Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not to belabour this, but I assume that there are strings attached to this money and how it is used, or has it been given to us with broad latitude to develop the programming as we see fit? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to confirm the other part of my question, it is in the Minister's opinion that this will not impact this Assembly's ability to deliver on its legislative agenda? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you to the Minister. That's a much clearer response. The workshops that we're providing to Indigenous governments or Aboriginal governments, whatever terminology we're using, are those designated authorities or are those self-governments? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Would those devolutionrelated issues be related to legislative drafting? I am wondering if the Minister can provide details. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do understand that, but is the Minister willing to look at those kinds of solutions as a way to increase efficiency and improve service delivery? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am certainly not questioning the competency of our Cabinet Ministers. That is not what is at stake here. What is at stake here is maintaining the confidence that decision-making is publicly recorded. The many lobbyists of jurisdictions have lobbyist registries that provide a certificate that says what a lobbyist is going to be doing, who they are speaking to, and reports of communications between government and their clients. I guess I continue to fail to understand why this isn't required for our jurisdiction. We have a rather large budget at our disposal. How we...

Is it the department's opinion that using the contract service is a more efficient use of resources than having our own in-house reporters? Thank you.

Does the Minister have an idea about the range of these subsidies? Is it going to be targeted at lower-income earners or is it going to be a broader range that will capture the middle class as well, people with good-paying jobs but who are still facing a very high cost of living burden? So what's the range, the income range?

Thank you. I will chalk that up to an accounting practice, Mr. Chairman. Under court reporters, there has been a slight decrease. My understanding of this program is that the court reporters' function heavily relies on contract services with court reporters from Alberta, I believe, is where they are based, from Edmonton. Does this budget line item reflect the cost of hiring the contract services for those reporters, or is it in-house staff? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier today I spoke about the need to take action on very high rents in the City of Yellowknife. The Minister yesterday committed to developing a new rent supplement program by the end of six months. Can the Minister provide a bit more detail about the development of that program and what the scope of it is going to entail? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.