note that we are implementing it within the constitutional framework. We are passing legislation and policies that best reflect the principles set out in UNDRIP.

Some history here: the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was vetoed by Canada at the United Nations, because it provides free, prior, and informed consent to Indigenous peoples for any resource projects taking care on their land. Since that time, in Canada, we have kind of evolved, and there...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Pursuant to Rule 82(1), no Member shall speak for more than 10 minutes at any one time in Committee of the Whole. I am seeking unanimous consent to amend it to five minutes for the purposes of the mandate discussion.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If I could have some explanation of how the 100 units built and transitioned out work. Presently, we have a cap of 2,400 units. If we are unable to transition units out of the Housing Corporation, is it possible that we end up with 2,500 units? Thank you.

I am very mindful that we have ongoing negotiations, and, in many ways, this goes to the heart of what the future role of the City of Yellowknife looks like once we have devolved our powers into the smaller communities. This is what these conversations largely are about. Would the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs be willing to provide the Northwest Territories Association of Communities and the City of Yellowknife of what a process would look like to ultimately have a city charter?

Thank you, Madam Chair. My concern is that we're seeing here a scoping of the environmental assessment that does not factor in the potential of the Grays Bay half. We know that the Bathurst caribou calving ground is in Nunavut, and caribou do not respect borders, so my concern here is that we are not setting ourselves up for, essentially, the resource boards to say that we have scoped the project wrong. Also, those mineral deposits, and there is no doubt there are minerals there, are largely dependent on the port access, so I question the scoping of this project to not include the entirety of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Given the change to our House sitting where we will have next week for Members to return to their constituencies, I give notice that on Thursday, February 13, 2020, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, February 13, 2020, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, February 25, 2020; and further, that any time prior to February 25, 2020, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly...