Steve Norn

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. This is a question for the Minister of Finance. Just for some context here, on April 16th of this year, there were some liquor restrictions for sales that you announced. I have some figures in front of me that people are allowed to buy no more than six 375-millilitre containers of spirits or a maximum daily purchase up of $200 for individual customers. I have a two-prong question. My first part of that question is: how are these amounts determined? The second part of that is: what consultation was carried out with our Indigenous leaders prior to the announcement of...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. Today, I want to talk about the relationship between our government and Indigenous governments. At the beginning of the 19th Assembly, we had a very good roundtable discussion with representatives from all of the Indigenous governments and small communities, and we did that at the Tree of Peace here in Yellowknife just before the portfolios were handed out. That was actually the first meeting that we have ever done. That made me very happy. I thought that was a good direction to go as a group in the 19th Assembly.

During that meeting, we heard very clear from the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that this committee defer the consideration of the estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services at this time. Marsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for the response. If I could just get the Minister to find out a little bit more, it will be good to know if there is any overlap for this, and I want to make sure that we are spending our money wisely within our departments. Mahsi.

Thank you for that answer. I imagine, for the patient stuff, that budget will be a lot higher. Just to be clear, this travel budget here is for staff for HSS travel? Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going back to page 171 now, Madam Chair. There is a line item for contract services. Back from the 2018-2019 actuals, it was at $8.4 million, approximately. It spiked up to over almost $25 million. Now, we are back down to $22 million. Can the Minister just explain a little bit how that came about and the reasons why we are at the number we are at today? Marsi.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. Just a quick statement. With this COVID pandemic, a lot of our mains that we are going to be reviewing, the complexion is going to completely changed. I think, again, this is going to be no different. I just reviewed. I am probably going to go back and forth a little bit, though I will try not to be too confusing. If you could turn your page to 172, there is a line item here for Rockhill Apartments. My question here: we are very sad of what happened here, by the way, with Rockhill. It was a good program. My constituents used that building, and it's no longer here. My...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker, and Marsi cho to the Minister of Finance for those responses. I listened very carefully to those responses, and some of the feedback that I got from some of our Indigenous leaders in my riding was that these amounts were still way too high. If we get six of us going into a liquor store, I'm going to make an example of say, Hay River, and then we go into one of the surrounding communities, we could still have a party for a very, very long time. Do you know what I mean? These amounts are still very high.

I guess my second part of that question: have there been any specific...

Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize our interpreters for Chipweyan. I would like to thank Tom Unka and Arthur Beck. They are coming up from Deninu Kue. Marsi cho for your service. [English translation not available]. Marsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Marsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that we rise and report progress.