Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to wave off a second question until the Premier had said the last piece. I was going to concede on maybe his contrition in the sense of he'll communicate better or work better. For the record, Mr. Speaker, we work here too, not just Cabinet, and in theory the Premier's principal secretary should be working with Members and, you know, whatnot. That said, how much is this office going to cost now that he's made this unilateral decision? Because we know how much they're paid because on the -- what's online, the GNWT website. They're paid the highest employee we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two sets of visitors in the gallery today. I'll start with the shorter list but not anywhere less worthy. The NWT Literacy Council is represented by one of my constituents today, Ms. Katie Johnson. She's also an advocate for many other causes which I certainly endorse.

The other group I'd like to recognize is a bevy of ladies, very smart, charming, and hardworking volunteers, and they are as follows: Ms. Martha McLellan, Ms. Sandra Hockes, Ms. Mika Cameron; and, a special thanks goes to Ms. Linda Koe who helped me with my statement today. And I wish to thank each...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I heard an opening with potentially a couple Members who are trying to decide which way to go, and I think I can help clarify or aid in their final-final decision. So maybe if someone's leaning towards a yes but sitting on the no side, hopefully this will do it, or someone looking for the reason why it was sort of filtered or created this way, I'm hoping I can do that.

I just want to respond to a couple things. You know, Cabinet's surprised by this motion. I assure you everybody on this House was surprised by this initiative in general, how it was cut. So I...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'd like to move a motion. I move that $5,250,000 be deleted from the 2025-2026 Main Estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'll speak to it at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And by no means am I getting into the geopolitical experience or wave down there, and that wasn't the intention of the specific line. But my concern is about young people exercising their opinion and how what oversight or abilities does the department see or have to address these types of issues.

I am aware of another parent bringing forward an issue that the individual teachers bring up on the screen in the classroom, how to complain about civic politicians where they're -- the teachers are exercising their personal opinions and encouraging students to focus their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to ask a question, not about the money but about the establishment of the envoy, where he got his mandate from, Indigenous governance.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. This brings me to the question of concerns of policy and what type of oversight is provided. The circumstances I'll sort of framework is that I'll start with the beginning is does the department have any policy or influence on the school boards and authorities to be -- I guess I'm trying to say it -- nonpartisan in their political intervention in education? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From my understanding, I didn't know we had the federal lands Minister here, so I'll focus strictly on territorial lands and territorial lands that may or may not need a survey. I thought they worked through the cost of the survey issue in order to transfer them in larger quantums rather than parcel them out into small pieces which costs a fortune. So, Mr. Speaker, has any specific headway been gained or made through that type of challenge to ensure that it's an efficient process and doesn't become a cost burdensome to the municipality? Thank you.

So how did they -- how did it come up with that the lottery is the best or most efficient way of doing this? Noting that it was given a week's notice that they would open it up for applications, 60 were already allocated, in other words unavailable, and the remainder would be open for anybody who were able to put a package together. Was there no consideration to evaluation of impacts of these particular jobs or on positions not being filled? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker; I was worried you missed me.

Mr. Speaker, I guess I'm so old I remember MACA managing the land, so I'll redirect the exact same questions to the Minister of ECC which I'll give him a moment because it looks like he's ready. But I can repeat the question in case he needs me to repeat it. That said, the question was about the block land transfers to municipalities, and I've heard in particular that there's been some challenges in the Yellowknife transfer. Can he bring this House up to speed as to what is being done and what he can do to ensure that we have timely and...