Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm happy to hear that we will be streamlining the process. I know it has been quite difficult for many and, you know, it's not fun to have a special occasion and then not be able to sell alcohol. And in many cases, the nonprofits running them is it's how they actually fund the entire festival.

My question, I guess I'm still a bit confused about whether this is actually going to happen. I heard we're going to get a legislative proposal. And another one of the examples in the recommendation report was that the recommendation to remove the requirement for retail outlets...

Mr. Speaker, I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that the Standing Committee on Government Operations' Report on the Review of the 20202021 Annual Report of the Ombud be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for further consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of the 20202021 Annual Report of the Ombud and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations has reviewed the 20202021 Annual Report of the Ombud.

The Ombud Act requires the Ombud to prepare an annual report. The report includes information on the number of inquiries and complaints received. It can also include recommendations. The Speaker tables the report in the Legislative Assembly. Once tabled, the committee reviews the report. As part of the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee, please indulge me, I plan to speak for a while here.

I think when we gave this to the Electoral Boundaries Commission, many of us expected to see the addition of Yellowknife seats, which have long been underrepresented and have moved well past the 25 percent threshold established by both the Supreme Court of Canada and Justice Charbonneau in the last judicial review where Yellowknife was ordered to be given more seats, as well as an additional seat for the Monwfi riding, which now under this new formula is also well beyond that threshold and is the most...

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, no one is paying the constituency assistant less than $25 an hour right now, and I guess I'm in favour of this so that no one ever does. You know, hopefully one day in this territory we get to minimum wage of $25 an hour, but. And well, and if inflation keeps up at this rate, we might get there a lot sooner than we expected. But I think we should lead by example, and I don't really see any harm in setting this as at least the bare minimum floor going forward. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, and, you know what, I've read through all of these recommendations and sometimes they're identified as legislative; sometimes clearly we can just do them. Specifically one that caught my eye was the recommendation to allow hospitality rooms in manufacturing facilities. That is if a brewery decides to open, they could be able to sell beer there. I'm just wondering if the Minister could give me a timeline on when this is going to happen, or is this also tied to a legislative proposal? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I spoke to in my Member's statement, the Department of Finance has come forward with a number of recommendations, changes to the Liquor Act. One of the ones I was specifically happy to see was four changes to special occasion permits. These are the permits that, you know, festivals often have to get and special events such as weddings. One was to streamline the process. Another one was to perhaps allow an annual special occasion permit for those events that happen every single year. And another one was to allow, in certain cases, whole site consumption. So not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At her February 2021 appearance before committee, the Ombud confirmed that the outstanding recommendations in her first 20192020 Annual Report are still relevant. She reported that "the recommendations really haven’t changed" and that she would "certainly repeat them before the end of her mandate to ensure they are still on the record." The committee believes it is important to reiterate the Ombud’s recommendations, as long as they remain unimplemented, before the end of her mandate.

Her recommendations for changing the Ombud Act are:

Broaden the definition of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to point out that every single municipal project ever has the total public amount released before tendering because it's approved by council. I want to note that every time the federal government announces money, we have the total amount because they announced it. Did we get mad at the federal government when they told us how much the Fort Providence Transmission Line was going to cost, which has not yet been tendered?

Mr. Speaker, additionally, we don't give public estimates and we don't give business cases. I don't know if there's actually a business case for...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The printed copy I have did not have a back to the motion so I need to add some more words to the motion.