Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Infrastructure.

Very similarly to the Minister of Health and Social Services just earlier, will the Minister please work with her colleague at ECE to make sure that folks with expiring work visas can have an extension on their driver's licenses. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

Mr. Speaker, expiry dates of health care cards for temporary foreign workers are tied to their work visa expiry dates. So if a work permit expires, so does a health care card. So how many compassionate extensions of health care cards have been provided since the pause to the nominee program in July of 2024? I realize this is quite a lot of detail, but maybe the Minister could speak to it broadly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know they're getting a lot of calls. They're not returning all those calls. But I am worried that more people will find themselves in limbo waiting on work visa renewals and paperwork headaches that are associated with territorial services, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister speak to what work she is conducting with her Cabinet colleagues and federal counterparts to ensure that folks who are classified as implied status are allowed to extend their health care coverage or driver's licenses, for example. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to be pretty basic today. I have more things to say about this throughout the coming weeks. But can the Minister please explain how we plan to meet our targets in the business plan with the new limits placed upon us by the federal government? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, there's an argument to be made if we want more people, you know, participating in the wage economy and getting jobs, you obviously need to build that ability to have good jobs that aren't just minimum wage paying jobs, but I think another part of this equation is moving from minimum wage to living wage. I would note that $16.70 an hour will not let a person survive with a family here in the capital. I can't imagine what it would be like in our smaller communities. So I'll just leave that as a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, those recommendations, in broad strokes, are implementing the full suite of tools in the GNWT's program manager's guide for funding NGOs which was from 2014, update that guide with specific items -- I won't list them here -- and provide additional supports. So I would say the EIA is providing those additional supports. But will EIA be committing to and will the Premier be committing to looking at the suite of tools in that guide and updating that guide? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I replied to the last year's budget, I started with a quote. This year I will simply say, the race is not always to the swift.

Mr. Speaker, that is the moral of Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare. For many years, if not decades, the GNWT has been criticized for being too slow and not doing enough. It's a criticism rooted in a truth, which is that this government does tend to move slowly. This is why this criticism is continually repeated. I think there is nuance within that truth, Mr. Speaker. First, however, I want to talk about what I have...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So one thing in that list of items from fiscal restraint that caught my ear just now was a reduction in translator training. Could the Minister please explain why that was a choice that was made? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And just one final question. In both -- in the main estimates on page 59, both culture and heritage and Indigenous language secretariat, both have seen a reduction since the 2023-2024 actuals, and I was just wondering if we could get an explanation or substantiation of that. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you for that clarity. And thank you, Madam Chair. On page -- sorry, there's two page numbers on this, 36 or 38, I apologize. But it's in our business plan policy initiatives, speaking to Indigenous language service standards. I realize those standards, I believe, have been released recently, which is fantastic news. But I am curious what monitoring and evaluation plan for review of that rollout, what benchmarks the standards are meant to reach. Is there an available documentation of any monitoring or evaluation that might be occurring for these service standards? Thank you, Madam...