Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I went through the fact that a number of jurisdictions are finally, I think, taking the long overdue step of introducing some paid sick days for workers under their employment standards legislation. My question for the Minister is will he do the same? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suspect there's a much larger conversation here about the appropriateness of NDAs in society generally and with the government, you know, sometimes ask for NDAs when perhaps the victim does not even want them. But I guess I'll go to settlement agreements that are contract disputes, I know in the past they have had confidentiality requirements, which I think if we're paying out millions of dollars of public money in some sort of construction dispute, we should have a principle that there isn't one so that when I see that money in a corresponding budget or a public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll have questions at another time about if we can somehow perhaps take what's filed in the courts and get it somewhat public. I know there's some tension in doing that with matters before the courts. But I guess I want to talk about after that process.

You know, none of us want to see a $100 million all of a sudden show up in our budget. If we do settle these, and I assume we'll settle them for much less than that, does that get reported publicly anywhere, Mr. Speaker?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would ask that, you know, even if the government disagrees with this motion, they could try to explain what was going on. The auditor general told us that the Old Stanton was a P3, and the GNWT accountants disagreed. We had a battle of the experts going on in committee. And I don't know public accounting standards well enough, or the new P3 standards well enough, but to me when the Auditor General of Canada tells you something is away, according to the public accounts, you listen to them. So I would like to hear a bit more of a detailed response to this motion. Thank...

Madam Chair, the committee's report was read into the record on December 2nd, 2021. I do not have any additional substantive comments to add at this time. Individual Members may have comments on the report. I'd like to thank committee, the department, and the auditor general for their work on this report. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I empathize with the concern that we had 22 priorities, and that was too many, and the future Assembly should aim to have less. But I am still not convinced that if we had less priorities we would be in a much better situation. I think there is a bit of a bellwether, that we're at our halfway mark and then there's a sense of frustration in this House. Notably, we have been in a global pandemic and steering the GNWT ship is a difficult task and COVID has not made that easier. But, Mr. Speaker, I believe we have to pick some of those priorities and get them done. And to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We came into this Assembly and we had a pretty tight fiscal situation, and so I have a dream. I have a dream of leaving the next Assembly $100 million of room in their debt ceiling. Enough to pay for a bad forest fire season or a flood but probably not both, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we are on track to spend more money than any Assembly in history. We are on track to also add more debt than any Assembly in history. This budget is worth $500 million, Mr. Speaker.

And, you know, I actually have very little issue with the individual projects in here. You know, an NWT budget...

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the comptroller general, in consultation with the Office of the Auditor General of Canada and the Standing Committee on Government Operations, study potential changes to the public accounts to make them more user friendly and accessible while ensuring a high degree of transparency and accountability from the Government of the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the comptroller general add to the financial statement discussion and analysis section of the public accounts several reporting items that are present in public accounts of other jurisdictions; specifically,

Population data;

Unemployment rates;

Key nonfinancial results of major sectors;

Variances between budget and actuals and between current and prior year actuals by revenue source;

Variances between budget and actuals between current and prior year actuals by expense program and object;

Discussion details on each liability line item; and,

Clas...

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Department of Finance undertake a review of their fiscal responsibility policy to ensure that the policy meets its objective for long-term fiscal sustainability.

And further, that the department provide the committee with an opportunity to comment on any proposed provisions to this policy. Thank you, Madam Chair.