Katrina Nokleby

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at the line item around Skills Canada. I note there was the and it's quite small. But it's important to me. I've been a power up mentor before for the programs, and I think they do a lot of really great work. I know it's been a struggle for them during COVID because a lot of their stuff is going in to schools and dealing with children and youth and not being able to do so has been hard.

So I guess my first question is the extra $20,000 or $21,000 that was there in the 20212022 Actuals, was that a COVID bumpup?

And then could the Minister speak to...

Thank you, I'll rephrase. Are one of the stakeholders that the government consulted within the government, were they the employees within OROGO? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Minister herself said that being in 2019 was preCOVID, so I do think there is definitely some lessons to be learned and knowledge to be captured by following through on that, and I would ask that hopefully the Disabilities Council would work with the Minister and the department to provide some feedback.

My next question is it would only seem to me to be a retaliatory measure, why did the Minister ask the RCMP to investigate the whistleblowers? The Safety Act enshrines a worker's right to a safe workplace. How can this be honoured if workers are afraid to speak out...

Thank you, Madam Chair. While I may disagree with my colleague about the interest in oil and gas in the region, I share his concerns with the cutting of the funding to this department or to this regulator.

While I don't want to sit here and split hairs on where the money went, where my concern lies is that with the cutting of two positions, one at least having been technical, I'm concerned that the review did not necessarily incorporate the opinion of technical people. And one of the reasons that I ran was because I felt there was an absence of scientific knowledge in decisionmaking in this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

What are the ramifications of the sixmonth gap in the contractors for the sober centre? For example, will there be additional expense incurred by the GNWT? Is the department going to retain the dozens of employees from the centre to minimize the disruption to clients? Any information that we can get would be very helpful so I can reassure my constituents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is probably an area I don't know a lot about sorry, Madam Chair. An area that I don't know a lot about but, you know, we have talked a lot on the social development committee about perhaps a child's advocate. If we were to have a child advocate, does the Minister or the department think that this would then maybe take some of the strain off or relieve the need for the child's lawyer, or am I sort of just they're completely separate and not related? Thank you.

No, I'm good. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is one where, though, it's hard to say that just yeah, because maybe a number a little less or, you know, that doesn't mean that things aren't happening behind the scenes and just aren't being reported. As people are not socializing outside the home so much, there's probably less opportunities for them to have conversations with friends and family to maybe identify and be encouraged to go. I think everyone's aware of my situation in this last week, and I have been reached out to by the RCMP and by being offered victim services. It took me a bit to realize what had...

Yeah, I don't know that I blame the deputy minister. And I am trying to be respectful in how I phrase this, having obviously there's no secret to anybody that, you know, where my passion lies for women and representation. So you know, I think just being live to it is probably a big concern. And then I guess my other suggestion would be that there's some way to engage with small community with women in small communities. And perhaps that's, you know, something to look at a different Minister for but, you know, getting having maybe some specific female focus. And again, I guess I shouldn't...

Yeah, I completely agree with the Minister. I think there that there's an opportunity here for us to mind the data of this these programs to see what to inform our work around the regional economic development plans. And I see the Minister nodding his head, and I'm assuming that that is being or that information from this is being fed into that.

But maybe the Minister could speak a little bit to how that actually works, and are we really taking a full advantage of those resources in order to inform the future plans for us as a territory? Thank you.