Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this month, youth from across the territory came together here in the Chamber for the annual Youth Parliament. Model parliaments such as the one recently hosted by this Legislative Assembly are incredibly important in not only ensuring continued democratic participation of future generations, but as also integral to passing on the knowledge of how our system works to the next generation of leaders.

Our young parliamentarians showed us that they already have a strong grasp of the issues which face our territory today and made compelling arguments for increasing...

Thank you. Look, I appreciate the Minister's passion on this, but we are not talking about forcibly apprehending children and forcing them into daycare with no parental consent. We are saying that parents, the people in the communities, the people in Yellowknife, hard-working Northerners who, because of how our economy works, which is very expensive, we all know the cost of living is very high, that you need to work. If single mothers are going to work, if families are going to work, then they need those options available to them.

Junior kindergarten and other policies have priced the private...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee would like to consider Minister's Statement 158-18(3), Developments in Early Childhood Programs and Services. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The Minister has a reputation as a mind reader in some of these exchanges we have in question period, and that was my next question. I know that a lot of these supports are already there. We've seen them in business planning reviews; we've seen them in budget reviews, and it seems like a lot of the kids who came forward just didn't know about them. I know that all kids are connected, now, through online. My son has a Google account, and he is nine years old. So is there a way for the Minister to work with his colleagues in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and the school...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I talked about some of the work that our young parliamentarians did when they were here earlier this month on mental health. It was a very impassioned debate, and I think they offered a lot of things. Of course, our government has a Youth Mental Health Action Plan and there are some major changes to how mental health supports are offered in schools that were made in the last operational budget. I'm wondering if the Minister of Health and Social Services can speak to some of the concerns raised in the motion that was debated in Youth Parliament...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your Standing Committee on Government Operations is pleased to provide its Report on the Review of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, and commends it to the House.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations ("the committee") is pleased to report on its review of Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act or ATIPP Act.

Bill 29: An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act was sponsored by the Department of Justice and has been referred to the Standing...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Reflecting on some other commentary that has been made, I think junior kindergarten is a good idea, but the devil is always in the details. One of the unintended consequences of the program has been making the private daycare industry basically untenable from a revenue standpoint and pricing private spaces out of the market. We have dealt with that in this Assembly very recently, and it was not a straightforward solution.

Given that, given that there is going to be an ever-increasing need for daycare when the Minister has said earlier that parents in Yellowknife understand...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to the Minister. The final recommendation I might propose, and I am wondering if the Minister would take this up, is to form some sort of mental health advisory body specifically for youth mental health and specifically representative or made up of youth from across the territory. Can the Minister work to establish some sort of advisory body to inform the department's operations? Clearly, they have a lot of good stuff going on. It's just not getting to the target audience, so I think having a body like that, made up of young people, would greatly enhance the...

That's great news, and I think that this is a really key initiative that young people are speaking out and speaking up on, and that's why we need to really pay attention to it. It sounds like we're making good progress.

They also brought forward the need for online mental health resources for youth to be made available, including online peer support and anonymous counselling options. In many ways, young people want to engage through mobile devices or by keeping their identity somewhat depersonalized. Does the department offer these services, or are these services offered in schools or some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I will finish off the end of the report once I find the page. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Clause 5 of Bill 29 proposes to amend the deadline for a public body to respond to an access request from 30 calendar days to 20 business days. Under subsection 11(1), the act allows a public body to extend this initial deadline "for a reasonable period." Clause 6 of the bill changes strikes out "for a reasonable period" and substitutes "for a period not exceeding 20 business days," placing a hard deadline on the extension a public body may grant itself. The...