Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on Indigenous Representation in the Northwest Territories Public Service and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed Indigenous representation in the Northwest Territories public service. Currently, Indigenous employees make up approximately thirty percent of the Government of the Northwest Territories public service while, at the same time, half of the NWT's population is Indigenous.

Finding ways to increase Indigenous representation in the GNWT...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just confirm then that the entirety of this $6.79 million is agency nurse contracts that it I guess, it doesn't include overtime or other you know, the labour markets bonus we gave I forget what it's called. You know, there's a lot of increased nursing costs but is this the totality of this just that we're bringing up more and more agency nurses? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Thebacha, that Committee Report 4919(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations' Report on the 20212022 Review of the Official Languages Act, be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for further consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Looking next at radiology services, I see that is costing us another $1.5 million. Can I just get another bit of an explanation on why we need another $1.5 million for radiology services. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its report on the 20212022 Review of the Official Languages Act and commends it to the House.

Over the last two years, the Standing Committee on Government Operations reviewed the Official Languages Act. This law protects speakers of the NWT's eleven official languages and outlines language rights, rules, and responsibilities in different parts of government. This law requires a review about every five years. Previous committee reviews were released in 2003, 2009, and 2015.

For our 20212022 review...

Thank you. I also see that we're $633,000 more for chemotherapy drugs. Can someone just elaborate why we're incurring this cost? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Across the Northwest Territories there's essentially three types of tenure. There's community government leasing. I got no problem with those. Community governments can sort out how they want to lease their land. Then there's fee simple title. Never hear any complaints about anyone who owns their house, Mr. Speaker. And then there's the GNWT lease, which to me the main benefit seems to be a miraculous ability to be brought up in every single meeting and immediately derail it. No matter the meeting we're having, someone inevitably starts complaining about a 600 percent...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I feel obligated to ask a couple questions about the $25 million in health spending, and I know the Department of Health and Social Services is just kind of a black hole we have to fund. I'm looking at the $8.4 million increase to standard physician contracts. Can the Minister just elaborate a little bit more of what we're increasing, how much more the doctors are getting paid to increase competitiveness. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I see we're moving $1.7 million over to I assume another year for the mineral administration and registry system, also known as MARS. I believe this is the system that will one day hopefully allow us to have online map staking. Can I just get an update in the timing for this project and when we expect to have online map staking in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to introduce Christina Duffy who is a legislative drafter. Thank you.