Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I'm wondering what work the department does to kind of look to whether we are spending too much on forest fires. I guess I want to start by saying I think some of these are some of the best jobs in the whole territory. I have no issue with the $13 million in compensation and benefits here. A lot of good experience and good training comes out of forestry firefighting. But there is $18 million in contract services here. I imagine the vast majority of that is our tanker contract and our helicopter contract. But in past years in a bad fire season, ENR has essentially...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see there's about $30 million for forest firefighting and for suppression here. I know the last couple years, largely due to COVID, we have taken a bit of a preemptive presuppression method which costs us a little more but one of the benefits is that we have less risk of, you know, intermingling crowds and requiring maybe southern firefighters should there be a bad season. Can I just have the Minister speak to whether we are doing a similar approach this year or whether what our approach to fire suppression is going into this year? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Earlier today I spoke about my desire to have paid sick leave in the Northwest Territories. So my question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is in the life of this government, will we bring forward legislation to introduce paid sick leave in the NWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know that method costs us quite a bit more, and I know that a bad forest fire season usually means a SUP and it costs us quite a bit more than $30 million. I believe we due to COVID, we've kind of been and increased tanker costs, running well above the average for a couple years now, and I believe there's some sort of formula of when we readjust these numbers.

Can I just have the Minister speak to whether we anticipate having to, you know, budget more than $30 million going forward to forest fires given the kind of fiveyear average of increased costs? Thank you.

Yes, thank you, and I thank the Minister for stating that. I've actually had a number of businesses reach out to me during the pandemic who have introduced paid sick leave. So I suspect the number of people who are actually left in the territory without paid sick days is steadily decreasing, and I would like to thank all businesses who have taken that step.

I'm actually wondering, though, if the department has any of those statistics of who in the NWT labour force or how many workers are presently without any form of paid sick leave? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. If you're sick, don't go to work. This is a message we need to send to our residents. However, currently, the Employment Standards Act in the NWT only entitles people to five unpaid sick days after 30 days of employment. After five days, you better get back to work. And you're not getting a paycheque while you were off, Madam Speaker.

Madam Speaker, I would like the NWT to introduce paid sick days so people stay home while sick. I would also like us to lead a cultural shift here. People should stay home while sick. Also, Madam Speaker, that definition of a "sick day"...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm hoping the Minister can explain what the costs are here. You know, we thought this building was complete, and I assume there is some sort of there was new tenders for different contractors to come in and remedy this. It's been closed for a year. I don't know how much of this falls on GNWT or some poor contractor. Can the Minister just give us a sense of how much this delay has cost the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Housing who, I'm sure no one more in the territory, wants the Fort Good Hope seniors complex to open. So my first question is when is that going to occur?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to take this opportunity on our second day of session to congratulate the Minister of Housing and Minister responsible for Seniors on the one year anniversary of the grand opening and ribbon cutting of the seniors home in Fort Good Hope that they both were at on February 16th, 2021, Mr. Speaker.

The opening of this seniors home addressed one of the priorities set out by the 19th Assembly of seniors aging in place. I was happy to hear of its opening, and I am sure many of the seniors in the region were happy to have a facility built for them to reside in and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to just try and understand how this happened. You know, we cut the ribbon on the building. We completely thought it was complete and open. And then after the inspector, it turns out the contractor, that there was electrical problems, structural problems, fire break problems. Can the Minister just highlight what happened here? How did we build a building with this many aspects of the code that were not compliant and not catch them until an inspection? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.