Thank you, Premier McLeod. Ms. Turner, Ms. Ballantyne, welcome to the House again.

With that, we’ll go to general comments, and with that, we’ll start with Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was very pleased to hear the opening remarks by the Premier, the Minister of this department. I’d like to first of all say congratulations, because we now have government service officers in our communities, and I’ve been hearing some very good reports back from people in the Sahtu, and I’m very pleased to see that Fort McPherson, Deline and Behchoko will be getting these government service officers. It’s a good thing for us

and it’s a good thing that the Department of Executive is listening to the small communities. With our unique challenges and our languages, it makes a lot of good for our older people who are in need of this office. Specifically, from the lady, the person, the officer in Fort Good Hope, she was saying that she really loves her job and she loves helping people. I just wanted to say thank you to the Executive for listening and doing this for our people. This is a good legacy to leave in our communities.

I wanted to also talk about the Status of Women’s position and the moving to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. I know the Premier has been working closely with this position. One of my concerns is the Northwest Territories’ position and stance on the Aboriginal missing women’s action that has been happening across Canada where we had some also here in the Northwest Territories. I’m not too sure what type of action plans we’re doing to help this great issue with our Aboriginal women who have gone missing, and helping our women. There are some in my region that also fit in this category. What type of support we are giving to the families as to the missing women in Canada and also in the Northwest Territories?

I believe, some time ago, the Premier did mention something, but I don’t know quite what was said and maybe we could be reminded. I think the Premier did support the initiatives on that. I’m not too sure, as a government, what type of things we’re doing for some of the families here in the Northwest Territories for Aboriginal women that are missing. Some of them haven’t yet found out what exactly happened, so I wanted to say that.

In my closing remarks, I want to ask the Premier, and I’ve already had some discussion with the Department of Transportation, so I’m going to use every opportunity to raise the issue of decentralization in small communities, and of course, I am talking about the Department of Transportation looking at when there could be some serious discussions about decentralizing. The activity in the Sahtu is getting quite busy, even to look at six months or something that would see more of the presence of Transportation into the Sahtu for decision-making in real time and support there.

I think we need to now move away from the old thinking of doing business. I remember the Premier talking one time about the Sahtu now wanting to have a stand-alone region and how we can now with devolution and how we evolve, as he calls it devolution and evolving. The territory is changing and evolving. The Sahtu is coming to a place where we want to have our own stand-alone region. We have other government departments that have decentralized into the Sahtu; still, we don’t have the full package yet. I would like to see that. That would

be the Sahtu devolution. We’re having a community vote in Deline where they’re actually going to propose their own community self-government, so we are evolving and things are changing.

I would like to know that this discussion could be had and opening, within the life of this government, we could start seeing some movement where we could see decentralization. I would like to start seeing that. Sahtu can be recognized as a stand-alone region in this government. We still have the old system where we are somewhat still part of the Inuvik region or the Simpson region. You know how geographically it’s made out in the books here and that has to change, just like we’re going through changes with Ottawa and devolution. Those things are changing. We’re no different. We want the same type of opportunity to have that discussion.

I wanted to, lastly, congratulate the devolution team and the Members, Premier. There’s a lot of hard work and lots of opportunities, lots of challenges for us, but it’s good that we’re moving to this next phase of our Northwest Territories. I guess the last sort of ticket to this devolution, while it would be in the future, will be a constitutional reform discussion coming to a full partner with the rest of the Confederation of Canada. There are many unique approaches to that. It doesn’t have to be the old conventional type of… It could be a very unique type of constitutional discussion, but that’s later down the line. I’m prepared to have those types of discussions. I think that’s where we need to be. That’s it for my opening comments. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Actually, we are going to let Premier McLeod respond to each general comment here. So, we’ll go to Premier McLeod and I will come back to general comments for each one. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I have the luxury of just choosing an answer to one of them. No. I will answer all of the points that the Member raised because they are all very important points.

On the matter of general service officers, we now have 18. If this budget is approved, we’ll have 18 of them. We found that we benefited significantly by having them very active in the community. Also, it has helped us with decentralization because we’ve had to go to communities, we’ve had to find office space, we’ve had to work with them on accommodations, so I think we found a winner in this program. Every opportunity we have to add officers to the communities, we would strive to do so.

On the Status of Women, I guess I should explain a couple of initiatives. We’ve started to take a very prominent national leadership role with not only native women or the Aboriginal Affairs Working Group or the Status of Women’s Council, we are

chairing Aboriginal Affairs Working Group and we are hosting the Status of Women FPT program this summer. We have strongly joined the call for a national inquiry on missing and murdered women and we will continue to do so.

On decentralization, I think it’s always been our understanding that after devolution’s transfer date of April 1st that we would take a very strategic and

well planned approach to decentralization. We have identified funding for market housing and also for office space. It’s our expectation that, over the next 18 months, we will have a very well-thought-out plan, including the potential of looking at the regional structures to decentralize a significant number of positions. That is our objective.

I think that devolution was a very big job. I am very pleased that our devolution team, along with the federal government team, were able to forge a very strong partnership and relationship to make it happen with a transfer date on April 1st . It is

unfortunate that all good things come to an end and the team will essentially move on, but that’s the way life goes in the government.

On constitutional reform, I think that we’re getting closer and closer to having all the land claims and self-government agreements negotiated. I guess at some point government will have to make a call as to whether they want to go into another, hopefully, final round of constitutional reform, but I guess that’s a judgment call for government sometime soon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. General comments. I have Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a number of comments that I want to make. I want to start off, as did Mr. Yakeleya, by commenting on the increase in the number of single window service centres. I think it is an excellent program. The fact that we are expanding to cover 18 of our communities is excellent progress. I think we will have succeeded when we can get a single window service centre in every one of our communities.

I would also like to mention, in terms of devolution, I think kudos need to go to the staff who have worked above and beyond, I think, in the last probably year, but I noted, particularly over the summer when the rest of us were able to enjoy some time off so to speak, I don’t think there were a lot of staff working on devolution who had any time off. My heart went out to them and I want to congratulate them on the hard work that they did do.

I have a number of concerns, one of which is the transfer of the Status of Women advisor to Aboriginal Affairs and I can understand the rationale that we have been given and the fact that we are taking on a bit of a bigger role nationally and so on, but I am concerned that we are going to lose

some focus on increasing, sort of highlighting women and increasing the role of women in our communities and in our territory and also increasing the leadership of women in our communities and territory by having that person within DAAIR as opposed to within the Executive. I would suggest to the Minister that perhaps we ought to be considering maybe half a PY but somebody who puts a bigger focus on women within the territory alone, if we are going to be focusing more on national sort of work, so to speak. I would have preferred that that position stay within the Executive, but there we are, it’s done and it is over with.

The other move that was made that I do disagree with is moving the program review office into the Department of Finance. Now, I think the Minister has heard this already. Certainly the committee made some comments several months ago, I think we run the danger of having the program review office become too much of a budgeting tool and not enough of a fully functioning review office. I think there is a danger that the focus will narrow to just look at money and the review office should not just be about money. It should be about efficiency, which maybe generates into money, but efficiency in terms of providing better services and programs, which doesn’t always relate to money. Sometimes we get better services and programs and simply provide a better product but we don’t necessarily save money.

I put that out there as hoping that Finance is listening and that, you know, there will be some consideration for the focus of the program review office as it settles into its new position.

Lastly, I spoke yesterday about family violence and I asked some questions of the Minister of Justice on what is in the works for the Coalition on Family Violence and I didn’t get a good sense that it sits within the Department of Justice. It has been previously in with the Department of Executive and I don’t see anything in the budget, I didn’t see anything in the Premier’s remarks which talked to the Coalition on Family Violence. I don’t get a sense that there is any money in this budget to assist the coalition with the 19 recommendations that came forward I think in 2012. So that’s my one question. Who liaises and where does a connection to the Coalition on Family Violence sit in the 2014-15 budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Premier McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the comments on the single window offices. As I said earlier, it is been a real benefit.

On devolution, we had a very hardworking team for the past two or three years and we will be showing our appreciation for our devolution workers, we are going to have a bit of an event before the end of the

fiscal year to recognize their efforts and their hard work.

The Status of Women advisor, we will make sure that its importance is recognized and that it continues to be elevated. The biggest issue that we saw was the need for administrative support and for events and functions. We are now well positioned by the fact that Aboriginal Affairs is poised, their expertise is in working on intergovernmental forums and I think they will be able to provide the needed administration so that this important function continues to be high on our priorities.

The program review office, I think our expectations are the same as the Member. I had discussions with the Minister of Finance. In addition to efficiencies and evaluations, it also plays an important role on risk management and capacity building throughout the government. That will continue to be a large part of its presence.

Family violence, the Coalition Against Family Violence, I interact with the Status of Women Council. They have come up with a report card and I know the funding is interspersed throughout the social program departments. I will be meeting with the Status of Women Council this week and I will be able to discuss this in more detail and if we can also provide some information on the 19 recommendations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I did forget one item and that’s the NGO Stabilization Fund. I think the Minister is well aware, as well, that committee felt that that fund needed to be increased in value. I believe last year we had, I don’t remember I think it was thirty or more, it might have been closer to fifty applications and I think the total amount of money applied for was somewhere near a million dollars and we have $350,000 in that fund.

It is obvious that it’s not enough money. Committee has been writing to the Minister for quite some time, trying to get that fund increased and trying to maybe change the criteria of the fund. There’s a need, as well, for emerging NGOs to get some sort of funding and the fund, the way it’s written right now, does not allow for that at all. So I just wanted to put that out there one more time. It needs to be more than $350,000 for NGOs who do work on our behalf and the criteria needs to be changed a little bit so that it allows for emerging NGOs to get a bit of a leg up. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I certainly agree that this is an area that could benefit from additional funding. In 2013-14 we had 16 applications and 11 organizations received a grant from the NGO Stabilization Fund and for this fiscal year, the funding we had, we put into GSOs, but in future years we will look at putting it into NGO stabilization. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Premier McLeod. General comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. After that detailed and thorough review of the department, I will now move a motion.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We’ll just take a minute to circulate that motion.

The motion is in order. To the motion.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Does committee agree that consideration of the Department of Executive is completed?

Thank you, committee. With that, we’d like to thank Ms. Turner and Ms. Ballantyne for joining us this evening and, of course, the Premier. If I could get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber.

Continuing on with the main estimates, committee, we’ll go directly to the Legislative Assembly. With that, I’d like to ask Speaker Jacobson if he has any opening comments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to present the 2014-2015 estimates for the Legislative Assembly. I would like to thank the Members of the Board of Management for their assistance and input into this budget. The Assembly is seeking an operations expenditure appropriation of $18.989 million. This represents an increase of $750,000 from the 2013-2014 estimates.

As you know, this past November the Assembly celebrated the 20th anniversary of this building. We

made the final mortgage payment and assumed full ownership of this magnificent building.

Due to the careful management of the Legislative Assembly Building Society, we received over $400,000 in surplus funding that has been committed to a number of celebration and

enhancement projects we have started this year and plan to complete in the upcoming fiscal year.

The ongoing projects include a new exterior building sign, the rejuvenation of our Water’s Edge Park and the establishment of an ongoing scholarship fund for NWT students.

We are also working with our neighbours on some improvements to the capital site. In consultation with the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and the Northern Frontier Visitors Centre, we are overseeing a project to put signs in place that will serve as a landmark and guide visitors and tourists to our building and to these other important NWT public institutions.

As well, we are undertaking some improvements to the Legislative Assembly building. This includes the replacement of an aging telephone system to make sure people can get hold of Members and staff when they need to.

This will also be the first full year that our House proceedings will be broadcast on direct-to-home satellite television across the Northwest Territories and Canada. We will be working to develop a program that will be informative and educational about the work of our Legislative Assembly.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the NWT’s

Human Rights Act coming into force. This budget includes funding for the Human Rights Commission to undertake a comprehensive review of this act to make sure it continues to serve and protect the rights of NWT residents.

In addition, the director’s office will be renovated to provide a safe and effective environment, and a part-time position will be added to their staff complement to address an increased workload.

At the same time, recognizing that the Human Rights Adjudication Panel has moved to a new administrative model and that their caseloads have increased, we have adjusted their budget accordingly.

There are also budget considerations for the elections office as they begin the important work of preparing for the next general election.

The Office of the Clerk is undertaking succession planning actions to ensure they are prepared to meet the needs of the Assembly, specifically its Members and committees. Responsibilities within the Office of the Clerk have been realigned, and a new position has been established to support the Board of Management and to coordinate the office’s administrative activities in support of session and standing committees. This budget also includes funding to establish a one-year committee clerk trainee position beginning this fall.

Once again, colleagues, we are looking forward to a busy and productive year. Our efforts will be focused on continuing to deliver quality services to

Members, reaching the people of the NWT to make sure they are well informed about the good work of the Legislative Assembly and to sustaining a responsive, representative and flexible workforce.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. This concludes my opening remarks. I am pleased to respond to any questions Members may have.

Thank you, Speaker Jacobson. Do you have any witnesses you’d like to bring into the House?

Yes, I do.

Thank you. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses in.

Speaker Jacobson, please introduce your witnesses to the House.