Kate Reid

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I care deeply about the public service as a past public servant and active local union president. I also recognize that the public service makes up a lot of the working population of this territory. And, yes, the numbers of total GNWT staff have gone up dramatically in recent years. The increase incurs in critical functions that we all rely on like health care and education supports. But the other thing we don't talk about as much is that through collective bargaining, people in precarious employment terms or casuals were made permanent. The increase reflects employees...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, if the Minister could provide some information to committee on that, that would be greatly appreciated. And, yeah, I don't know if I agree with her characterization that these are small amounts of money, especially when we're looking for every little bit of money we can. So I'll just leave that as a comment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And can the Minister speak more to why some of the projects in some of the communities or facilities have not yet been defined; why are we asking for money for projects that aren't yet defined? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, yeah, sorry, I'm a newbie too. Would the Minister be willing to give a substantiation of this project? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister. I hope that we do have some school boards listening so that they can also reach out. I know there are many schools in our fine capital that are looking for projects like this, including in YK1. So it's more of a comment than a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, I will take away some further comments to the Minister. Nothing further at this time.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. I recognize that, and I'm glad that she used accessibility in her answer. As she recalls from yesterday, I did ask the Minister of Justice about an accessible washroom and, as the Minister's well aware, the folks behind the parent advisory committee for Sir John are seeking an accessible and gender-neutral washroom in that school. Could the Minister speak to how she is prioritizing that requested project that is an accessibility project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And arguably, when we talk about all of our assets that put out greenhouse gases, be they vehicles or buildings or whatever the case may be, I guess how one boat in Inuvik is not going to break the GHG bank, so to speak, but to see that there's no -- no impact of just any asset, I don't know if I agree with that. Maybe the Minister could speak to that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, here on the education item, there is a high school boiler replacement for Ecole Sir John Franklin, and I was -- I've been talking to the Minister, and I think most Yellowknife MLAs are quite aware of all of the challenges that Yellowknife schools are facing. So could the Minister provide a substantiation for this project to start, and we'll go from there. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I'm going to ask a question about a random one of these assets and kind of dive deeper than just one singular asset, but let's just talk about the boat, the replacement boat for field work in Inuvik. Can I please get a substantiation for that item? Thank you, Mr. Chair.