Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 52)

I look to the gallery and my Yukon colleagues when I say this, Yellowknife is number one, and I say this as we have the highest power rate bill, be it Whitehorse, Iqaluit and Northwest Territories. Yellowknife, we have the highest power rate. So, we’re number one. The problem is, I don’t want to be number one anymore, nor does anyone in this city.

So the question now becomes why do we have southern distributors here in the Northwest Territories when we have an option to start squeezing this problem towards a positive solution. We have a southern distributor working here in the Northwest...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly do speak in favour of the principle of the bill, but I do feel that the Residential Tenancies Act update is missing some critical components. I’ll just leave it as simple as that, for example, the Hotel Keepers Act allows someone to be let go, removed, and evicted where the update of the Residential Tenancies Act shows that it’s well thought out that people are protected, and I would assume that the update would have considered these types of remedies.

The example I provide to somebody is that there are folks out there who can only rent in certain spots, and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8, oral questions, which is on the orders of the day. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent denied

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Is the Minister saying that if he had a sharply worded letter from committee that supported this initiative, the government would jump on it?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return to one of my favourite subjects, and that’s direct appointments. As we’ve all heard at length repeatedly over the years, my concern that they’re not publicly accounted for and whatnot. Rather than spending a lot of time, let’s go straight to the Minister of Human Resources and get right to the bottom.

What type of public reporting does the Minister see is available for the public to know how many direct appointments we are doing, how often do we make them, and what departments receive them? Let’s just start off with some simple questions like that.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The question I want to bring up today is about schoolyard safety.

One of the schools in my riding, which is Mildred Hall School, has a fire hydrant right in the middle of the playground. The children can’t play soccer or play baseball without safety concerns.

From my research, no school in the Northwest Territories, or even Alberta, has this type of safety problem. Actually, it’s beyond ridiculous that the children have to worry about this. In a situation where we have declining physical activity...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly was an early advocate for the ombudsman during my first term in the 15th Assembly, and then in the 16th Assembly I did question, similarly as the Premier had done, wondering about the value and the challenges put before us.

I often wondered: would the MLAs be putting themselves out of a job by having an ombudsman because people would first think that is the person we should be going to. But over time I have learned even more. I have been given the chance to understand the complexities and particular issues and appreciate how challenging they can be. I think...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to be very clear on the record. I think that there are cases and reasons why we do direct appointments, and I am certainly not against all of them by any means. I want to make sure that’s absolutely clear. I’m only about public transparency, and that’s really what it comes down to. Frankly, my question, lastly, for the Minister of Human Resources would be: Minus the recent devolution transfer of appointments – because some of them, if not all of them, had to be considered direct appointments – what type of direct appointments are we talking about that have fallen...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

If it’s provided to committee, of course, as we all know through the various channels, levels and scrutiny we receive, of course, every piece of that information is confidential. What public reporting can be done on this particular subject?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 51)

Thank you. I appreciate that answer. I’m not sure I want to screw it up by asking another one and getting him to retract it. But does the Minister see a possibility of working on the solution within the next few weeks so we can build it into the upcoming budget?

Recently the Department of Education has taken back about $400,000 from this school board. I know the Department of Education – we don’t need the exact dollar – turns back money every single year to the Department of Finance, and I know they’re always happy to get that money back.

So what I’m trying to get at is: Does the Minister see...