Caroline Wawzonek

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, one of the most important parts for the Department of Finance in this regard is to ensure the relationship that we have with the unions, the UNW, and the NWT Teachers' Association. That, certainly, has been part and parcel of going forward with those plans to ensure that we are engaged with them, and that they are also aware of any steps that are being taken with respect to the Public Service Act.

In addition to which, this certainly is something that has been worked on extensively in the department over the last couple of months and is continuing...

It is part of an annual budgeting process where there are $40,000 in total available through the Department of Finance to departments that they seek to avail themselves of the program, to a maximum of 15 positions per year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a fairly new program. I believe that is the first year, and, if I am wrong, I will commit to correcting that. In 2018-2019, in that fiscal year, there were 12 department applications, and in 2019-2020, there were seven. In total at the moment, there are 19 positions that are going through that Indigenous Career Gateway Program. Thank you.

The powers under the Residential Tenancies Act were recently transferred from being restricted to the Territorial Court to Supreme Court, which certainly did increase the suite of options available to judges and improve the options in terms of their enforceability. The Residential Tenancies Act is aimed at essentially settling disputes between individuals who have civil disputes. Certainly, the suggestion that there should be powers more akin to criminal law powers is not going to be appropriate or even possible within the jurisdiction of the act. To that extent, in my view, it is already...

Mr. Speaker, I did not speak specifically to co-drafting in terms of how that would look and what commitments might be made. Quite frankly, the reason is that, if I make a commitment in this House, I am going to take it very seriously, and I understand that co-drafting and the involvement of the Indigenous governments, the involvement of the intergovernmental council, involves EIA, involves Cabinet, involves more than just the Department of Justice, and so I was not prepared to stand up and make that specific commitment here. Nevertheless, I can certainly commit to working with standing...

Again, that has also come up at Cabinet, that has also come up in the Department of Justice, and, similarly, there are obligations within the devolution process to the intergovernmental council to ensure that, in some circumstances, there will be a process that engages those partners. That protocol is also being worked on, and so, again, I am in the same situation of, while I do not have a specific that I can provide to the Member, I can assure the Member that that is in progress and it is actively being worked on right now to develop some things so we have some standards in place and so there...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Regulations cover a wide breadth and variety of different types of topics. There is a variety that range from items that are fairly technical, some that are community-specific; in some cases, consultation is built into the legislation itself, so, no, there is not a single set standard at present in terms of how regulations are drafted in the Northwest Territories.

It certainly is the desire of Cabinet, as I hope the Members are seeing, to be more consultative in our approach. There are two different streams we have spoken about; firstly, more public consultation and developing that process for all regulations generally to determine which ones go through that process and which ones don't, as well as items that go through the intergovernmental council, and that may be subject to somewhat different processes. Certainly, once there is a stage for which regulations should receive general public consultation, I would commit to taking that through to committee...

This topic has certainly come up in front of Cabinet, and it is one that has already come up in terms of the Department of Justice taking a lead and being aware that this is something where we can do better. As far as what that will look like, at the present time I can't say, but it is our intention that we can have a better system in place to determine, as I said earlier, which regulations should be subject to public consultation, what that process would look like. It is our intention to build that in so that it's more clear, so that the public knows, so that this House will know, which...

There are fortunately a number of initiatives that I can speak to. There certainly is significant effort within corrections to have Indigenous cultural safety training for all staff. There are efforts to have Aboriginal liaisons available to all individuals within the correctional system. There is, in addition to that, a number of initiatives to ensure that there are court workers available in the communities and to ensure that police priorities also include cultural safety.

All that said, Mr. Speaker, I am aware that more still needs to be done, and so I certainly am alive to that and intend...