Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I apologize for getting lost in the proceedings earlier.

Just to conclude, I just wanted to highlight Recommendation 7 in that committee has asked the government to initiate a comprehensive review of the entire emergency protection order and protection order system using section 16.1 of the Act, because we certainly heard from people that the effectiveness of EPOs really depends on how the system is functioning in practice. And what we heard is that there are many ways that, in practice, the system is not serving people as well as it could and as well as it needs to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Elements related to the retention and remuneration of panel lawyers was also brought to committee's attention.

Section 22 of the act authorizes the Commissioner, on recommendation of the Minister, to make regulations under the act with respect to the remuneration and reimbursement of lawyers, the way remuneration is paid, and prescribing legal aid services that may be provided, etc. Hale focused on discussing with committee four areas with respect to the legal aid regulations, including suggesting improvements to hourly and daily rates of pay for panel lawyers, noting...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So we certainly hear from, for example, some of the Yellowknife school boards that we have schools with, say, leaking roofs, and they certainly want to have them assessed and feel that it could be risking the integrity of the building if there's water leaking in and it can be obviously spreading, water damage, and we don't want that. And what we hear is confusion as to when does it become urgent enough, when does it become an emergency in the department's view. Because people are confused as to why this isn't getting prioritized for funding. Can the Minister or his staff...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that one of the big challenges around staffing these kinds of operations is being able to pay staff an equivalent wage to, say, government-run operations such as the day shelter and sobering centre. Has housing considered or put in the budget for the RFP considerations of having the wages come close to or match some of the other opportunities in town for similar work to ensure that we can really attract the right people and get it staffed up as soon as possible? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And does the department currently have the resources to complete all of those facility assessments on a five-year basis, or do we have a backlog of facilities waiting, you know, longer than five years to be able to get their assessments? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. So does HSS now have a contractor willing to operate the treatment centre, or at what stage in the process are they going to ensure that there's an operator in place? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I mean, I think I've made my point. It's obviously one small thing but in the bigger scheme of things, I would just point out that we have lots of urgent needs that have safety and liability concerns attached to them that we continually kind of look over because there's just not enough money to repair this thing or repair the roof in the school or, you know, the things that obviously also have major safety and liability issues attached to it, so it's not a matter of whether it's a safety or liability issue, often we're ranking the severity of those things, so I really am...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to ask quite simply, so under the sport, recreation and youth list, there is money for a new SUV for the lottery. Why does the lottery commission need an SUV? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I wasn't quite clear from that response. I wonder if the Minister can clarify, is the GNWT already operating in a unified command or unified incident command structure with the city of Yellowknife, or is this something that it's working towards? Has the Minister committed that in all future emergencies there will be a unified command? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So given that there's already been substantial public input on this topic received by the Standing Committee on Government Operations as part of its review of Bill 26, in order to avoid asking people to engage over and over again on the same topic and risk consultation fatigue, will the Minister ensure that staff review the complete public record from the review of Bill 26 to include those materials as they develop the legislation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.