R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government did exempt a significant amount of the federal supports that were provided to residents by the Government of Canada. We made clear that certain income from the government would be deducted. And so there should be no reason now why income support is clawing anything back because those residents would have claimed that they were receiving that income at that time. I'll also note that although it is delayed, the rollout of the new income assistance program, this government has increased income has approved increases to income assistance that we haven't...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm not quite clear what the Member is referencing, what he means by disability payments. I'm going to need a bit more detail on this. I know that the folks who administer income assistance, they are as compassionate as they can be. We do have regulations. And so they must the program is regulated and so they must follow those regulations. It is the law. And so while they are compassionate as they can be, there are some parameters that they have to follow. So I'm happy to look into this further. And if the Member can provide a bit more concrete information about what...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So right now there already is a vote. There's not a motion, but there's a vote, if there is a bill that is deemed not ready to go into Committee of the Whole. Someone will call that bill if they want, and then the committee will vote whether or not they want to bring it to Committee of the Whole. So, you know, during this Assembly, we have lengthened the amount of time it takes to get through legislation through additional, you know, public processes, Intergovernmental Council processes, the protocols that we've signed. And going forward in future Assemblies, I imagine...

Yeah, no, I mentioned we don't have witnesses. I just wanted to bring this to the House's attention. I'm not asking any questions as there's no one to ask. Thank you.

Thank you. So I will hand it to Mr. Yap for a more detailed explanation. Thank you.

Thank you. Indigenous governments are bound would be bound by this act as well. And I will say that if municipalities and Indigenous governments were in the same position as the GNWT, they would then have to comply with other they'd have to abide by the surety bond section of the act, which would mean that they would have to have contracts that are bondable, which would have an impact on could have an impact on their ability to get people to do work in certain regions of the territory as well. Thank you.

Thank you. And there's been comments about protecting, you know, other protecting governments. The legislation's not about protecting governments, it's about ensuring that workers get paid. And the GNWT is not an entity that we're worried about being insolvent. There's not a concern that the GNWT won't pay their bills. There's you know, we hear concerns from the Members about when the bills get paid, but the issue isn't that they won't get paid. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, during that incamera discussion, I didn't say that this is a bad piece of legislation. I said that if I would have started if I could have gone back, I would have started over again in a different way because I see that the GNWT, being exempt from this bill or being having different provisions applied to it under this bill would not go over well with the Regular Members. And lo and behold, here we are in this situation where it was reported back as not ready.

There is you know, when we see that the Government of the Northwest Territories is being treated differently, that in...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to deal with Bill 65 and Bill 84 as well. Thank you.