Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is International Pink Day, otherwise known as Pink Shirt Day. I'd like to share with this House some background information from the days' organizers. The International Day of Pink was started in Nova Scotia when two straight high school students saw a gay student wearing a pink shirt being bullied. The two students intervened, but wanted to do more to prevent homophobic and transphobic bullying. They decided to purchase pink shirts, and a few days later got everyone at school to arrive wearing pink, standing in solidarity. The result was an entire school that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I encourage all Members to support this motion. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), the Proposed Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019 be amended on page 32 by deleting the words “We will do a better job of making our residents aware of the mechanisms available to appeal government decisions” and inserting the words “We will develop and implement an effective communications plan to make residents aware of the mechanisms of available to appeal government decisions.” Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that Tabled Document 1-18(2), Proposed Mandate of the Government of the Northwest Territories, 2016-2019, be amended on page 13 by inserting the words “We will review and develop amendments to the Northwest Territories Heritage Fund Act in light of devolution to ensure a defined revenue stream and stronger public governance.”

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In times of economic uncertainty, it is incumbent on this government to provide support to the areas of our economy that work hard to support the activities in our community, create jobs, and continue to provide economic boosts to our local economies. A tax cut on small business is exactly the kind of thing we need to start looking at and start implementing to encourage business growth and to further diversify our economy. This is a small measure, but it will go a long way in helping those who work hard.

Many of my constituents and voters during the election raised this...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to return to the “Economy, Environment and Climate Change” section.

Thank you to the Minister for making a commitment to involve this side of the House in a very transparent and collaborative fashion. Will he make the same commitment to members of the public?

[English translation not provided] Mr. Speaker, transparency was a key issue during the election for voters, and I think every Member of this House has made a clear commitment to engaging in government transparency and making that a centrepiece of this 18th Assembly moving forward. I have questions for the Minister of transparency on the Open Government Policy. Could the Minister provide an update as to how the progress is going in developing that policy?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to provide brief remarks. I want to thank both sides of the House for the hard work they did on this document to make sure it's reflective of a full plan moving forward for the next four years. The amendments that were made over the last couple of days I think truly make this document responsive to the people we serve. I do believe it now contains a full range of the mandates we were all individually elected on, which is something the initial draft of the document lacked. Now that has been corrected and I'm pleased to say I can support the amended document...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll keep my comments brief. This is an improvement to the original text that gives more certainty to what the government intends to do with doing a better job. The committee felt that it was vague and wanted to improve in the language. By developing and implementing an effective communications plan that gives certainty to people reading this document about what we're going to do and it gives reasonable expectations to the committee and to the government moving forward of how we will make mechanisms of appeal better available to our residents and clearly explain what that...