R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I've spoken with the chair of the CSFTNO and informed him that there exists this issue and that we will reach out as soon as this bill is passed and begin work on amending those regulations. And I've been assured that from the time that those consultations with the CSFTNO are complete, and really the consultation is 'do you want to remain with your threeyear term limit or do you want a fouryear term limit?' Once we're done with that, within two weeks we can have new regulations drafted and likely enforced.

And the reason this wasn't discovered, well, I can take that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There was extensive consultation with the Yellowknife school boards. I've had numerous conversations with the chairs of those boards as well. As to the question of whether or not they were provided with the proposed language, I will hand it over to Ms. Wahlberg but first I'll note that the consultation with education bodies, and consultation in general I think, is to figure out the what not necessarily the how. And so when it comes down to the particulars of the, you know, the words used in legislation, it's our job as the government to ensure that those words achieve...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure government lawyers are always worried about court challenges coming and so, yes, they have definitely considered the possibility of a court challenge since day one. You know, this is a very unique situation and no one knew how far orders could go at the beginning. There has been case law around Canada, not necessarily in the territory, that has tackled some of these issues and the department is watching that. But it's always on the radar. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So in the Public Health Act, a public health emergency is defined as something that presents a significant risk to public health, and determining whether there's a significant risk to public health is the determination of the CPHO. The Department of Justice's lawyers do what they can but ultimately, they are not medical professionals and there's a lot of science involved in determining risk and so ultimately they of course have to defer to the chief public health officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Under the income assistance regulations, the director has discretion to allocate an emergency allowance in situations that are deemed an emergency. So this onetime emergency allowance has been allocated to income assistance clients in Fort Simpson, in Fort Good Hope, and  or rather in zones 1, 2, 3, to Fort Good Hope and other affected residents. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I appreciate the Member's comments.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So there was definitely consideration given to CSFTNO and the effects of this bill would have on them. And it was our understanding that this bill would have no effect and, in fact, they expressed that they were in a different situation than the other school boards. They're in two communities, and they don't align their elections with either municipality. They have a different way of conducting elections. They don't require the same voters list and enumeration and things like that. But as it turns out, there are regulations that under the Education Act, that reference...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following three documents: Plain language summary for Bill 30, An Act to amend the Aurora College Act; Government of the Northwest Territories response to committee bill 1219(2) report on review of Bill 20; An Act to amend the Employment Standards Act; and Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 51019(2), Universal Childcare. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Integrated service delivery is an approach I talk about often. It is the approach we are moving towards where we design programs for the residents, not for government, and that means not thinking what our department can do but what the person needs and then using a wholeof-government approach. And with that in mind, I can confirm that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment along with the Department of Housing and Health and Social Services are part of a interdepartmental working group. I believe they met earlier this well, I guess in May now, and are going...