Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very interesting question, because when we're voting for the leadership of the Executive Council and the Premier of the Northwest Territories, I think that's a little bit of a different situation than having a secret ballot of trying to kick somebody out, where we have all said we want to bring it to the floor and have an open and transparent vote. These are two different issues. One is we're picking the leadership of the territorial government, the six Cabinet Members and the Premier to make decisions on behalf of the people of the Northwest Territories. This is a political body. Political ideas are exchanged here. It's politics at the end of the day. If you want to kick somebody out in a secret ballot and not stand up and say in revocation why you want to kick this person out and give that person an opportunity to speak to that is two different things, in my opinion. I stand by my decision that I would rather have a secret ballot for Cabinet and the Premier and have an open process for trying to kick someone out of Cabinet. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As this is a new process, hasn't ben been done in over about 20 years with the mid-term review, it was discussed at length with all Members during the terms of reference to see how we would be voting in this open and transparent style of government. With the streak of ballots during the mid-term review, I think that's another discussion that needs to be discussed by all 19 Members if we are going to look at the TLC and make it an open and transparent way of governing as well. At this point, I would keep the TLC process the same way it would be. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned earlier, as one of the members of the rules committee, I opposed the secret ballot at the mid-term review for reasons that I set out in my minority report. I think we should look at the whole TLC process. I'm not speaking for Cabinet, of course; just for myself. I think if we had a consensus that it should be open, I would certainly suggest as Minister of transparency now that that would likely be something we should look at for the next TLC process. Thank you.

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in any election that you have across the Northwest Territories, be it hunters and trappers, municipal election, territorial election, you go into a voting booth and you vote. I agree with that. As the Territorial Leadership Committee, as we elect Ministers of this Cabinet, we go into a voting booth and we vote. But if there is a movement to have a vote of non-confidence or confidence, then I was firmly of the opinion right off the start that if you have non-confidence in any particular Member, then you should stand up, look that Member in the eye, and say "I have no confidence in you" and would expect that Minister to resign. We do it through revocation. We do it through revocation. When we've removed someone in the past, we've had an open vote. I would stay with the terms of the TLC.

Masi. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As stated earlier, if a vote of non-confidence came on my way, I would not step down. It's really important to note again that we only have two women here, and it's been many, many years since we had a woman on Cabinet, so you would have to take me out screaming and kicking. I will not give up this seat easily. However, in saying that, I do want to say that I am about change. That's been my whole career. I think that we should look at the terms of reference, I think we should look at our processes, but I do not think it should be a decision just made by myself or made by Cabinet. I think that is a Caucus decision that we should be looking at as all Regular MLAs to make decisions on how we change the rules and procedures. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions to Ministers. I have next on my list: Member Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have questions for three Ministers, all the three Ministers sitting to the left of the Premier. I had initially had a lot of discussion on layoffs at the GNWT. I found that as we moved through the process the layoffs were very selective. I find that layoffs are devastating to the families and the employees that are receiving layoff notice. I find that layoffs have a very adverse effect on markets, whether it is in a market community like Yellowknife or in other markets of Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik, and so on. I also find that layoffs adversely affect the economy. In addition, I find that if people who are laid off in the GNWT, who have arrived here as maybe single people or couples and now have families of five and are leaving the Northwest Territories, then that has a negative impact on the transfer of payments versus what would be saved as far as the actual salary that is saved. Quickly to my question: do these three Ministers, when they are doing layoffs, do they do any evaluation of the position being laid off, as in all these points that I considered? Do those Ministers take a look at those points when they're doing layoffs? Thank you.

Masi. Minister Robert C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think that this question may have been asked before, and it was something about doing a socio-economic impact of layoffs. There's a number of reasons a position would be identified for layoffs. In the two years since we have been elected… Well, in 2016-2017, we had 124 positions that were reduced by the NWT. Fifty-six employees were impacted by these layoffs: 40 of the 56 were redeployed; five retired; and 11 were laid off and took a layoff option. There's a number of things that the department looks at, but it's unfortunate that sometimes it's a part of doing business where people move around the country for jobs. It's unfortunate we lose any people in the Northwest Territories because they were laid off, but at the end of the day, we like to try to think that we had worked with employees to have every option available to them and layoff is the final. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Schumann.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. What I'm thinking about as soon as this question comes up here is the amalgamation of the two departments and how that proceeded to make the Department of Infrastructure. This was something that's brought two huge departments together. I personally am not selective on who gets laid off or the positions that are brought forward to be given layoff notice. I know the department did a great job accommodating the people within and spreading them out within the Northwest Territories as the Minister just said, but there is an evaluation process to do that, and we take all that stuff very seriously. This question is more than just: are we being selective on who is getting laid off? This is about the leadership of the Government of the Northwest Territories. We've had to make changes. We've all been elected based on change for the greater part of this Assembly, and it was something that was unfortunate that we've had to do to streamline things. As leaders, we're chosen to make decisions that need to be made. At the end of the day, we brought these two departments together for the benefit of the residents of the Northwest Territories to make it a more efficient, streamlined organization within the fiscal landscape that we presently have. But I do not personally make decisions on who gets laid off, and the Department of HR does a great job trying to accommodate them. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Minister Sebert.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think all of us realize how painful layoffs can be, particularly those of us who live in the smaller communities because it's not as though we do not know the people that are unfortunately laid off. These decisions are not made in any arbitrary or random manner. There is a careful evaluation made of our needs going forward. As Minister McLeod mentioned, there were layoffs, but ultimately there were, the numbers he mentioned, only 11 that took the layoff options. I am not downplaying what that would have meant to those people. Certainly, it was a very serious event in their lives to be laid off. I understand, however, overall that the civil service is no smaller than it was when we started two years ago. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions to Ministers. Next on my list: Member O'Reilly.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I was a bit worried that there's a few of us that have not asked a lot of questions, and we're going to get jammed up here at the end. I have a question for Minister Cochrane as the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation. We certainly heard a lot in this House about new federal infrastructure funding programs and how that will help the NWT with energy megaprojects and Roads to Resources. I am not convinced that these are going to always fly with the federal government, and they certainly, I don't think, are going to make any meaningful contribution to greenhouse gas reductions, or perhaps even help us with housing needs. I would like the Minister to explain and commit to the preparation of proposals for federal infrastructure funding that will better enable us to meet our climate change and housing needs. Is she prepared to make that commitment? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister Cochrane.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Northwest Territories Housing Corporation has been working diligently with the federal government to try to address the housing needs within the Northwest Territories. We are not working alone in that. We are in partnership with the other two territories because it's important that all the territories stand together. We have unique needs that all three territories share that are different than the southern jurisdictions, so we have a tri-territorial partnership. I know that I was asked to be able to share that. That is a public document. It is accessible. We have been negotiating. We've gone down there, and because of our negotiations with the federal government, we actually got $300 million just recently for the three territories to address the needs of northern residents. They also have made a commitment that they would look at base-plus funding which is a new move because before it was always based on per capita funding. The territorial government and the federal government are working hard to address housing needs within the Northwest Territories. I am always open to feedback from the Regular Members. If they have ideas that they'd like to share with me, I am open to hearing their suggestions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Masi. Questions to Ministers. Next on my list is Member Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would just like to make one comment. I looked everybody in their eye and told them what I was going to do here today. Let us not say "secret ballots" whatever. I can stand up in the House and say what I am going to do. I just want to make that clear.

I also had a second question but my colleague already asked it, so I am going to talk about what happened after the selection of Cabinet. I was advised by the Cabinet, and one particular Minister, "You have got to go down that hallway and start working with people, talking to people, talking to the Ministers to get your questions and concerns answered." I took that word and have been doing that. However, when I asked all the Ministers this question: can the Minister describe how they have worked with Ordinary MLAs and come down to our side of the hallway, and met with our concerns and our issues to see how we are doing with things? Thank you, Mr. Chair.