Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, we have Mr. Mike Reddy, director of legislation. [Microphone turned off]
I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 18. Would the Minister please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you. Perhaps we could have the witnesses introduce themselves.
Brad Patzer, assistant deputy minister, the Attorney General's side. Thank you.
Thank you. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 18. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am going to keep this pretty short. This and the previous bill got moved into committee vote because I think they are largely non-controversial changes. On this one, it would be my preference that this issue of having lawyers getting restricted appearance certificates if this new process was just during the pandemic, but I understand that the profession wants this done on a permanent basis. I am not going to stand in the way of that, but it is kind of unusual that we move these straight into Committee of the Whole. Given that it's, as I said, non-controversial and I think there is some other important business that we need to deal with, I am fine having an expedited review and support this bill. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. First, I want to apologize to Mr. Patzer, whose name escaped me. He is probably the first person in the Department of Justice that I met, about six years ago, so my apologies on that one. This bill, it's also important because we are in a situation where, for a lawyer to come up to the territory, they would have to self-isolate for two weeks. We are in a situation where there is a backup of cases, and we need this service. I thank the committee for working with the department to move this along. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Does the committee agree that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
---Clauses 1 and 2 inclusive approved
Committee, to the bill as a whole. Does committee agree that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act, is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Legal Profession Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and our thanks to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Committee, we have agreed to consider Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. I will ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment to introduce the bill.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am here today to present Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. This bill seeks to amend the act to prohibit the disclosure of personal information of individuals who have successfully applied for remission of student loans. The proposed amendment, by forbidding the publication of personal information, will protect the privacy of successful applicants to the student loan remission program. This will allow residents to take advantage of the remission program without having their names published in the public accounts or any other public documents.
I am pleased to bring forward this amendment that addresses the recommendations of stakeholders, including the Standing Committee on Government Operations, in 2017. I want to thank the Member for Frame Lake in particular for raising this issue time and time again, and thank Committee for fast-tracking the bill this sitting. This concludes my opening remarks, and I would be pleased to answer any questions that Members may have regarding Bill 19. Thank you.
Minister, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?
Yes, I would.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses.
I would like to introduce Mr. Michael Saturnino, the assistant deputy minister of Labour and Income Security, and Ms. Mikaela Robertson, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice.
Thank you, Minister. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 19. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I want to keep this really brief. Again, I want to thank the Minister and his staff for working collaboratively on this issue and bringing this forward in a timely fashion and all my colleagues for agreeing to expedite this so that we don't have to publish the names and amounts of student loan remissions in future public accounts. Thanks again to the Minister for his work on this. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Is the committee agreed that there are no further general comments?
Agreed.
Can we proceed to a clause-by-clause review of the bill?
Agreed.
Committee, we will defer the bill number and title until after consideration of the clauses. Please turn to page 1 of the bill.
---Clauses 1 and 2 inclusive approved
Committee, to the bill as a whole. Does committee agree that Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, is now ready for third reading?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, is now ready for third reading. Does committee agree that this concludes our consideration of Bill 19, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act?
Agreed.
Thank you, Minister, and our thanks to your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Committee, we will take a 10-minute break as I get reorganized for the next part.
---SHORT RECESS
We'll call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 217-19(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2020-2021. Does the Minister of Finance have any opening remarks?
Mr. Chair, I am here to present Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2020-2021.
The Supplementary Estimates document proposes to add $88.7 million to the 2020-2021 operating budget, comprised of the following major items: $79 million to support the GNWT's health and economic response to COVID-19, including:
$31.7 million under the umbrella of the COVID secretariat to protect the territory from COVID-19. Bringing existing functions together under the secretariat will help us better meet demand, ensure more efficient use of the GNWT's fiscal resources, and provide a clearer point of accountability for the ongoing implementation of the public health orders. The costs associated with the secretariat will be partially offset by funding received from Crown‐Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada under the first Northern Bundle.
$29.1 million to support programs under the Canada-Northwest Territories Safe Restart Agreement and second Northern Bundle, including: $2.7 million to support childcare for returning workers; $9 million to support increased capacity in the health system; $3.6 million for personal protective equipment for health and non-health care workers; $3.5 million to support testing, contract tracing, and data management;
$29.1 million to support programs under the Canada-Northwest Territories Safe Restart Agreement and second Northern Bundle, including: $2.7 million to support childcare for returning workers; $9 million to support increased capacity in the health system; $3.6 million for personal protective equipment for health and non-health care workers; $3.5 million to support testing, contact tracing, and data management; $5.6 million to support our vulnerable population; and $4.7 million to support communities. $26.7 million of these costs will be offset by funding from the Government of Canada.
$23.2 million to support the NWT aviation sector, of which $17.1 million is offset by funding from Transport Canada.
$9.7 million to support the safe re-opening of schools in the Northwest Territories, of which $4.8 million will be offset by funding from the Government of Canada.
$3.9 million to establish the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund, which is fully offset by funding received from the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency.
$1.6 million to support Northwest Territories sports organizations by providing relief under the COVID-19 Emergency Support for Sport Organizations agreement, which is fully offset by funding from the Government of Canada.
That concludes my opening remarks, Mr. Chair. I would be happy to answer any questions that Members might have. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Does the Minister of Finance wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Yes I do.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Would the Minister please introduce her witnesses?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, today we have the deputy minister of Finance, Sandy Kalgutkar, and Jamie Koe, deputy secretary to the Financial Management Board.
Thank you, Minister. I will now open the floor for general comments. Seeing no further general comments, we will review the supplementary estimates by department. Committee has agreed to begin the review with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I will now open the floor to general comments on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. If there are no further comments, does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we will begin at page 4. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, early childhood and school services not previously authorized, $10,901,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Please turn to page 5. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2020-2021, Department of Education, Culture and Employment, income security, not previously authorized, $2,551,000. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see there is an increase to income security here, but I also remember previously that our projections for income security as a whole and income assistance, which is income assistance, were going to be much higher due to COVID-19. Can I just get an update of whether we have those projections or if we expect another supplementary appropriation under the income security head? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do not have any information. I don't have those numbers in front of me, but I would ask that you check if the deputy minister might have those numbers. Thank you.
