Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The committee carefully considered this recommendation and, looking at the detail provided on other areas in the report in the public accounts, we felt that this was over and above what others — an example is contaminated sites. There is no inventory of contaminated sites, but there is an inventory of everyone receiving student loan remission. These are not bad debts; these are students in the remission process. So to the honourable Member from Thebacha's point, transparency is important and the amounts owing certainly are, but attaching them to people who are not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would also like to recognize Stan and Karen Cochrane for different reasons. My constituency assistant, Mr. Garett Cochrane, is Stan and Karen's son. I couldn't do my job without him. So thank you very much for providing me with a great deal of resources. Thanks for being here today.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends that the office of the comptroller general in the Department of Finance work with the Auditor General of Canada and GNWT departments, boards, and agencies to complete the interim and final public accounts at the earliest possible date each year and in time to meet statutory reporting deadlines and to seek the necessary extensions where those deadlines cannot be met. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the honourable Members on the excellent work done in the interim report on the review of Standing Committee of Rules and Procedures on public engagement and transparency, and also the work done on revising the guiding principles and process conventions for consensus government. This attempt to bridge the ever-growing democratic deficit is a real achievement by the 18th Assembly, and symbolizes that we are truly attempting to evolve our public engagement into 21st century standards, which admittedly, took a little longer than other jurisdictions, but...

Yes, Mr. Chair. I thank Ms. Green for her comments. Certainly, this is a very important area of oversight and accountability that is performed by parliamentary committees. The standing committee had an opportunity to meet with public accounts committees from across Canada at this year's annual conference. Much was learned, in particular the amount of work that these committees do to hold government accountable and understand how money is being spent. Of course, we found that our financial documents could have their readability improved in the interest of openness and transparency, which of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this Assembly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this report within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On November 1, 2016, the Standing Committee on Government Operations presented its report on the review of the Human Rights Commissions Annual Report for 2014-2015. In our review, we noted that the Human Rights Commission had contracted an independent review of the Human Rights Act and that modernization of the Act was recommended. The Standing Committee on Government Operations made two recommendations.

Can the Minister indicate how much this new campus will cost?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to return to my line of questioning to the new campus facility here in Yellowknife. I would like to ask the Minister of Education if he will direct his department to put the new campus into the capital planning process so we can start to get underway on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I appreciate the Minister's answer, and that's exactly why we need to do more with Aurora College. We have a real labour market shortage and a shortage in education; however, I think Aurora College now is focused on a wide variety of issues. Recently, the government moved it from education to labour market development, and we've seen in the recent capital budget a new heavy operator training facility. So we are making some decisions about the future of Aurora College.

I guess my question then, Mr. Speaker, is: are we going to continue to make these decisions as they meet our needs and as...