Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. I understand it's not a formal review, but I appreciate his interest in the file. He sat in the House last year, or in the last Assembly. He's from a community that has Ecole Boreale, so I'm glad to hear he's started work on this. Our government needs a better approach to collaboration with the francophone community over implementation of education rights. I'm wondering: how will the Minister ensure this relationship changes as we begin the 19th Assembly? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I want to commend the Minister. This is a different approach. This is not what we saw in the last Assembly. I want to encourage her to do this, and I think that it is a great improvement. It was what previous Finance Ministers had done in the past. In fact, I think the last revenue options paper is still available on the Department of Finance website. I think it is dated 2016, although I don't really recall if there was much public engagement around that.

Will the efforts by the Minister, though, include some new ideas around raising revenues? I'm going to lay out some, and...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I sat on City Council, and City Council would spend money on this, too. What kinds of things are we actually advocating there, at the CRTC? We seem to pay the highest phone and internet rates in the world in the Northwest Territories, and I am just wondering what kind of things we actually are advocating for there. Thanks, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the Minister for that information. Given that our government has ended up in court at least four times regarding francophone first-language education rights, can the Minister give us an estimate of how much money has been spent on these court proceedings by our government?

Thanks, Madam Chair. Presumably, we're dealing with all of these pages right now? I just want to get that checked. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the commitment on the part of the Minister. That's more than we got out of the previous Minister of Finance, who was not even prepared to admit that there was an issue or a problem, so that's good. I would suggest that the Minister start with reviewing some of the correspondence and reports from the Standing Committee on Government Operations from the last Assembly. I wasn't even a member of the committee, but I did sit in on some of their deliberations, and this was a source of some contention, and those issues were brought to the attention of the previous...

Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] I have spoken several times, though, in this House about the often strained relationship between the Department of Education and the NWT francophone community.

On July 2, 2019, the NWT Supreme Court ruled against this government in relation to constitutionally entrenched French-language rights. The Minister did not properly apply the policy on admission of non-rights holders. The Minister was directed to reconsider her decision while paying attention to the need for a restorative approach to French first language education.

I am disappointed with...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm not sure it really makes much difference, but I guess I do think that we owe it to the public to be able to tell them, and disclose publicly, how much the management fees are that we are paying to a contracted party to manage our Heritage Fund. Can I get a commitment out of the Minister to provide that information publicly? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. I have had this issue brought to my attention by some constituents, as well. When someone is not successful in a GNWT competition, are they actually informed of whatever appeal rights they may have? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I just want to go on record as strongly supporting this initiative. It is something that I raised in my first term, and I continue to believe this is the direction that we can and should be moving in. I think this is part of building a knowledge economy for the Northwest Territories. There are a lot of universities doing work here now. Laurier, Wilfred Laurier, has an office here in Yellowknife. We should be finding ways to build on those partnerships and including that as part of the polytechnic work that we can and should be doing in the future.

Our family, we have two...