R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act, be read for the third time, and Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: "Follow-up Letter for Oral Question 597-19(2): A New Day Program." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I can also point out that a number of people have voluntarily paid back CERB once they realized that they weren't eligible for it. They made repayment arrangements. There're a number of people who are working who aren't on Income Assistance who may have to pay CERB back. The Income Assistance program has continued throughout CERB, and it continues. No changes have been made except for the exemption of CERB, so there has been a very compassionate response.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Income Assistance Regulations, Section 4(j), (n), (o.2) state that the following shall be considered unearned income. That includes the GST tax credit, income tax refunds including payments of tax credits, so, yes, that is the correct interpretation of the legislation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 13, An Act to Amend the Interpretation Act, be read for the third time, and, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Today, we have Ms. Haley Mathisen, manager, employment standards, on your left, and Ms. Laura Jeffrey, legislative counsel with the Department of Justice, on the right. Thank you.

Thank you. Businesses do bad all the time. That's not unforeseen. If you are going into business, you should foresee that you might not do well. That's just the way of the world. When we talk about economic conditions, that's a broader condition. There is some guidance in case law, but what happened is we did try and work to narrow this language down. In the end, what we did was we came back full circle, we had 10 times as many words that were basically a broad definition for climate or economic conditions. We could put "rain, snow, heavy winds," and other weather, but we are saying, basically...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am here today to present Bill 20, An Act to Amend the Employment Standards Act. I wish to thank the Standing Committee on Social Development for its thoughtful review and collaboration on this bill. Thanks to the valuable insight of the committee and its staff, in cooperation with departmental representatives, the bill as amended achieves a desired balance between increased public transparency and the operational requirements of the Employment Standards Office.

This bill seeks to amend the Employment Standards Act to include two provisions that will provide protection...

Thank you. This was discussed, the idea of an application, while we were working with committee. Ultimately, we came to an agreement that did not include an application. One of the reasons that I provided, and I don't know how influential this was on committee, but once we start introducing applications for this, it will give companies the opportunity to see if they can perhaps game the system. It allows them to test the waters. "Maybe I'll put in an application to see if I can lay people off sooner." That's not at all what this is intended for, this clause, and this motion introduces that...

Of course, the transformation will require new programming, but a transformation takes a long time. I wish Members could see into the guts of the college, essentially, and see what is happening right now because there is a lot going on. There are working groups. There are about 50 staff in the college who are putting in extra time and extra work to participate in this and ensure that the foundation and the structure of the college can support a polytechnic. We are not quite at the point I think where the Member would like us to be, but we will get there. Right now, it's ensuring that, when we...