Kieron Testart

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know, I've listened carefully to what the Minister of Finance spoke of in terms of working with a standing committee process, and I've listened to what the other Members have said both for and against the government -- sorry, the budget, rather, the capital budget, and I have some thoughts and some takeaways as well.

You know, the housing money is really seen, I think, by many Members as a centerpiece for this budget, and certainly for the last round of budget negotiations. My concern with this is we often get ahead of ourselves with ambitious capital...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the RTA has -- I mean, it's almost a third rail in politics in the Northwest Territories. It is constantly brought up as needing reform and yet elusively remains unreformed. And the committee feels very strongly that this needs to change. And, you know, whether you talk to landlords or tenants, no one is satisfied with the way it's currently drafted. It allows a great deal of latitude, and perhaps too much latitude to the rental officer, to come to decisions without a lot of guidance that could be put towards a more tenant-centered approach, founded in the right to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is a very important recommendation, and the reason it's the first is it's a kind of paramount that underpins the rest of the -- well, the very essence of this report on housing as a human right.

When we looked at mechanisms to enshrine housing as a human right or officially recognize, it was a bit of a complicated task because even the federal government has legislation that acknowledges it as a human right but goes -- stopped short of actually enshrining it in human rights legislation, and committee was careful to draft this recommendation in such a way that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would think that that information would be readily available to the Minister, but the notice was indicated as medium risk. It was names, purchase numbers, insurance coverage detail, product types, service provider.

I tried to reassure my constituent that that was relatively low risk, but can the Minister provide some clarity that a medium risk is not something that will compromise this individual's health care insurance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do want to point out that as long as it's unregulated, we cannot prevent harm. So if we want to do harm reduction for addictions related to gambling, we need to regulate this market. Will the Minister agree to meet with the responsible gaming council to learn more about how his department can do this? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, who is responsible for the delays that incurred the late fees - was it the students working their summer student jobs and being late in applying, or was it the department that didn't have capacity to meet the demand that was late getting out? Can the Minister just clarify who is responsible for incurring the late payments, because I'm confused. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I asked questions about late payments for SFA students. The Minister said that she will not pay them back even though we have a process for paying back income support late fees incurred on income support payments. Will the Minister work with her department to find what barriers exist to paying off these late fees so we can give our students a break? Thank you very much.

I am going to take that as a yes, Mr. Speaker. So thank you for that to the Minister, and I hope she communicates that to day homes soon because they're still unaware of that change.

Mr. Speaker, the work of day home providers is different from daycare centre providers. Their wage grid does not take into account longevity of service provided in the North, education, or Indigenous knowledge. Will the Minister update the wage subsidy for day home providers so it reaches parity with daycare centre providers so we're not playing on two different playing fields.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When Prime Minister Trudeau introduced $10 a day daycare, early learning and childcare became far more affordable for Canadians and for Northerners. This was a game changer for my family and many others in the NWT. For working parents with young children like me and my wife, affordable daycare isn't a luxury; it's a necessity. Now ECE's role in daycare services has significantly expanded and with it, the Minister's responsibility to ensure her department effectively manages partnerships with both day homes and childcare centres, ensuring subsidies and regulations are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I see that the engagement notice has gone out as of today, this afternoon, and engagement one, which will take place during October, is around mineral resources administration, drill cores, and removal of minerals. So I'm assuming that's the part of the regulation or the policy intention that would govern online map staking because the other two are benefit agreements and socioeconomic policy to take place in November, and December is the mineral rights review board and transitioning of existing interests. So how about this, then: If we can't get a notional plan to...