Kevin O'Reilly

Merci, Monsieur le President. Over recent months, my office has done a lot of work on behalf of tenants in public housing units in the Lanky Court apartment complex in my riding. It's been a long and very difficult process to get responses from the housing minister on behalf of the Yellowknife Housing Authority working with Northview Apartment Real Estate Investment Trust. More importantly, actual improvements to housing conditions do not seem to have materialized.

There have been cockroach and bed bug infestations and housing conditions no one should have to endure. Young children being...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My question is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources.

The Department conducted a fiveweek public engagement on a new Forest Act that concluded on December 28, 2022. No report on that work has been released to date. The summary of policy intentions document made no mention of a public registry or what information would be made publicly available. To better understand what information is currently public and the number of authorizations and decisions made under existing legislation, please provide the following:

The number of instances where decisions...

Merci, Monsieur le Président. I want to thank the Minister for that. And I'll advise my constituents that if they have problems with storage containers and so on, they should contact the Minister's office. As bad as conditions are in Lanky Court, the statistics bureau figures on specific housing problems reveal that about 10 percent of NWT houses have mold and/or insect pest problems. This strikes me as a pandemic, Mr. Speaker. What public education and awareness measures does Housing NWT or community housing organizations take to raise awareness of these problems and give advice on actions...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister for Housing NWT. I outlined a myriad of problems brought to my office by constituents in public housing at Lanky Court. Can the Minister tell us why individuals being moved out of their public housing units to repair them are being charged moving expenses and utility account service charges, and will the Minister commit to reimbursing such unfair charges? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I rise to speak to the principle of Bill 60, the Act to Amend the Petroleum Products and Carbon Tax Act.

The Finance Minister introduced this bill yesterday, and there was very little public information available on what it actually means. Like the original legislation that was passed narrowly in the last Assembly, this bill is a result of federal pressure and leadership on the climate crisis. This reflects an urgent need to speed up reductions of greenhouse gas emissions to save this planet. I support those federal efforts and a carbon tax in general but strongly...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 74719(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 20222023, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 74719(2) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Madam la Presidente. I want to thank the Minister for recognizing the work of lowly NGOs and getting them to do the work of government again. So one of the reasons the Minister keeps giving for a minimum wage keeping minimum wage so low is the impact of a higher wage on small businesses, and the Minister just said that few businesses pay the minimum wage. So can the Minister tell us whether this government is considering a further package of wage topups for low income workers to lift these people out of poverty? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks. Well, whether it's to the benefit of the region or not that's I think part of the question, is that the regional study needs to grapple with is, you know, whether you want a road or whether you want to have caribou. And especially at a time where the caribou numbers are so low with the Bathurst herd, and I just don't think that they can handle this kind of disturbance. But that's the kind of issues that the regional study needs to deal with and to figure out if this sort of thing would actually be a net benefit at the end of the day. But, again, I'm very happy to hear that the Minister...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. First, I'd like to get some clarity on the basic principles of the new minimum wage approach announced in August. Can the Minister tell us how poverty and a living wage were considered in the development of this new approach to a minimum wage? Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so there's 15 about $15 million that's not going to be spent on socalled Slave Geological Province AllWeather Road Highway Environmental Assessment. So how does that affect the timeline for that project? Thanks, Mr. Chair.