Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to thank my colleague from Yellowknife North for stealing a number of my questions, but I will try to do a mop-up operation here. For land use planning, can someone tell me how much we're spending on land use planning in the Wek'eezhii Management Area for 2020-2021? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess my advice to the Minister and the department is that I understand there might be some relationship to the work that they are going to do during a four-year business plan, but that's not the same, necessarily, as a strategic plan. That's my two cents' worth.

Madam Chair, can I move over to the Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board found on 302? I would like to ask how many disputes the Northwest Territories Surface Rights Board has ever dealt with. I think it was created in 2014 or 2015. How many disputes have they dealt with? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can the Minister point me to what line item on page 115, where I would find that increase of one PY? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess why I’m asking these questions, as I said earlier, I’m using my lens as the chair of rules and procedures. I just want to make sure that, this function, that we’re giving the right amount of resources to carry out this function. I guess I’m just going to have to watch this moving forward. Thanks, Madam Chair. That’s all.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just while we are on this Extraordinary Funding Policy, part of the problem is there is no policy. This was raised in the last Assembly. We had some one-offs that made their way mysteriously into the Executive and Indigenous Affairs budget. When is this policy going to be finished? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I don’t want to prolong this, but as chair of rules and procedures, I know that the report from the last election is due very soon. It has to come before rules and procedures, and that’s usually presented by the Chief Electoral Officer. We have a public hearing, we seek input, and so on. If that position is not staffed, I just want to make sure that we’re going to be able to continue to do that work. I understand that there will be a contract put in place. Should we be expecting, then, a supplemental appropriation partway through the year, to properly staff up this office...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to thank the Premier for that response. It's good to hear that board governance is something that is under review. I'm just curious; the deputy ministers who are sitting on boards, do they receive any instructions from Ministers in terms of what they are to do on those boards, or are they at least at arm's length? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. There are some fairly significant changes here. I know that last year, 2019-2020, of course was an election year, so I would expect to see a big increase in expenditures for the year. It has dropped down to $439,000 for 2020-2021, which is lower than the actuals for 2018-2019. Can I get an explanation as to what is happening here? Thanks, Madam Chair. Then I flip the page. I see that there were three full-time staff last year, and now there are no staff. What’s happening here? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks. After a while, we all look the same. Thanks, Madam Chair. I think that this is the part of Executive and Indigenous Affairs where board appointments are, sort of, tracked and so on. I do want to commend even the previous government did a better job at making sure that there was gender balance in our appointments to GNWT committees, boards, and councils, but what we saw in the last Assembly was a trend towards appointment of deputy ministers -- I guess, sometimes they're government employees, and sometimes they're not -- to boards. What is the plan for this Cabinet, moving forward? Are...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I know that one of the recommendations from the Independent Commission to Review Members' Compensation and Benefits -- I may not get the name of it right -- was to look at the issue of benefits for constituency assistants and to actually include that as a program that we would offer constituency assistants. Is this where I would find that, and can someone point me to the line item where that might show an increase? Thanks, Madam Chair.