R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think if any one of us designed this budget, it would not look the way it looks. I have things that I would like to see in here that aren't in here, and the same goes for every single Member. None of us gets everything we want. And that is consensus government. We hope we end up with something that is suited for all of us to the best to the best of our abilities. And this is a budget that we put together to the best of our abilities given our our priorities and our limitations.

To the Members who are, you know, wishing to see this budget fail, who are voting against...

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Let's open up another round of oral questions; so much fun. Mr. Speaker

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been meetings with all the childcare providers, and they have opportunities to ask those questions. You know, these discussions that we're having are great opportunities for us to find out exactly what the issues are and zero in on those.

And so as, you know, the MLAs have brought additional questions and concerns to me, I bring those to the department, and, in turn, the department then brings finds ways to answer those for the programs.

So the best thing to do for a program is to sit down with their early childhood consultant and go over those numbers. And...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We I've stated before that the increase that is laid out in the contribution agreement is 2.3 percent, and if there are legitimate reasons why a business or a childcare centre needs to increase that, we're happy to have those discussions.

I think that a lot of the concerns that we're hearing are increases of 20 or 30 percent from programs that are already at the top end of what is being charged for childcare. So we are accommodating, but we're not accommodating increases that essentially wipe out a reduction in parent fees. Thank you.

Thank you. With us today we have Andrea Giesbrecht, director of labour, development, and standards with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment; and Ian Rennie, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, twice a year we all adjust our clocks by one hour. First, we move them forward, and then we move them back. People have always questioned the wisdom of this annual tradition but in recent years a number of jurisdictions have taken concrete steps towards eliminating seasonal time change.

On Monday, April 4th, the Government of the Northwest Territories will begin a sixweek public engagement to help us determine when and how we will eliminate seasonal time changes. The public engagement will invite residents to share their views on seasonal time change through an online survey. The...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here today to present Bill 39: An Act to Amend the PostSecondary Education Act.

The PostSecondary Education Act received assent on August 21st, 2019, and is not yet in force. The act creates a structure for recognizing postsecondary institutions within the Northwest Territories and will enable the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university.

The bill seeks to amend the PostSecondary Education Act to address gaps or inconsistencies in the act that were identified during the ongoing drafting of the related regulations. As well, an opportunity was...