Julie Green

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge the achievements of my constituent, Nicole Latour, with the Province of Nova Scotia Chief Electoral Officer's Quality, Value and Service Award, recognizing outstanding achievements by elections officers. As Canada's only First Nations Chief Electoral Officer, Ms. Latour advised the Nova Scotia Chief Electoral Officer on a strategy to increase Indigenous Peoples' participation in provincial elections. Her advice produced good results, and she has been honoured with this award. Please join me in offering congratulations to Ms. Latour...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, so I feel like I am putting the pieces together now. So one of the key pieces will be the development and implementation or the remainder of the development and implementation of the Arctic Policy Framework; is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that clarification. So is the priority task, then, of this office to pursue the themes that the Minister developed in his red alert statement of last November? Thank you.

Thank you for the answer. Nothing further.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we have departments in this government that have 30 people to cover the range of tasks that are described as the responsibility of this one individual. So can the Minister please tell us, of all those tasks that he just outlined, what the priorities are? What are the top two priorities of the person in this role? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for that. I guess that is as close as we are going to get. The Senior Home Heating Subsidy is a popular program because it offsets one of the greatest household expenses. Is this program due for changes of any kind; income testing, increased accessibility, or any other changes? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. The 2016-2017 NWT Rental Office Report shows an enormous increase in wait times from the norms of the previous five years. Why has the turnaround time between the dates of application filing and the dates of hearing become so long? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am unclear what the barrier is to the Minister advocating for indexing this benefit to inflation. Could he please elaborate on that? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thank you. What I am most concerned about is that, because this program is being starved of students, the staff will soon find other jobs, because they are not going to be able to wait for all of the wheels of government to turn ever so slowly to decide their fate. My concern is that these decisions will not be made in a way that is timely enough for the staff to stay in their positions. Does the Minister share this concern? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are about page 46. The department increased the Senior Citizens Supplementary Benefit for the first time in many years last September. I am wondering if the Minister will consider indexing this benefit so that it retains its value to seniors according to the cost of living.