Rylund Johnson

In favour.

In favour.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I look forward to getting these out there and I think they give something for the public to have a conversation about. They give, you know, something for Regular MLAs to talk to Indigenous governments about. They allow us to have some sort of negotiation conversation in public. But to me, this I would view this as step one. I reviewed the federal principles and interests. You know, there's not a lot of controversy in what they say but then they went, and they made a lot of significant changes to their negotiating mandates on very specific things, you know, such as...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess just I'd like to reflect back on how we got here. We all we got elected, and we came together in a room and created our priority document. And I think since that time, there's been a lot of discussion about probably having less priorities. And I guess I will just frame that as a comment for future Assemblies, that if you make everything a priority then, you know, nothing is a priority.

But then that priority document was given to Cabinet and different than the last Assembly, this is truly a Cabinet's mandate. There was lots of collaboration with Regular Members...

In favour.

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that and, you know, I get that certain positions perhaps need the oneoff policy, but I think we could really be a leader here and we could find positions and pilot a fourday workweek. Perhaps it's a it's a summer Fridays model, which is becoming more common. And then I think we would need to do it as a pilot project and evaluate things such as, you know, were less sick days taken; was there a decline in productivity. I know many workplaces have actually found that it would increase in productivity when shifting to a fourday workweek. So I think we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The debate for shorter workweeks is not a new one. In 1926, Henry Ford brought in the fiveday workweek, and it wasn't until 1960 that Canadian formally adopted a 40hour workweek. And Mr. Speaker, I believe it is time that the NWT be a leader in introducing the fourday workweek.

The pandemic has brought the debate of the fourday workweek back into light as workplaces seek to find a better worklife balance and, as we all know, many workplaces have struggled with recruitment and retention. The GNWT is not alone in that.

Mr. Speaker, numerous municipalities, including...

In favour.

In favour.

No further questions, Mr. Chair. I'll just note that the Standing Committee on Reconciliation and Indigenous Affairs plans to table our interim report in the coming days so I expect we'll have much more conversation following it. Thank you.