Shane Thompson

I thank the Minister for that great answer. However, he drove on the road in the wintertime, and as he talked to the former MLA, he said, "Come drive it in the summertime," so we will get the Minister of Infrastructure to come with you and we will see how it is. However, it is good, and I have to say the workers are doing a great job maintaining it. Previously in the House I spoke about the possibility of the department working with Aboriginal leadership to come up with a plan to stop the hunting of cow moose for at least the next five years to help improve the moose population. Mr. Speaker, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome everybody back for the third session as we work for the residents of the Northwest Territories and look forward to the next six weeks. Mr. Speaker, I would like to recap and highlight some of the things that I have done since our last sitting.

This past November, the various standing committees had the opportunity to review and discuss the business plans of all of the departments as we prepared for the 2018-2019 budget. I would like to thank the Ministers and their staff and look forward to the debate and discussion for the budget this year.

Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it will be another opportunity for me to talk about summer student positions here. Mr. Speaker, summer student positions are a great way to get the youth to come back to their communities during their time off from school. This program will also reveal to the students how important education is, especially for securing jobs and potentially a career.

The students employed by the Student Employment Program are already beginning to benefit from their education by way of obtaining a summer position, which is very encouraging. In addition to promoting education...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this Assembly recommends, should the Government of the Northwest Territories consider change to the daylight savings time regulation in the future, that it engages with its counterparts in Alberta and undertake both broad, public, and targeted stakeholders' engagement. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, stand up here to support this motion. I have had the pleasure of knowing Doug since way back when, playing sports. I considered him a friend, even though we were from Hay River and Yellowknife, and we had some really heated battles on the sports field. After that, it was a really good friendship.

One thing I'm going to really be thankful now is that now he can call me "Shane" instead of "Mr. Thompson" every time he talks to me. His professionalism was amazing. He would sit there. As soon as I got elected, it was Mr. Thompson. I go, "Hey, Doug, it's Shane. You...

I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess it disappoints me that we as a government, and we're doing some really good things with our programs and providing these treatments and trying to help our staff people, but unfortunately, now you have to take your annual and sick leave to deal with it. That's disappointing. Can the Minister please advise this House how supervisors are educating and training on working with staff who are going through a counselling process?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when I was back home during our break here, I ran into a number of constituents and they were asking about the Employment and Family Assistance Program, and asking for clarification on how it worked. I tried to explain as best I could, but can I get the Minister to please provide us with a brief explanation of how the program works? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for his answer. I look forward to seeing those numbers. I greatly appreciate the commitment from the Minister to hear that. Will the Minister, and I have asked this before, will the Minister look at working with his colleagues to develop a budget line in the business plan for summer students so that we can actually promote it? I know we were looking at 400 as a number in the past, and we got close to it. Will the Minister commit to working to doing that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today in my Member's statement I talked about summer employment and the program that the government offers and is doing a better job. I have to give credit where credit is due. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Finance please tell us what the department is doing for potential employment for smaller communities in regards to the Summer Employment Program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. For the record, our committee took this seriously. Our research department looked into this matter quite extensively. I guess the biggest challenge that we found is that we are connected, really, with Alberta, and when Alberta is not going to change anything, that has a huge impact on us. I respect the opinions of my colleagues who voiced their concerns. They are very valid. However, at the end of the day, we have to make sure that we are consistent with our partner, which is Alberta, in how we deal with things, so when we made this recommendation, it was based on the...