Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I move that this Assembly call on the federal government to better recognize the specific needs and circumstances of the Northwest Territories in its climate change approach. These specific needs include significantly more funding to make renewable energy options accessible and affordable for all Northerners;

Further, committee recommends that the Premier of the Northwest Territories convey this motion without delay to the Prime Minister of Canada with a letter requesting a reply.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I recognize each one's unique. And one of my favourite unique ones is actually not Northview, it's Northern United Place. We signed a longterm lease with Northern United Place. It's allowed them to provide multiple units of discounted housing for vulnerable people for decades. And we were actually willing to pay a little more for that longterm lease knowing that it would be kind of a combined commercial and residential that would house some people. I think it's kind of a great model, and we never did it again for some reason. But I guess in the form of some...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 60, An Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 1st, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Government Operations for review.

In its review, it was important to the committee to identify what changes could help mitigate the economic impacts of the tax. Committee also wanted to understand implications of reverting to the federal backstop.

Committee held a public technical briefing from the Minister of Finance and the department officials on November 25th, 2022...

Thank you, Madam Chair. We've come to my favourite part of the main estimates, which is page 285, $127 million we are going to pay in future lease payments largely to one company. But I wanted to start with a question about the new government building, the Sot Dene I've actually never said that out loud. The theory was when we spent that $25 million was that it would save us money yet we were required to do a lease to own commitment. I'm just wondering if we've ever followed up with whether that was a cheaper option or a more expensive option to build ourselves a sevenstorey office building...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the one of the things about rabies is that the people most at risk are our hunters and trappers who are out on the land, often remote, and the other people are children, who perhaps just don't recognize the signs of a rabid animal. And I just want to ensure that we are treating people quickly as possible because even if you survive, there are some very nasty longterm cognitive effects if you ever get exposed to rabies. Can the Minister of health just confirm where people can get the rabies antidote. Is it presently available at all our community health...

Yeah, thank you. Can we perhaps well, can we get an update when we think we can get ECE and health on DIIMS? And I think perhaps if I my understanding of the situation is that there's parts of them that will probably never get on DIIMS. You know, health is going out to get brand new health records software that I think is 10 million plus dollars, and ECE has been trying to get student records software that it's not that much, but it's millions of dollars as well. They just have unique records that, you know, need their own software that's not DIIMS. But the rest of the kind of operational...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the problems with this is that it you know, it's a relatively simple and cheap problem to solve. The vaccine itself is only a couple dollars, or, you know, the logistics of getting it into dogs is a bit more complicated. But what I found is that the people who care about this can't seem to get anyone in the GNWT to care about it. And I know perhaps we have to whether it's a human health act or a dog act, I don't really care. I just don't want anyone to die from rabies. I'm wondering if the Minister of MACA would coordinate a rollout of the rabies vaccines...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess a comment, you know, is that perhaps the department could look into a final way of confirming when something is actually complete. There's no actual place you can find "oh, this project got finished" unless some sort of press release is done because it falls off the infrastructure acquisition plan and it's not on the capital budget anymore, we just assume it's done. But as we know, there are plenty of buildings that are not done or years later, you know, not occupied or various reasons for not being done. So can the department look at some sort of way of...

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that, and I some of the people who are most at risk are our hunters and trappers, especially those who are trapping foxes above the treeline. But many of them have dealt with this; they notice the signs, and they know when not to deal with a rabid animal. I'm wondering, some experts have suggested that a bait program be put in place, specifically around communities to kind of act as a buffer zone so that rabies does not pass to other populations. Is this something ENR is considering? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, you know, I am probably very excited for this dashboard, and I guess it's a bit of a wait and see what's in it. Yeah, and I think there's a bit of a tension that goes on in that, you know, we as Regular MLAs in confidence get the kind of longterm capital planning and the needs assessment and, you know, I have requested it, you know confidentially, to see, you know, the asset management planning that we do and the deferred maintenance but none of that is public, you know, and there's this tension, I think, of we don't want to necessarily show everyone how bad our...