Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories

Provide investigative training to all staff involved in the complaints and appeals processes;

Make this training obligatory for all staff involved; and,

Build competence by ensuring that investigations are not vexatious and are appropriately carried out.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories

Form an advisory group, including representation from all parties;

Review the 2030 Early Learning and Child Care Strategy on the inclusion of child care operators in goals and visions;

Establish and share a Northwest Territories vision and mission of the early learning and child care sector, including principles and explaining where the federal child care agreements fit, requiring fiveyear reviews to check if the Northwest Territories is fulfilling its vision;

Condu...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 68, An Act to Amend the Child Day Care Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 3rd, 2022, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

In its review, committee was disappointed to find that the scope of Bill 68 was narrow. That narrow scope made it challenging to propose any full-scale amendments.

It was important to the committee to hear from the public on this bill because the committee is alive to the fact that day care legislation affects families in a real way across the Northwest...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I do remember that campaign. I remember it being based on different people in the territory who were from different regions across Canada, and their faces were plastered in their home town, and it was so and so moved to the Northwest Territories kind of thing. So can you is my memory of that campaign come make your mark in the territory just like your friend from our home community did. But I don't move somewhere or have an idea of moving somewhere. And I've been here a long time, I'll admit that. But it's because I love the North. And you don't...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that this committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to the recommendations contained within this report within 120 days.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm wondering if the Minister will commit to investigating what can be done here a little bit farther. There are avenues and I think easy accessible avenues where more exit interviews can be done for GNWT employees. I think that there is more that can be done to give other residents who don't work for the government feedback on why they're leaving. And another interesting category that I find is people who are saying I've decided that I plan to leave within the next X number of years. One such example is someone who reach out to me and said we've decided we...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, I would also like to extend a huge amount of gratitude to the Minister and his department on this one, this one, and as far as paying credit where credit is due and being able to say some nice things to the other side of the House, especially when we pick on them every day.

We did the same type of amendment in Bill 40, the Medical Professions Act from social development in conjunction with the Minister of Health and Social Services and her staff, and that is where this amendment and, really, the implementation of it in a lot of our work has come from. And...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Committee heard that workforce development and succession planning needed to be more inclusive of Indigenous employees within the GNWT. The GNWT's Indigenous Employment Plans aim to "improve retention of Indigenous employees through professional development and career progression." Under the current model, the Department of Finance will create a succession planning guide for Indigenous employees, and each department will work with HR to develop an individual succession plan.

However, public comments addressed a need to share information about transfer assignments and...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I didn't get my hand up fast enough there. No, I wanted to speak to this one because this is definitely one of the most important recommendations as far as what we heard from child care providers across the territory. One of the biggest concerns, especially from not for profit organizations, is their ability to keep operating when we have, in previous legislation, set a limit to what that cost increase can be for what they are charging parents on an annual basis, and then we are coming in and we are setting a wage grid that will show, or dictate rather, what the workers...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, let's face the facts. Last year the NWT's population dropped by over 200 people with over 900 people leaving the territory. Thankfully, this decline was offset by about 300 births and 400 newcomers. Last year this House passed a motion calling for a strategy to match Canada's population growth. Every Regular Member voted in support. In its response, the GNWT all but rejected this House's call for a coordinated robust plan to increase the NWT population. The GNWT pointed instead to its growing the NWT strategy, an ineffective and outdated strategy that...