R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the feedback that was submitted online was unanimous, so it was possible that these organizations did submit feedback. And I will say that despite the engagement period being closed and the drafting of the What We Heard report being near completion, we're always open to feedback. If we receive a letter now from an Indigenous government or the Native Women's Association, that will definitely be taken into consideration. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I won't be the Minister to introduce legislation for paid sick leave but as I stated when the Member asked these questions back in February and then before that in December, we are looking the department is looking into amendments to the Employment Standards Act. They've completed a crossjurisdictional scan across Canada and discovered there's a number of areas where we need to improve our legislation to modernize it. As part of that work, we are going to go out and engage with employers, with employees, and ask these types of questions. You know, do you provide sick...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could provide direction but no one would listen to me. The decision of whether or not to remand someone, to detain someone when they've been charged, lies with the courts, and so it's the prosecution, the defence, and the courts who make that decision and the courts are independent of course. Here we are in the Legislative Assembly which is one branch, the government is another branch, and the courts are the third branch. And I have no authority over that branch. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's a big question. I'll do my best to keep my answers short.

So the most recent information we have is from the 2021 calendar year, and that shows us actually a decrease in crime during that time. The total crime rate went down by 3 percent in the Northwest Territories driven by a reduction in robbery, a 21 percent decrease in drug offences, as well as a 7 percent decrease in sexual assault offences. On the other side, we saw an increase in assaults and breaking and entering. But that's 2021, and I know the Member there's issues going on right now in his community...

Thank you I think the Member was referencing the residential school residence in Fort Smith, not a day school. So we are engaging with the federal government to try and find some funds to make these projects a reality. I'm heading to Ottawa in a few weeks to have discussions with a number of Ministers. So I don't have a date yet because we don't have the money yet. Development of these facilities is highly dependent upon federal funding. Thank you

Thank you. So what we've asked is for the band to put together a proposal for a school according to the capital standards, Education, Culture and Employment's capital standards on school projects. And then, as well, a plan for anything additional that they would like so that we have sort of a base model to go off of and then we can look at additional things that usually aren't in schools and figure out if there's ways to find funding to make that happen. Thank you.

Thank you there's money from a number of sources so I will hand it to Mr. Shannon to discuss that. Thank you

To my left I have deputy minister John MacDonald, and to my right is assistant deputy minister of corporate services Sam Shannon.

Thank you so the Member's raising some very interesting and different budgeting proposals, and I think that's more of a conversation to have with the Minister of Finance. We budget for projects that we intend to complete. And there are funds in case of a school, if there is a boiler that explodes in school, it's not like there's no money listed in here that so that means we'll just never fix it. We deal with issues as they arise. We perform maintenance. The school is old, but there have been retrofits. There's regular maintenance. So I don't want anyone here to leave thinking that the school...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I stated, each campus serves a purpose. In Fort Smith, that's where the administration of the college takes place, and there's no intention to change that. The other campuses each have their roles as well. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.