Rylund Johnson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Infrastructure. Every time the office of the DMV changes their hours, it makes news. First they allowed walkins. Then they only went by appointment. And just recently they added two more hours to allow walkins. I'm pretty excited that maybe the DMV will one day get back to regular appointments.

My question, though, is looking forward at the operations of the Yellowknife DMV, is the Minister of Infrastructure willing to have the office be open evenings or weekends, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I mean, perhaps I would like a little more information from the Minister of Health. I get there was also this onetime funding to minimize risk in long-term care, but I'm also curious to the extent this money was spent on making sure that risk is minimized going forward. I know we're not really in the same position as southern jurisdictions with very large private centres, but I'm just kind of curious what the plans are for this $8.5 million. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You know, I never thought I'd be so excited for the Fire Prevention Act, but I'm really looking forward to that piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that Nunavut, after creating a Building Standards Act essentially hired a contracting firm to review the plan review function. My understanding is here we have one person who reviews the plans, and if they go on vacation, simply just no plans get reviewed.

I believe a good way to solve that problem would give the fire marshall a budget to have a contractor on hire as a backup for plan review. Is that...

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I know there's kind of a longterm average here but I suspect that for the Department of Finance's for future projecting that $22 million we'll continually be short, and I know there are some other cost drivers in this area. We've been re-negotiating some of our water bomber contracts and helicopter contracts, as the Minister noted.

I guess, is there a plan to revisit that figure, and can the Minister speak to what are some of the other areas driving costs in fire suppression? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A quick Google search will tell you that the Fort Good Hope seniors home officially opened in February of this year. And then it didn't open. And then the GNWT said it would open at the end of summer. And then it didn't open.

So my question for the Minister responsible of Municipal and Community Affairs is when is the Fort Good Hope seniors home going to open?

No, okay, sorry. I'm glad to hear that the assets are not transferring; we're just covering the insurance. I think this is a win all around, and thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In February of this year, to much celebration, Minister Green and Minister Chinna opened an Elders complex in Fort Good Hope. They went and cut the ribbon. And then, Mr. Speaker, we were even going to hire some people and then the complex never opened. The Office of the Fire Marshal would not give them their occupancy permit. That community then flooded, Mr. Speaker, and many people were evacuated and I'm sure they would have liked to have nine units to house people. But we never opened it. The GNWT said that they'd get it done by the end of summer, Mr. Speaker, and...

Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Northwest Territories Power Corporation and Northland Utilities with oversight, if necessary enforcement from the Public Utilities Board, improve communications with customers so that they are clearer, more comprehensive, more proactive, and more clientcentered, especially with respect to:

eligibility for the income assistance program and how policy changes or new benefit programs like the Canada Recovery Benefit may impact customer eligibility;

The terms and conditions of service documents regarding details on the types and minimum...

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is the first time seeing this. I take it that this means we well, first off, that school boards in Yellowknife used to get their insurance in through Alberta and there was an increase so there was a request that we insure them. I take it that this is what that money is doing. Can I just clarify that we are now paying insurance for the school boards' assets? Thank you.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. I guess perhaps I'll have some more questions during the operations budget on the programming. Can the Minister give us an update of the current capacity of our correctional facilities and whether that's in percentage or number of spaces that are being used. I'll note, you know, we're a very small jurisdiction, and we have three prisons or, you know, five, I guess, if you count women's and youth, depending exactly how you count the facilities. How full are they, and just some justification for having so many prisons in such [Audio] territory. Thank you, Madam...