Kevin O'Reilly

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay. I think I understand that a little bit better, and a better presentation next year would be helpful. I am concerned that there are growing revenues here that we don't seem to be spending on the Yellowknife Airport. It has grown now by $5 million over two years. Why are we not spending this money on improvements at the Yellowknife Airport? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That is helpful information. I guess I am wondering, though, about a bigger visitor centre, a better visitor centre for Yellowknife, and what the department is doing with the City or other interests to work towards a new visitor centre for Yellowknife, maybe a territorial visitor centre, as Whitehorse has for the Yukon. Is there any funding in the 2019-2020 budget for that kind of work? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for agreeing that he is going to talk to his colleague, the Minister of Finance. Look, I don't think this is rocket science. I think that it is probably a paragraph in your business plan. It is a table that shows the carryovers, where they might be occurring, and some reasons why they are happening. I don't know why the Minister of Finance would have to approve that going into a business plan, but if the Minister wants to chat with him and have that, that is great.

I think we need to get to the bottom of why this money is not going out the door on...

Merci, Monsieur le President. Thanks to the Minister for that. I have discussed with her constituent issues and raised this issue with her. We have clear cases that we have discussed together. I have constituents who get cut off, and they have nothing to live with. We have to fix this, and I hear the commitment from the Minister to work on this. I expect all of my colleagues to give her suggestions on how to improve the system, because we shouldn't be cutting people off.

I have supported the Minister in this administrative review, and I hope it includes indexing, but we need a more systematic...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I appreciate the reasons provided by the deputy minister, and I think I have heard them before. I want to know, though: does the department systemically track this across all infrastructure projects? Do they categorize the reasons why there are delays across the whole spending that takes place within the department? The project that they manage? It is great that they track this on an individual project by project basis, but do they roll this up so that they can see where the problem areas are, the systemic problems? That is what I am asking the deputy minister: are the...

Thanks to the Minister. It is all good news. I do sincerely appreciate her work on this area. I have repeatedly mentioned the need to index our Income Security Programs. Of course, those include income assistance, student financial assistance, seniors, and benefits to people with disabilities. We need to index those to the cost of living. Is the indexing of income security payments an element of the current review, and will recommendations be made to introduce indexing?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I am glad to hear that there is a client-based project tracking system. I take it by that, then, it is individual projects where Infrastructure is managing these projects for other departments. Is that rolled up in some way across the whole government, and does it include the infrastructure projects that the department itself is undertaking? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Education, Culture and Employment offers a number of programs to support our residents in several ways. These programs include income support for post-secondary students and seniors and income assistance for low-income families and children, with additional amounts for people with disabilities. Many recipients of support programs say that accessing them can be difficult, discouraging, and demoralizing. The processes for income assistance, in particular, are very rigid and prescribed in regulations providing very little flexibility in response to client needs.

The...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. The Minister well knows my views on this, that the mandate is so broad you could drive trucks through it. Here is a clear example of the Minister driving some trucks through the mandate. Look, if the priority is public safety, and I believe it should be, the Minister and his department should be working at replacing the Frank Channel bridge. The Slave Geological Province road should wait. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the Minister putting that on the record that is his priority and for the department, his work on the Slave Geological Province road over the Frank Channel bridge. I am glad that he put it on the record, because I don't think that should be the priority. The Minister even said public safety should be number one, so I really don't understand why the Minister is putting the Slave Geological Province Road as a priority over the Frank Channel bridge. That is what he said. You can check Hansard if we want, but I disagree with that priority and I don't think that is in...