Julian Morse

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few weeks ago, I asked the Premier questions about the recommendations of the strengthening the nonprofit and charitable sector external advisory committee final report. The Premier's office provided a reply by email, and I would like to highlight that reply and respond to it on the record. The reply reads as follows:

Currently work is underway to strengthen the nonprofit and charitable sectors in the Northwest Territories. The first two recommendations from the external advisory committee's report focus on updating the Government of the Northwest Territories program...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I just wanted to follow up on the question asked by my colleague from Nunakput. She asks whether it aligned with the collective agreement of the public service and so I just wanted to get some clarification on that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I do appreciate the Premier's goodwill and openness to discussing this with him publicly. Mr. Speaker, will the Premier commit to openly and transparently engaging the public and Regular Members on a proposed approach for a fully arm's length review of the 2023 wildfires? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to be clear.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Members made a number of statements suggesting open collaboration between the regular side and the Cabinet, suggestions for ways to move forward. I certainly made some statements to that effect myself. And then we saw the Premier turn around and go to the media after the motion was passed and state that they don't plan to listen.

Mr. Speaker, is it the Premier and Cabinet's intent to simply ignore the calls for collaboration and suggestions made by myself and my colleagues? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. By way of explanation, this is just an addition to the friendly amendments made by the Member for Monfwi. It was my feeling that a sixperson board is getting quite large at that point and so a three Member panel would be more appropriate. It would be more cost conscious and so that's why I made this what I consider to be a friendly amendment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the past week, there have been a fair bit of discussion about what model would be best. My colleague was just speaking to it also. And, you know, I've really appreciated that discussion. I've appreciated the coverage in the news. I think there's been some excellent coverage helping to inform residents about the decision being made today, what's behind it, and the details.

Mr. Speaker, I'm not 100 percent sure an inquiry under the Inquiries Act is the perfect solution, but I can say that right now it is the best solution which has been brought forward...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the Member for Great Slave, to amend Motion 920(1), Establishment of a Public Inquiry into the 2023 Wildfires as amended, by replacing the word "six" with "three" in the second clause such that the clause reads:

AND FURTHER, that this resolution includes the Commissioner establishing a board composed of three persons appointed by the Commissioner to make the inquiry and to report on the inquiry to the Commissioner;

And further, that the words "two persons" are changed to "one person" in the third, fourth, and fifth clauses such as the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for the answer. The third question is how does the Minister provide direction to the college, and how is the college held accountable to the priorities set in the Legislative Assembly and the priorities of the funders of the college; how are they held accountable to the Minister and this Assembly? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is related to a statement I gave a couple of weeks ago related to the importance of postsecondary education. Now that we've established our priority of having a strong economic foundation, I wanted to ask the Minister some questions about the college transition.

So first, can the Minister first describe to me the department's relationship with Aurora College now that the Aurora College board of governors has been reestablished? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So can the Minister describe to the House what the department is going to be doing to ensure that frontline staff, particularly nurses, are continuing to be supported in their roles in our hospitals in the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.