Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair; sometimes we all look alike. I want to start by thanking the Finance Minister for carrying through with a number of commitments she made as part of our budget negotiations on the main estimates back in the last sitting. So there's a number of new spending items in here to carry through with those commitments and that those are much appreciated, and I think they were mutually achieved by both sides of the House to on behalf of all the residents of the NWT.

One of the other areas, though, that they agreed upon was changes or reductions in travel expenditures. And I just want...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm going to switch topics slightly. I do not consider this to be resolved and this  okay, two issues: Who's going to help people fill out this form? The two navigators are floating around in the communities. They're there for a couple of days, then they're going on down the valley. Those navigators are not going to be there helping people fill out these forms. Who's going to help them  people, elders who may not speak any English fill out these forms? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister for that. So there is a problem, then, in that the regulations say that the length of term for CSFTNO is tied to the district education authorities, and now we've got one. We will have, if this bill passes, a length of term of office for the Hay River ones, for possibly Hay River commissionaires versus the Yellowknife commissionaires for CSFTNO. So how's this issue going to be fixed? And I'm curious to know why it wasn't discovered earlier. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I think that was a twominute 'no'. Look, I've got only six minutes left on the clock. We've got about 15 minutes left in the Chamber. This is probably the most important thing we're going talk about today, and we're getting a lot of complaints. I'm getting complaints, as a Yellowknife MLA, that there's no way to get the money into people's pockets right now.

I've looked at the application form for the disaster assistance policy and it's, I think, six, eight pages. It's English. If your first language is English  or you don't read or write English, you may be out of luck. I...

Thanks, Madam Chair. First off, I guess I'd like to say that I did raise I've met a number of the Yellowknife MLAs have met with the district education authorities here in Yellowknife, Yellowknife's Catholic School and YK No. 1, and we knew about the situation of how their length of term for their boards was now out of sync with city council. They requested that there be changes made to the Education Act to ensure that their term of office could be bought back in line again otherwise they'd have to hold separate elections from what the City of Yellowknife does and incur extra expenses, which...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can someone explain to me the $5 million line here for flood relief; how was that figure picked? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to deal with Tabled Document 41119(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 20212022; and Committee Report 1619(2), Report on Housing Phase One: Needs for NWT Homeowners and Private Landlords. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Short recess

Merci, Monsieur le President. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Friday, June 4th, 2021, I will move the following motion: Now, therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that the Government of the Northwest Territories develop a food securities strategy by engaging Northwest Territories residents, harvesters, and agricultural producers to develop a coordinated and comprehensive approach to programs and services with specific targets, actions, and timelines.

And further, that the Premier appoint a Minister responsible for food security to lead this work; and furthermore...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that the chair rise and report progress.

Carried

Merci, Monsieur le President; I want to thank the Minister for that. Sometimes I feel like, and I probably even look like a dinosaur, Mr. Speaker. But the real dinosaur here is our climate change approach, which I think is headed for extinction as it's not going to be successful in doing our part to meet emission targets that are required to save this planet. So I'm not prepared to wait until another two years for Cabinet to only find out that it's not on track. It's backend loaded with projects that will never happen.

So can the Minister tell us when Cabinet is going to review and revise the...