R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree, we need to grow our population. We need to increase the number of qualified professionals we have here in the territory. And that is why myself and the Minister of ITI have spoken about the immigration file and how we can better combine our efforts. And perhaps that is looking at amalgamating our resources and using them more efficiently. But there is I can assure the Member that while I can't just say yes to everything that she asked, I can say that this is a we do have a renewed focus on this, and we are moving in the direction that the Member would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're not looking to do something like that right now; however, I will say that I have been involved in meetings with all of the ministers of education from across Canada, and we talk about these exact type of things. So I definitely see the value in it.

And I think that as a government, we have to choose what our focuses are, and we can't do everything. We don't invest as much money in immigration as places like the Yukon do. I'm not sure what their budget is, but I know that it is more, and they have more employers, and they can put more emphasis on this.

And so in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those conversations have begun. I will say that that the pandemic has done a couple things. It has really shifted the focus from immigration because no one was coming in for a couple years. So there was very limited thought about travel. But it also highlighted the labour shortages that we have here in the territory. And I think it's actually refocused us now on the need to improve our immigration services and increase the number of people settling in the territory, bringing their services here.

And so we are looking at making some changes. The program that the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been meetings with all the childcare providers, and they have opportunities to ask those questions. You know, these discussions that we're having are great opportunities for us to find out exactly what the issues are and zero in on those.

And so as, you know, the MLAs have brought additional questions and concerns to me, I bring those to the department, and, in turn, the department then brings finds ways to answer those for the programs.

So the best thing to do for a program is to sit down with their early childhood consultant and go over those numbers. And...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We I've stated before that the increase that is laid out in the contribution agreement is 2.3 percent, and if there are legitimate reasons why a business or a childcare centre needs to increase that, we're happy to have those discussions.

I think that a lot of the concerns that we're hearing are increases of 20 or 30 percent from programs that are already at the top end of what is being charged for childcare. So we are accommodating, but we're not accommodating increases that essentially wipe out a reduction in parent fees. Thank you.

Thank you. With us today we have Andrea Giesbrecht, director of labour, development, and standards with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment; and Ian Rennie, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, twice a year we all adjust our clocks by one hour. First, we move them forward, and then we move them back. People have always questioned the wisdom of this annual tradition but in recent years a number of jurisdictions have taken concrete steps towards eliminating seasonal time change.

On Monday, April 4th, the Government of the Northwest Territories will begin a sixweek public engagement to help us determine when and how we will eliminate seasonal time changes. The public engagement will invite residents to share their views on seasonal time change through an online survey. The...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm here today to present Bill 39: An Act to Amend the PostSecondary Education Act.

The PostSecondary Education Act received assent on August 21st, 2019, and is not yet in force. The act creates a structure for recognizing postsecondary institutions within the Northwest Territories and will enable the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university.

The bill seeks to amend the PostSecondary Education Act to address gaps or inconsistencies in the act that were identified during the ongoing drafting of the related regulations. As well, an opportunity was...

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 48: Arbitration Act, be read for the second time.

The bill repeals and replaces the existing Arbitration Act. The bill is based substantially on the Uniformed Arbitration Act adopted in 2016 by the Uniformed Law Conference Of Canada. The bill provides extensive and necessary updates to the law governing arbitration in the Northwest Territories, including provisions respecting:

The commencement and consolidation of arbitral proceedings;

The composition of arbitral tribunals and the appointment and removal of...