Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I now seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 100(4) and to have Committee Report 8-18(3), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2016-2017 Public Accounts, be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for consideration later today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and, I agree, the Minister could go on all day, but let's get back to the business at hand. Another comment, you know, perhaps when the media is enquiring into the low achievement, the Minister could be the one to respond instead of her department, because that is a lot more optimistic than the message that the public is getting, which is things are not moving as far as they should. The action plan for education renewal is extremely ambitious. It has around 200 targets that were supposed to be met by this point in time. Of those 200 targets, how many targets have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For over a decade, the NWT has had problems with student achievement. After five years of education renewal, there is still little improvement in student achievement. Can the Minister comment on the state of the situation for student achievement and whether or not she believes education renewal is working? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, this addresses the concern we heard from the public, even in communities that did not want cannabis or that did not want cannabis opportunities or did not see any side of the economic equation but were merely looking at it from a public safety / public health equation. I believe all or at least the vast majority wanted a share of cannabis revenues, either to help them with enforcement, to help with public education. In Inuvik, for example, we heard someone say all of the cannabis revenue should go to community public infrastructure to close the infrastructure gap...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today, I rise to speak to an important issue that is integral to the development of our territory: the education of our children and young Northerners. Earlier this month, in a CBC article, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment confirmed that the educational achievement of our school children is lower than hoped for.

The article reported that just over half of grade 6 students and about 47 per cent of grade 9 students met an acceptable standard in English. While, in math, this was shown to be worse than 43 per cent achieving acceptable standards in grade 6...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The laws of supply and demand have a particular relevance to illicit substances such as cannabis, or any drug for that matter. Narcotics are easy to produce, especially cannabis. It is a weed; it grows just about anywhere. It is easy to produce, and the price point of cannabis is, in fact, created largely by its illegal status, which has fuelled the profitability for organized crime and low-level dealers to make a living off the sale of illicit cannabis.

To deal with that market, because clearly the demand in the Northwest Territories is very high, as it is across the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommend that the Government of the Northwest Territories work with the Government of Canada and other government partners to resolve outstanding questions on record suspensions for offences related to cannabis possession. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As our report notes, the committee worked with the government to amend the bill to remove the provisions for a cannabis advisory council, as there was no clear indication of what it would be used for and there was a concern that it would allow an unelected body to weigh in on policy decisions that are more properly vested in the standing committee in our unique consensus system. However, there still is need for an internal government approach to future cannabis-based products, high-potency cannabis products, and licensed establishments for cannabis consumption.

As we have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Again, I think this is an important piece of the puzzle that we need to resolve. I would like to ask for a recorded vote. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this Assembly recommend that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a fully costed implementation plan for Bill 6, Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Implementation Act, including multi-demographic public education, enforcement planning, and expected cannabis revenues;

And further, that this plan be returned to the Standing Committee on Government Operations and the Standing Committee on Social Development for review prior to legalization day;

And furthermore, that the final plan be made available to the public. Thank you, Mr. Chair.