Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories commit to a second phase of legislative changes to protect, promote, and revitalize official and Indigenous languages in the 20th Assembly;

And further, this new legislation should be based on past recommendations, suggestions arising during the review of Bill 63, and the advice in committee's upcoming report on its statutory review of the Official Languages Act;

And furthermore, the new legislation should also seek to implement Articles 13 and 14 of the United Nations Declaration on the...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Can I just confirm then that the entirety of this $6.79 million is agency nurse contracts that it I guess, it doesn't include overtime or other you know, the labour markets bonus we gave I forget what it's called. You know, there's a lot of increased nursing costs but is this the totality of this just that we're bringing up more and more agency nurses? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the Honourable Member for Thebacha, that Committee Report 4919(2), Standing Committee on Government Operations' Report on the 20212022 Review of the Official Languages Act, be received by the Assembly and moved into Committee of the Whole for further consideration. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. Looking next at radiology services, I see that is costing us another $1.5 million. Can I just get another bit of an explanation on why we need another $1.5 million for radiology services. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess I don't fully quite understand it. One of the complaints I know we have heard is that a manager over at the health authority will identify a candidate and want to hire them and then they have to quick it over to, I assume someone in HR I don't know if it's actually specifically the recruitment unit and then there's this turnaround time. And I believe, you know, we've actually been improving it so perhaps that is the question. Can someone just tell me how quickly HR is now processing, especially for health and I know there's multiple different...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm looking at page 159, and I see that human resources unit within Finance is adding eight new positions. Can someone just tell me what those positions are? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend is my least favourite day of the year, Mr. Speaker. And that's the day the clocks go forward. And, Mr. Speaker, it's not just me who hates the time change. Every single year the day after the time change there's a spike in car accidents, Mr. Speaker. People hate the time change so much they are crashing their cars in protest.

Mr. Speaker, the day after time change, the economy loses millions of dollars in economic productivity, and the Monday following time change is the Number 1 sick day consistently in the GNWT, Mr. Speaker. People awake and, in protest of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Can someone just try to explain to me whether there how this unit has changed over time with health hiring? My understanding is prior to the amalgamation, the health authorities were doing all of their hiring themselves and they had their own HR officers. That's no longer the case. And I think now we have we still have a bit of a hybrid model where there are some hiring being done in health with the assistance of this unit? Can someone just try to explain it to me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is the Premier going to listen to the people of the Northwest Territories and get rid of the time change?

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I move that this Assembly call on the federal government to better recognize the specific needs and circumstances of the Northwest Territories in its climate change approach. These specific needs include significantly more funding to make renewable energy options accessible and affordable for all Northerners;

Further, committee recommends that the Premier of the Northwest Territories convey this motion without delay to the Prime Minister of Canada with a letter requesting a reply.

Thank you, Madam Chair.