Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this motion. This amount has not been adjusted in many years and is intended to more accurately reflect the increased cost of living. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the basic allowance for maintaining a second home in Yellowknife should be reviewed annually by the Board of Management to ensure it remains in line with the current rental market. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this motion.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendation 13 looks to replace the current child care travel allowance with a family responsibility allowance. I move that this Assembly recommends that an amount of $2,000 per year be paid to all MLAs with dependent children regardless of the number of dependent children they have. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Madam Chair, since this Legislative Assembly began reimbursing Members for child care expenses at the beginning of this Assembly, I have heard that some Members with children are reluctant to claim reimbursement for child care expenses under the existing program. I think the existing program is a good one, and I encourage all Members to make use of it when they're required to attend meetings outside normal working hours or when the Member's child or children are required to travel with the Member while the Member is performing constituency or Legislative Assembly business. I recommend against adoption of this recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was also surprised to hear colleagues mention that perhaps they weren't feeling comfortable accessing this amount of money and just also wanted to clarify that it is the trip money for child care; it is not regular everyday child care, which I think sometimes gets confused. I did try to get it so that I could have my cats covered under this but that wasn't wasn't something that Caucus bought into, but I do strongly also encourage everyone to take use of this, and if anything, I would like to see us providing more support to families. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So I would encourage members of the public to actually read the report from the commission, particularly on this area. You know, we budget $30,000 a year as an Assembly to provide child care expense reimbursement for those Members that have children. And we worked very hard in the last Assembly to try to make this place more family friendly and to encourage young people to run for office and to make sure that they had the ability to participate and, you know, get child care expenses covered given the duties and the time and travel that it takes sometimes to be an MLA and odd hours working and so on. So we set up this, you know, $30,000 allocation each year in our budget to help cover those expenses. But so far, only $1,358.50 has been claimed, after three years. So it's not working. And I think the commission actually made, what I consider to be a reasonable recommendation, to try to address this. And I don't know what the problem or the issue is. I don't have kids that are young enough to claim any expenses. But, you know, having been here seven years now, I know what this does to family life. So I think this was a reasonable recommendation from the commission, and I encourage those Members of the House that do have kids, and that do have expenses because of their duties, that they should be claiming those be back. That's just part of making sure that we all get the work done. And I'm not blaming anybody or anything, but clearly the current system is not working. And I think what the commission proposed is a reasonable approach, and I support it because the current system is not working. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do want to echo some of the concerns that I it certainly has been my experience with two children who are under the age of 12 that this is a difficult job. It's a difficult job for a parent. It doesn't matter of your gender. But I worry that it becomes a barrier. I worry that thinking of an advance about whether to run, as people may well be doing in the next year, they will worry whether or not this job is barrier to them if they have young children who are of that age.
This week alone, I have eight different family member eight different families in this city helping me get my kids where they need to be this week. There's no child care expenses that I'm charging for that. I also have two different child care arrangements between yesterday and today and Wednesday when I will be on work duties up until 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock at night. And, you know, would have more, but I have a spouse who comes back into town just in time to cover the last night. So, you know, the child care expense, it doesn't change that reality for people but it acknowledges the reality. And I am someone who has tried to make those claims, because I actually want to make use of the facilities that are available to us. I want to make the point that we do need it. I hope other people will use it. I appreciate the effort here. I think what they're trying to do is take the stigma away. Take the stigma away of having to be someone who says, I can't always travel, having to be the person that says I can't always go to the event, having to be the person that's having to make those arrangements and walk out of the meeting to take phone calls from their children, I think there's a stigma associated with that. And that's why I have used the fund that's available on the days that were appropriate for me to do so. I'm glad it's there. I think this is a conversation that's good to have. I also don't think that making a blanket amount is the solution. This won't cover the cost of having to fly someone's child for folks who are from outside the community, from outside Yellowknife. I don't know how those of you who are outside of Yellowknife are managing; I really don't. But $2,000 won't do it. I hope people access the funds that are here now so that it makes it a little more palatable to them. And I hope this discussion reminds us the fact those funds are there and that there shouldn't be stigma associated with using them. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. In principle, I support the concept of what we're trying to do here and I was in the last Assembly, and we did try to make it a family friendly place. However, in practice, I can't support this because it's saying that everyone shall get $2,000 no matter how many dependent children you have. That, Madam Chair, is I can't accept that because I come from a family of eight children and, you know, my only flight with my two children that might do but if you have eight children, and some community members have large children, how is that fair, Madam Chair? It won't cover the cost. So in principle, I support the concept but I cannot support this motion because I think it would be punitive to large families that have dependent children. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Any abstentions? The motion is defeated.
Defeated
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendations 14 and 15 are about the Members of the Legislative Assembly's pension plans. I move that this Assembly recommends that a reciprocal agreement with other registered pension plans, including Public Service Superannuation and Northern Employee Benefits Services, NEBS, be negotiated so pension amounts can be transferred. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Madam Chair, from a Member's perspective, reciprocal agreements may allow the Member to seek an elected position without it adversely affecting their retirement savings. The issue is that if a reciprocal agreement is set up so that the Member's lifetime pension is not adversely affected, it usually means that the plan suffers additional cost. Or, if the reciprocal agreement is set up to be cost neutral to the plan, it likely will provide little to no value to most Members. Therefore, I recommend that this recommendation be rejected.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I actually support this recommendation. I think it you know, that's without a lot of knowledge or understanding exactly what the reciprocal arrangement could or should look like, but I think this is another way of trying to encourage people to run for office. And if they knew that their pensions could be brought forward to include the service that they do in this House, then I think it could encourage more people to run for public office. And that's why I would support this. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? It looked pretty close. So it's defeated. The motion is defeated.
Defeated
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I MOVE that this Assembly recommends that the MLAs be advised as to when they are approaching 60 days within being sworn in so they have time to decide about whether to access the supplementary plan to ensure they do not inadvertently miss the deadline. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, the motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this motion.
Thank you To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. So I've been here for two Assemblies, and I can tell the public that this already happens. This is the case. You know, in the orientation Members are made aware of their options for pensions. There's a deadline. You get a reminder. This already happens. But I'm okay with accepting this but I can tell you from practice it already happens. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendation 16 speaks to Members leaving politics. I move that this Assembly recommends that Members receive a topup for every year they were in a position as Speaker, Premier, or Minister regardless of when they served in that position.
And further, that this topup not exceed the annual basic indemnity at that time.
The Member will receive one month of the Speaker, Premier, or Minister allowance for every year served in any of those positions with the topup calculated based on the current indemnity allowance paid to a Member holding one of those offices. The time served in any of those positions is to be rounded up to the next full year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this recommendation relates to the transition allowance that former Members are entitled to when they leave office. While I understand and appreciate the intention of this recommendation, it would make the calculation of the transition allowance unnecessarily complicated and may bring it out of line with the coolingoff period that applies to all Members when they leave office. I think the transition allowance is fine as it is and therefore I recommend defeat of this motion. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion.
Question.
