Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to also recognize Emma Amundson from Fort Simpson and welcome her. There's not too many times you get to have family in here; I'd like to welcome Shirley Kisoun here as well. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer. I am happy to hear that we are doing some good stuff for our employees. In my Member’s statement, I talked about the potential for providing five wellness days for Government of the Northwest Territories employees. Has the Government of the Northwest Territories looked to this idea, and will they bring it to the UNW?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Development concluded its review of Bill 13, Marriage Act on January 20, 2016. The public hearing was held here at the Legislative Assembly Building. Although the committee received no public submissions on the bill, Members understand that this bill has been long awaited in the legal community and are pleased that the Northwest Territories will now have marriage legislation in keeping with federal standards and national best practices.

The committee was satisfied with the Minister's fulsome response to its questions and welcomes...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In an effort to promote discussion about the economic future of the Deh Cho region, Dehcho First Nations and the Dehcho Economic Corporation have joined forces to hold a conference in Fort Simpson.

Dubbed the Dehcho Economic Readiness Forum, the conference will run from March 27 to 30, and aims to bring together community leaders, youth, and Aboriginal businesses.

The goal of the Dehcho Readiness Forum is to evaluate, educate, and strengthen our communities, and the Dehcho region's business knowledge, for current and future economic opportunities and growth. Development...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When we started out on this adventure, looking at the business plans last September, it was about how we could deal with the cuts proposed by the government. We soon realized that we needed to start looking at this process a bit differently, so we focused on strategic investments that would help the NWT.

I would like to thank all Members for all the hard work we put into the 2017-18 budget process, Cabinet and Regular MLAs. I agree with the Finance Minister that Cabinet sort of listened and did listen and then made some of the Regular MLAs' proposed adjustments. These...

I appreciate the Minister's answer and look forward to hopefully implementing this. However, as we are talking about the plans, it can be a long process. What will happen if this government does not utilize all of this money? Where does this money go?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Finance Minister provided some information to the public and to us in the House about increases to the budget. In one of the lines, it says that we will increase the budget for homecare for $2.5 million. Through the whole process, we started at $1.5 million, so can the Minister of Health and Social Services please advise this House what this extra $1 million amount is going to be allocated for in homecare? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer. I understand what they were trying to do. I just didn't know this fee existed, and I don't know a lot of people probably did know that. Mr. Speaker, as the honourable Member for Kam Lake spoke about the airline collecting these fees and charging administration fees, has the department agreed to a percentage that the government is going to accept the airlines to do it, or is this something that the airlines actually impose on the government for collecting these fees?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, my colleague the honourable Member for Kam Lake was talking about the user fees and landing fees being proposed by infrastructure, the new potential infrastructure department. They talk about between $8 and $10 million going to be potential new revenue. In regards to the $10 million or this money being proposed to be collected by the new airport fees, how much is this going to be coming from the GNWT's medical travel and GNWT businesses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer. That was good to hear. With this new money, will this money be put out April 1st, and are we ready to go?