Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, and then I take it that the 2.2 emergency shelter homeless funding may be in a bit more of a question than the $4 million then.

My understanding is that this well, this goes to a number of shelters but one of them significantly was the Arnica, now known as the Spruce Bough, in Yellowknife. I'm wondering if the Minister has an update of whether any hope of ongoing funding, whether funding for what next fiscal would look like for that organization? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, glad to hear that, and I know the facility's master plan is well underway and there's a lot of work to be done on that.

I guess my question is, can the Minister provide an update whether there's any further money committed from the federal government for the transformation? You know, I think well, obviously, there's hundreds of millions needed one day for infrastructure. But I know we're also doing a programming review which is kind of key to that, and we've actually agreed to reimplement some programs so I'm just wondering if there's any federal money in the...

For.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank all of my colleagues for speaking to this motion and bringing it forward. I just also would like to rise in support. I think it is clear that many in our small communities don't have trust in our current healthcare system. And I think we always have to keep that top of mind.

I'm well aware that in many ways Health is by far our largest budget, and it is going through a deficit reduction exercise right now and I fear, when we look at models that we've seen in other jurisdictions, rural healthcare is always a potential target from that deficit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When this House first made it a priority to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I think there was varied understandings of what that meant. And how could there not be, Mr. Speaker? It is a very aspirational document with many sections and many different areas to cover.

However, Mr. Speaker, I think all of us meant it would be doing something in this House. And to date, we have not seen any work to actively implement the UN declaration. Some of us thought perhaps we would just pass legislation similar to BC or the federal government which...

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.

Madam Chair, I move that this and committee recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment strengthen the languages commissioner's ability to get requested information from public bodies including timebound requirements to respond to requests. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee's report was read into the record on Thursday, May 26th, 2022. The Standing Committee on Government Operations has reviewed the 20202021 Annual Report of the Languages Commissioner. The Official Languages Act requires the Commissioner to prepare an annual report. The report includes information on the number of complaints filed. It can also include recommendations. The Speaker tables the report in the Legislative Assembly. Once tabled, committee reviews the report.

As part of the review the languages commissioner, Ms. Brenda Gauthier, appeared before the...

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, it's my hope that since this was a priority of this Assembly that we would see something in this Assembly. And if we have to live with an action plan that, you know, we get on the last day and we actually don't do any of the work in it in the life of this Assembly, well, that's better than nothing. And I guess the other debate here is that BC and the federal government have introduced actual legislation which create a legal obligation for the government to do this work and for departments to do this work. Are we going to see legislation to implement the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm curious about any internal work that's kind of occurring. I recognize that there are larger questions that the declaration raises, you know, how we are going to operationalize free prior informed consent is obviously a very large question we have to work with the Council of Leaders. But to me, there's a number of smaller internal changes to GNWT internal policies, perhaps our consultation policies, perhaps how we structure the government to empower regions differently. I think there's probably a lot of work that we just need to do internally.

So my question...