Okay, colleagues, Member for Yellowknife North. I give you some caution that we do have a bill that we're going to be talking about so please, focus on questions that are not part of the bill. And so Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as the attorney general, I am unable to provide legal advice or legal opinions within the Legislative Assembly and as such I will not be able to answer the question regarding the impact to potential Charter rights. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain the current legislative process that GNWT employees are supposed to follow if they wish to leave the union and form a new association? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, that is still requesting a legal opinion from me as the attorney general, and I am unable to answer that question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I understand that the government intends to go out and do some public engagement with stakeholders prior to making any changes to the Public Service Act. Can the Minister explain whether the government intends to offer any guidance or opinions during those public consultations about how the current legislation may interact with Charter rights; will that be part of the public engagement? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Public Service Act is administered through the Department of Finance so that question would be certainly more relevant to be directed to the Minister of Finance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on my oral questions to the Minister of Justice I had asked last Thursday, and it was with respect to sharing information about a Trespass Act, and he had said that there was a pile of work being -- pile is my word, but pile of work that's already been done on this particular initiative, and I had asked him specifically would they share that information so I could move forward on my own Trespass Act seeing that the government isn't moving forward swift enough in response to the particular problem.
So the question specifically is, again, would the Minister be willing to share the background information they've been correlating and getting ready to create a legislative proposal, would he be willing to share that with my office so we can move forward on this initiative? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
No, it was my fault. Minister of Justice.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated in my answer last week on Thursday, I committed to sharing an update on the current process and where we were at which the department did share with all of the Members of this House on Friday. I am happy to be able to stand up here today and say that I've had a conversation with the Department of Justice this morning, and we have -- I've directed them to advance the Trespass Act on a more aggressive timeline than I had proposed last week and that work is underway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Almost forgot to clap, Mr. Speaker; I was so in shock. Well, Mr. Speaker, it's nice to see government in action is actually two words, so it's -- thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the Minister could update us what does that actually translate into. In other words, what timeline is he now proposing? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I indicated last week, the three pieces of legislation that we're proposing to advance at a quicker timeline than was originally thought, the Trespass Act is probably the least complex of the three pieces of legislation so my discussion with the department was to move this forward. Obviously, it takes -- requires collaboration from all of the Members of this House in order to meet the proposed timeline, but we're hoping -- shooting to have the bill brought to the floor in the fall sitting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Justice. Final supplementary. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is, again, for the Minister of ECE. It's my understanding that funds for wage top-ups from the last fiscal year have not made it to all eligible daycare providers as of two weeks ago. Can the Minister please explain when the providers will be able to provide backpay to their staff? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that by the end of this week, 49 of 51 retroactive payments will be released, and the remaining two Education, Culture and Employment staff are waiting to confirm some necessary information so that the retroactive payments can be issued. So that's in the form of, for example, certifications and such. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's good news. But is that the case for all of the providers, was it missing information? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, of the 49 of 51, not everybody has not received. It just means that by the end of the week, we've reached 49 of 51 and so generally for those who are -- had not received it, it was reliant on waiting for confirmation of specific information, and if the Member has a specific constituent that she would like to follow up on, I would be more than happy to do so. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to -- I too wish to turn to the NTNP worker program that we have foreign workers in the Northwest Territories. We had a town hall a couple months ago. The response was significant, and people are very concerned. So the Yukon has extended their work permits. They were able to do that with their existing relationships with Ottawa. So why are we not able to extend work permits here in the Northwest Territories? This is something that nominees are asking for. They're desperate. They're very concerned about their future. So why can't we extend the permits here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to see them extended, which is why I have put that into my request to the federal government and will be travelling to Ottawa next week to follow up on that request. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I've heard from the Minister that one of the reasons we can't extend the permits is because we're redeveloping the program for 2026. So can the Minister confirm if that information's correct? Because that seems like it's our problem and not the federal government's.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we are redesigning the program for 2026, but we do need the federal government's permission to be able to extend work permits. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, has the Minister been able to work -- or look at what's happened in the Yukon and crack the code? They were able to do it, so why can't we? That's the fundamental question here. We see another northern jurisdiction with a very similar program that's also maxed out its utilization rate, and they were able to do this. So what is the difference between our program and the Yukon's program? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, over the years the Yukon has gone one way, and the NWT has gone another way. At this point, what I am doing is I am travelling to Ottawa in order to ascertain what the difference is and how we get to a more equitable place as far as how our immigration program works in the Northwest Territories. And I very much look forward to having the conversations to talk not only about our allotment, talk about work permits, and to talk about settlement services, as well as flexibility within the program here in the territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to follow up on the questions raised by my good colleague from Range Lake, same subject, same Minister, Mr. Speaker.
I've been around politics a long time. I'm not going to say I'm the oldest in the sense of this process. Many people have excellent experience around politics in this room and including the territory. But one thing I've noticed about leadership is about how you define yourself. And sometimes I see people make declarations and that causes other people to stand up and see how they can respond to it. So in other words, I'm getting at is what would go wrong if the Minister said we want those 150 positions back and we're moving on it, and the federal government's job is to accommodate our request? Could the Minister show the leadership and declare we are taking those 150 back? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after the program was changed by the federal government in January, we were immediately advocating for that. The federal minister travelled here to the Northwest Territories last summer and heard firsthand the experiences of local businesses in the territory and the labour demands in the Northwest Territories. So they're very well aware of what it is that we need. We, again, laid out why we need these allocations. We laid out why we need them returned. I will continue to do so. But I cannot give out allocations that I do not have. We administer a federal government's program here in the Northwest Territories. I do not have an allocation. I do not have a permanent resident allocation to give somebody if the federal government has not given it to us. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, a couple things there were a little on the confusing side, and that's how I'll describe it. First of all, it's the old government, not the current government. Second of all, it's the allotment change, not the program. Mr. Speaker, the refugee deal wasn't taken. So, Mr. Speaker, on this meeting that she claims to have, why doesn't she extend an olive branch to the Members, you know, who are very interested in this, and we go down as a delegation and say we're going to take the 150 back, and we're going to ask you, Minister, Mrs. Federal Government, whatever you want to call it, meet us halfway, and get us there. Thank you. Why can't the Minister do that?
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our Cabinet, many members will be travelling down to Ottawa to meet with federal Ministers, and we intend to travel with representatives of Indigenous governments of this territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
So, Mr. Speaker, just to clarify the record, I'm hearing that Members don't matter. I'm hearing that only one matters are Indigenous governments and the Cabinet. This issue particularly matters to a lot of Northerners, not just in Yellowknife. I got phone calls from Hay River. I know my colleague got phone calls from Inuvik. All these places in the North. It's a northern problem. Mr. Speaker, what is the problem -- what is -- the Minister doesn't like the statement, that's the problem. I wish she'd have that fire in Ottawa, Mr. Speaker.
Member from Hay River North.
Point of order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I could try and quickly find this but from what I understand, Members are allowed to ask their question and two supplementary questions. The soliloquy, the monologue, can be at the beginning of the first question but the next two are just supplementary. And I believe the Member's had about three Member's statements in this round of questions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Mr. Speaker, his point of order was intended to interrupt me. You are the judge, Mr. Speaker, on that process, and there is no defined finite rule on it. There is a framework of conversation around it, and hence it was just to interrupt the flow. He's told me this himself. Thank you.
Point of order, Mr. Speaker.
Another?
Member from Hay River North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Member imputed motive, imputed motive twice in that statement, saying that the reason that I called the point of order was not to bring order to the House but to -- just to interrupt him. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Hay River North. Guys, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just going to make it real simple: I've asked you to ask -- do your supplementary -- or your questions, supplementary. Have your little talk, and then your little preamble to begin with, and then your questions to follow through on. That's the same with the Ministers. I've asked you to focus on your answers and move forward.
So I would ask the Member from Yellowknife Centre to refrain from asking -- or telling a preamble before each question, please and thank you.
Member from Yellowknife -- sorry, I need a quick second on this one.
The second one, Member from Hay River North talked about motive to it. Basically Member from Yellowknife Centre, will you withdraw the comment, please.
I'm not here to hurt his feelings so I'll drop -- withdraw. Thank you.
