Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, who is also responsible for Income Security programs. I spoke in my statement of a number of issues. I see from the Education, Culture and Employment website that there is an updated Income Assistance policy manual dated October 2019. Although the Social Assistance Appeals Regulations require that an officer inform clients in writing of their entitlement appeal, I see no reference to this in the manual or in the correspondence that has been provided to me. Can the Minister tell us whether the...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. We inherited management of the diamond mines, as well. The Minister knows that. I am not making any comparison between what the diamond mines do, because they are large corporate entities that have lots of resources still attached to them. I know how hard our inspectors work. This has nothing to do with the inspectors. They do a fantastic job. I just want to make sure that we have the right level of resources to get the job done. How do we determine what our needs are? Is there any kind of needs assessment, any examination of this gap? I know you folks have some kind...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Minister for that. I want to move on to the Office of Devolution Initiatives. In her opening remarks, she mentioned that one of the purposes of this office is that they are assigned the lead of a review of the NWT Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement transitional provisions as they relate to the MVRMA. I think that I understand what that is about, but what is our objective in that review? What are we trying to accomplish? Thanks, Madam Chair

Thanks, Madam Chair. I recall seeing in the last Assembly a policy that was virtually finished. I think all it needed was somebody to sign it. I am going to leave that with the Minister. I don't think it needs two years. It was already finished. She just has to probably pick up the old document, reprint it, and sign it. I want to move on to the single-window service centres. I think the last one that was established was in Jean Marie in 2018-2019. It doesn't look like there is anything in this budget for another community. Is that the case? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess I’m just trying to reconcile the figure for 2018-2019. The actual is $754,000, and then, for 2020-2021, it’s $439,000. Were there some pre-election expenditures then, back in 2018-2019, that we start to see a ramping up? Maybe I’m just trying to understand that, the cycle here, and it’s off-sheet. Is that what happened? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Well, great to get that firsthand experience right at the table. I am still a little bit skeptical. Look, I appreciate that, but I just think that those deputy ministers are put into a very difficult situation, where they have full-time employment and then they're doing this on the side. I just don't think it's fair to our deputy ministers, either. I take the Minister's commitment to review this, moving forward, and I am sure that Members of this House will continue to remind her of that commitment and look to see progress on it. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I know that the bulk of the workload happens during an election year. We also made some changes to the Elections Act in the last Assembly to better define the role of the Chief Electoral Officer and give them a bit more of a mandate in terms of public education and promotion and so on. I’m just a bit surprised to see that we’re not budgeting for anybody in the office as of, starting, April 1st. What is the $439,000 for? Are we going to have some kind of contract to have somebody to serve in that capacity? I'm just trying to understand what’s happening here, Madam Chair. It...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Minister for that response. She dealt with everything except the issue of deputy ministers being appointed to serve on boards. We saw, I think, a troubling trend of that in the last Assembly, the public board for the Northwest Territories Power Corporation was replaced by deputy ministers. Aurora College, that board was removed. What are the Premier's plans, moving forward, with restoring public governance to some of these key corporations and boards, moving forward? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks. No, that’s good to know. Thanks, I don’t have any further question. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Merci, monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I am not sure what the problem is. This is a one-page regulation; one page. These limits are in there. Let's just fix it. The Minister can fix it tomorrow, if she wants. Can the Minister explain when and how long this review is that she is going to undertake? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.