Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that a shared office space for Yellowknife Members of the Legislative Assembly be established that is located in a central part of the city that is accessible to all the Yellowknife constituents and others who are seeking information or support. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Madam Chair, as MLAs we have to be accessible to our constituents; therefore, I think the Members' handbook should be amended to allow the Board of Management to consider such requests on a casebycase basis. I support this recommendation.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I don't agree with this. We have offices in this building. This building is open to the public during regular office hours and failing that, we can go to a common space in the community such as a coffee shop. I feel that this $90,000, or a total cost $160,000, could be better spent than on yet another office for government services. Thank you.
Thank you. To the motion. Member for Range Lake.
Madam Chair, I am also not supporting this. We're getting to the time that postCOVID, or in COVID, that people are making tough choices and inflation is hitting people. And as the previous Member stated, we have offices in this Assembly. So at this point, with what's going on in society and the struggles that people are facing with inflation, I cannot justify spending taxpayer money on another office. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I too don't support this. I think that we are all independent and therefore we can make our own decisions on where we have our constituency offices. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. I hear the words from my colleagues who are Yellowknife MLAs and, okay, both in the last Assembly and in this Assembly, I tried to get the Yellowknife MLAs to work together to actually open up an office outside of the Legislative Assembly. Clearly I was unsuccessful. The Yellowknife MLAs did not want to work together to do that, and I regret that decision. But, you know, I think this building is quite intimidating to come into. You have to clear through security. You have to set up a specific time to come and see your MLA. This is not exactly a userfriendly place for our constituents. And I think rather than have this motion defeated, I would like to get an amendment to the motion to do as my colleague from Hay River South suggested, which is get a change to the rules to allow for as I understand it, the rules now, there's a prohibition on Yellowknife MLAs having an office outside of the Assembly. I would like to see a rule change to at least allow an application be made to BOM for an office for Yellowknife MLAs outside of the Assembly. So Madam Chair, if I could just ask maybe for a short recess to get an amendment to make to the motion. I think that's probably the best way to do this.
I think, from my understanding, that this motion is based on application on a case-by-case. So by passing this motion, it's not saying that you're automatically getting one but on a case-by- case, that it can be applied to, to open an office. So if you still are in favour of this motion on a case-by-case, I think that's but if not, then, you know, you can vote against it, so.
We could take a break, though. We'll take a fiveminute break. Let's take a fiveminute break and then we can discuss it, get clarification and then we'll come back.
SHORT RECESS
I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Madme la Presidente. I move that Committee Motion 28319(2) be amended to read as follows: That this Assembly recommends that the Yellowknife Members of the Legislative Assembly be permitted to apply to the Board of Management to establish an office in Yellowknife outside the Legislative Assembly building as is the case with all nonYellowknife Members. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. Yeah, I think the way that the motion had currently read was that it was a requirement that it be established, and it might require as much as $90,000. What this does is amend the Members' handbook, which currently reads, in section 114, and I'm just going quote this, "Members representing constituencies in Yellowknife are not entitled to a second constituency office in addition to the one provided in the Legislative Assembly building."
So with that current clause in the Members' handbook, there's a prohibition on Yellowknife MLAs having an office outside. So the purpose of this motion would be to change this to at least allow that as an option for future Yellowknife Members and that really the decision would be up to the Board of Management. And I think this is a better way to approach this, at least leave open that option for Yellowknife MLAs.
And I think really what this is about is making sure that people in Yellowknife have an opportunity to bring forward their concerns, not necessarily to the MLA in the Assembly but in other ways. So I am hoping that my colleagues from Yellowknife would support this to at least leave this open as an option for the future. Thanks, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the amendment. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I support the idea of this motion or the amended motion. I wouldn't want to be forced to do something but I do think Members should be allowed to decide for themselves, and I take the point of my colleague that for some people this might be an intimidating building. I do find, though, that my constituents are kind of excited to come here generally and the parking is free, which helps. But I guess my only concern with this is that would this then become cost and money that comes out of our constituency budget, could then maybe be used in other areas whereas here, our constituency offices are provided free of charge. So that would just only be my concern is if there is sort of, any sort of not abuse of it, but where there's an unprecedented amount of constituency budget funding going to rental outside of this building that maybe isn't being utilized that much and maybe that money could be used better elsewhere. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Just to clarify the out of Members who have offices outside of Yellowknife, it comes out of the ledge, it's not out of the constituency budget. So it's added to the legislative budget. So I'll come back to you. To the amendment. Member for Yellowknife South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am in favour of the amendment. I was not in favour of an automatic or a presumed automatic incurring significant cost. It's not thus far been my experience that generally residents of Yellowknife South are struggling to find myself or my constituency assistant by virtue of having our office here or through all other manner of opportunity. But nonetheless, that just may be tradition and it not necessarily a reality. So certainly we'll take that back.
But I will just say, Madam Chair, in reviewing this proposed motion, both originally and the now amended one, I would just note for folks in Yellowknife that although the rules do say that we are not entitled to a second constituency office, the rules also imply that Ministers are not entitled to any office automatically. So there's a bit of a challenge with the rules. And I actually had some difficulty getting an office at all. And of course, I draw I try to draw a very strict line between the facilities and what I use to support my office as a Minister as opposed to not incurring or using any of those facilities to support my work as an MLA. So this does in that sense, I'm happy to now have this option because if that becomes a challenge again, it may be that I would be the first one in line to ensure that I have some office available to me. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the amendment. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I also understand the intent of this one; however, as stated before, we are in a time of huge inflation and people are struggling and we have to be careful with taxpayer dollars, and I just don't think this is the time to be bringing this forward. We do have offices in this Assembly and this would cost tax if it was approved, would cost taxpayers extra money. And so I cannot, in conscious, support this motion at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Member for Hay River North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To the amendment, I do think the amendment does improve on the previous recommendation. Once again, the previous recommendation or the main motion is very prescriptive. It's the Assembly encroaching on how Members run their offices. It's saying you will share an office in a central location. We've already seen a bit of that encroachment occur today, and so I'm happy that actually the Member reversed course and went a different direction on this one because I think it is an improvement.
I do have an office downtown in Hay River, a constituency office. I made sure that I had one that was easily accessible, so it's ground level. There's no barriers. It's in a public place. So people can see it and they can come by. People don't always want to seek out their MLAs. Sometimes they're walking by and they say, I'll just pop in. And that's when you can have some good conversations. You hear about things you might not otherwise, and I think that's important. So I don't really have an issue with the motion.
My only issue is this: You know, there have been other opportunities where we could discuss this and this could have been raised. So I don't know how much this would cost. I don't know what budget implications are. I don't know if there's going to be any assessment of whether or not people are ever in their offices. Maybe someone rents an office and the CA and the MLA are here all the time in the Legislative Assembly, and that office is vacant.
So if this does you know, if we do approve this recommendation, there's going to need to be guidelines developed regarding how BOM approves places. We need to determine whether or not it's actually worth it in the long run. So the idea itself is not a bad starting point but I think we need to put some meat on the bones. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River North. To the amendment? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Actually I was just going to clarify that it wasn't clear to me that this meant that the money would not be coming from our constituency budgets rather from the Legislative Assembly. So then, yes, in both matters, I don't support it for the reasons mentioned by other MLAs. Thank you.
Thank you. To the amendment? Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess, I look at this and I listen to the discussion and I think about the people out there that will probably never come to this building, don't feel welcome in this building and, you know, will probably never talk to some of you as MLAs here. And, you know, I guess coming from Hay River, coming from a you know, a community again, my office is on main street. I get people in there that again, that walk by and just come in. And I probably get, you know, 20, 25 people a day coming through there. Some of them just to drink coffee and other ones to actually you know, with issues. And you've got people that are, you know, in suits. You've got people that are that are on the street. And I think that it's important that we don't forget that we're here to represent everybody, like all our constituents, not just some of them. So I guess that's my big thing is that I'm concerned is that, you know, I just want to make sure that, you know, everybody's looked after and this is an opportunity to, you know, to consider it. And when it comes down to financial costs, I would hope that we would find some, you know, some financial support outside the you know, the monies allotted to the Yellowknife MLAs to fund something like this. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. To the amendment?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour of the amendment? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
To the main motion as amended, all those in favour? Yes, all those in favour to the main motion amended? All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend the reference document "So You want to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly" be updated and revised to ensure the information is current, visually appealing, and easy to read. Thank you, Madam Chair.
The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.
Madam Chair, I support this motion. This is a useful document for those thinking about running for office, and it should be updated in time for the next election. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. This one I am 100 percent in support of. I know that when I first considered running for politics, I had no idea what I was getting into. I didn't know anything about this building nor the procedures at all. So I think that the more that we can do to actually ensure that all people understand how this structure works, the better off. And especially for people that are lower become and people that feel that they don't deserve to be here. I think everyone needs to know that they all deserve to be here. So I am 100 percent in support of this. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend that the document referenced in Motion 23 is more easily found on the Legislative Assembly website. 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, Member. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstention? Motion is carried.
Carried
Member for Hay River South.
