Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to start with some I think in hindsight, I believe both the Minister and committee would have done this differently, and I think there's some lessons to be learned here. You know, it's unfortunate that, you know, that the Minister and probably quite a few of the staff and a lot of the MLAs weren't allowed around for the last carbon tax but if you were ever introducing legislation on any topic, go look if there's an old committee report about it because these committee reports make the same recommendations every single time and there is there's stacks of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Bill 63, An Act to Amend the Official Languages Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 2nd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review.

Committee engaged with stakeholders and the public in its review of this bill. The committee held a public review of the bill on January 18th, 2023, and received five submissions with stakeholders. On February 15th, 2023, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and completed its clausebyclause review of the...

I don't actually know, Madam Chair, if anyone's in that little room. They can come join me, or perhaps a law clerk or someone.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories commit to a second phase of legislative changes to protect, promote, and revitalize official and Indigenous languages in the 20th Assembly;

And further, this new legislation should be based on past recommendations, suggestions arising during the review of Bill 63, and the advice in committee's upcoming report on its statutory review of the Official Languages Act;

And furthermore, the new legislation should also seek to implement Articles 13 and 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the...

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.