Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that response. The numbers are much better than the last numbers that I have from the Department of Finance, and so that is good news to start us off with today. And so I thank the public service and the Minister for that.

But this number is still lower than previous years, and I'm wondering if the GNWT has plans to beat their numbers from preCOVID times. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, succession planning within the GNWT is important. A key part of the Government's succession planning is their summer student internship programs. Growing up in the NWT, not once did I every kick back and think, Wow, one day I want to work for the government. But, as a summer student, I was exposed to a multitude of unique positions that I never knew existed within our government, the GNWT's staff's graphic designers, biologists, and heavy duty mechanics. Some public servants work in an office, others in classrooms, and some spend their days in the bush.

The GNWT website says this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 25, an Act to Amend the Education Act. Bill 25 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 30th, 2021, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review. The standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Education, Culture, and Employment and completed its clausebyclause review of the bill on May 31st, 2021.

Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act is ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole. Thank...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, by my numbers, the GNWT is still off by about a hundred fabulous students that would love to work for the GNWT. So I'm wondering if the Minister will make a commitment to at least hire another hundred students before the end of June. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Finance. I'm wondering if the Minister of Finance can tell us how many summer students are currently working for the GNWT this year. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as it stands right now, the last numbers that I saw, I saw a lot of summer students really concentrated in Yellowknife. And there's a great deal of need in our communities as well. If we look at what's happening in the Northwest Territories to date, there's tremendous amount of flooding that leads all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. I'm sure that there's students that would love to be on the ground and helping out with that too, with cleanup opportunities and being able to see, you know, a different community or being able to help out their own...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. As we are over one calendar year into the COVID19 pandemic, can the Minister provide a copy of the exemption policy document used to guide selfisolation exemption decisions, and the number of exemptions per week for the last three months, the category for grounds for exemptions, the percentage breakdown between exemptions granted to residents versus nonresidents, and the percentage of exemptions granted for personal versus essential versus commercial purposes. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that the Minister mentioned "lessons learned" because my next question is about lessons learned and how does the Minister intend to ensure that lessons learned are captured from this outbreak so that we can better prepare how we will communicate future ones. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to start off by reiterating my thanks to public servants who worked very hard during the outbreak here in Yellowknife.

During the outbreak, even constituents who were isolating and were confused were very you know, the very first thing that they always said was how thankful that they were because everybody had a friend who was working long hours, everybody knew somebody who was directly working with the outbreak. So our thanks for that.

My first question for the Minister of Health and Social Services today is who is responsible for COVID...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Ombud's sixth recommendation is to remove the restriction to investigate the director of Human Rights Commission under Section 23. The Committee agrees.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that Section 23 be amended to remove the reference to the Director of Human Rights, and further that the reference to the Conflict of Interest Commissioner be amended to Integrity Commissioner.

In the 20192020 annual report, the Ombud makes several recommendations to address procedural issues around the Ombud’s jurisdiction to...