R.J. Simpson

There may be 2,360 people accessing the Wage Top-Up program. That doesn't mean there're 2,360 people making minimum wage once that program goes away.

Those are two different numbers. One is $18, and one is right now $13.46; there's a difference there. What do we have in place, Mr. Speaker? That's why I work so hard on education. That's why we're working hard on making investments in early childhood. That's why we're trying to expand the number of early childhood spaces there are for children so that they can get in there and get an enriched environment starting at the beginning of their life.

T...

Thank you, Madam Chair. There is a significant amount of research about the effects of Daylight Saving Time. There's anecdotal evidence about Daylight Saving Time. I don't know if I've ever heard anyone here say they like it. Barring some evidence that I can't foresee coming forward, I expect that we would be in sync with Alberta. The reason the legislation is as it is is because we want to be very nimble and not make the change anticipating that Alberta will make a change, and then Alberta doesn't make a change. That scenario has happened in other jurisdictions before, and we don't want that...

The committee made three recommendations, as was asked for. One of the recommendations is always the status quo; one of the recommendations was also increasing it to $15.20.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to be clear, I wouldn't change the time all willy-nilly with this "blank cheque," as the Member calls it. It's not like I want to leave work early, so I'm going to change the time so now it's time to go home. The only prudent thing to do, really, is to ensure that we are aligned with Alberta. That being said, there is a requirement in this bill for some sort of a public consultation. I envision that as an email address that the public can send their concerns to. Thank you.

We cannot do this alone. We are so early on in this, we have not reached out to the education bodies yet, to the Indigenous bodies, anything like that, so we are starting that process now. We have done a lot of the leg work, but there is still much more to do. The decision would come in the summer at the earliest, and if we were to adopt a new curriculum, it would not be rolling out until 2022. Thank you.

Yes. If there's a witness in that room, I'd like to bring them into the Chamber.

As I stated, we are always looking at our curriculum, always looking at what is new. There're people in the department who, this is their job. They focus on curriculum. As I said, given the Office of the Auditor General results as well as our own results as well as the fact that we know we need to do better, we wanted to look and see if, perhaps, adjusting our curriculum is a way to do that. There're a lot of options. Looking forward, we could stay with Alberta's new curriculum. We could create a partnership with another jurisdiction. We could, perhaps, use K to eight of one jurisdiction and...

Thank you. I'd like to introduce Matthew Yap, superintendent of securities, and Cherie Jarock, legislative counsel, and they would be happy to answer any questions Members may have about this topic. Thank you.

Thank you. I don't think we're there yet in the development, given that the legislation is just before us now, but if you look at other jurisdictions, sometimes, it's a program, sometimes, it's a combination of courses. There doesn't appear, from what I've seen, to be a strict time frame. As Mr. Saturnino said, if you look back 10 years, then perhaps we could see what was taken in those 10 years. I think there is some flexibility, and as with everything that we do here, we can adapt it to the realities of the North, as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On September 1, 2021, the minimum wage in the Northwest Territories will increase from $13.46 per hour to $15.20 per hour, making it the second highest minimum wage in Canada behind Nunavut. Since the last increase in 2018, the cost of living and the average hourly wage in the NWT have risen. This increase ensures that the minimum wage does not fall behind, brings our minimum- to average-wage ratio more in line with the rest of Canada, and makes us more competitive with our neighbouring jurisdictions.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is very aware...