Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Presently, the municipal government of the City of Yellowknife only controls 9 percent of the land within its municipal boundary. In order for the City of Yellowknife to access any of the additional lands beyond their land planning, an application has to be made to the Department of Lands. This process has become so burdensome and so difficult to navigate that the City of Yellowknife made it one of their election priorities that all of the vacant Commissioner's land be transferred to the City of Yellowknife within their municipal boundaries. My question is to the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to end the first session of this new Assembly by thanking the public service. In this House, part of our job is to be critical of government, but I want to assure everyone who works in our public service that we are grateful for the work they do, and being a government worker can often be a thankless job.

We elected officials must remember that the GNWT is not some amorphous, impersonal machine, but it is made up of hard-working people who take pride in their jobs. It is our nurses who heal the sick. It is our teachers who are raising the next generation of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the problem here is that the City of Yellowknife feels that the current process set out by the Department of Lands is so difficult that they can't actually develop vacant land, and it has harmed economic development. They are asking for a solution because the process has become so difficult, which in turn means our other communities are also dealing with this process. Will the Minister commit to reviewing the current process for transitioning Commissioner's lands when a community wishes to use them? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am a strong advocate for restorative justice programming, as I believe that every time we can keep an offender from re-offending, it not only saves us money, but it prevents a victim from being traumatized once again. My questions today are for the Minister of Justice in regard to one specific program, the A New Day Program, which is for men who use domestic violence. My question to the Minister is: how many men are currently using this program?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Looking at this, our short-term borrowing limit is $525 million. Our long-term debt appears to be $419. We've now surpasses short-term over long-term. I really get a sense that this is a bit of a shell game in that we're moving money around, and I don't think that this is correctly characterized as short-term debt. Much of this, I am quite confident, is in fact long-term debt. Perhaps the Minister of Finance can tell me, I recognize this is getting largely into the budget, but what the expectation is for converting this short-term debt to long-term debt. Thank you...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can the Minister of Finance tell us what the interest we will pay on this $135-million supplemental is?

Thank you, Madam Chair. One final question: is this the largest asset presently owned by the GNWT?

Thank you, Madam Chair. With the hospital being valued at $300 million and MACA requiring an extra $4.5 million here to make up property tax assessments, can the Minister of Finance provide me: what percentage of total property tax assessments under the grant-in-lieu program does the hospital make up to the City of Yellowknife? I hope that question was clear. Thank you.

Yes, I am well aware of the difficulties, as is the Minister of Justice, having worked a number of years, including together, in the criminal justice sphere.

My question to the Minister is: is similar programming directed at men who use violence available in communities other than Yellowknife?

As we go into mandate creation, I will be advocating for a number of restorative justice programs to be included. However, this ultimately comes down to cost. Can the Minister provide the current costs in running a program, the A New Day program?