Merci, Monsieur le President. I know the Minister is anxious to get on, but I had a closer look at this bill last night, and I do have some concerns.

First off, the department, and I want to commend them for this, they did go through an extensive public consultation around what was called the Northwest Territories Air Regulatory Framework last summer. I submitted comments as an individual. One of those sets of comments was around whether the issuing of air permits is something that might be handled by the land and water boards, who already have a well-established system of doing so that allows for quality public engagement opportunities.

The department did summarize some of the comments that they received back in March of this year. They put out a "What We Heard" document, but it was never really clear what the next steps were, and, all of a sudden, here we have a bill that is landed before us. I will be the last one to try to slow this down, but I think there is a gap here between what the department heard and then this step that is taken, without really indicating what kind of an approach the department is really taking on this. I think there may be a department from the original approach that was laid out in the Air Quality Framework of a year ago, and I would recommend to the Minister that he provide an update that could perhaps be put on the website to let people know what the current approach is.

One matter that I am concerned about in the bill is the ability of the Minister to exempt persons or classes of persons from the act or the regulations. I think that raises some issues around what kind of terms and conditions should be placed on that and what will motivate a Minister perhaps to exempt persons or classes of persons from the application of the act and the regulations, so I do have some general concerns with the principles of this bill, Mr. Speaker. I would urge the Minister to certainly inform the public about what is going on and how the Northwest Territories Air Quality Framework may have been modified or the approach that was suggested there may have been changed or modified in some way with this bill. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. To the principle of the bill.

Question has been called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 27 has had its second reading and is now referred to a committee. Second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Tobacco Tax Act; Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act; Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Revolving Funds Act, No. 2; Committee Report 10-18(2), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Review of Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act Response to Report within 120 Days; Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Tabled Document 383-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018; Tabled Document 384-18(2), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2017-2018. With the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 18-18(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House, with the Member for Hay River North in the chair.

I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Committee would like to consider Minister's Statement 186-18(2); Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act; Committee Report 10-18(2), Report on the Review of Bill 16: An Act to Amend the Education Act, in that order. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. First, a short break.

---SHORT RECESS

I now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have first agreed to consider Minister's Statement 186-18(2), Update on the A New Day Program. Minister, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?

I do.

Thank you, Minister Sebert. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, please introduce your witnesses to the House.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left is Leanne Gardiner, director of community justice and policing. To my right is Deputy Minister of Justice Martin Goldney.

Thank you, Minister. I will open the floor to general comments. Do I have general comments on this tabled document? Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will have a number of questions for the Minister about this new contracting relationship based on the fact that this is a non-profit organization that has not been a service provider of this kind in the past, and so I will have questions that relate to the qualifications of this service provider to provide the A New Day program.

I am also interested in finding out whether there have been changes to the RFP that was put out earlier and what those changes might be. I will also have some questions about attracting clients who are not offenders to the program. Of course, John Howard is related services for offenders, and so, those people who are not offenders and who are using the A New Day program, I do wonder if they will feel the stigma of using the program in that location. Finally, we know that there was a very rigorous evaluation of the initial program, but I have not heard very much about how the successor program will be monitored and evaluated. That will be the gist of my questions when the time comes. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Green. The time is now if you would like to start asking those questions of the Minister.

Oh, I thought this was a time for general comments. Okay. Very good, then. My first question is: what are the qualifications of the "qualified counsellors" who are providing this program? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister.

Perhaps Ms. Gardiner could assist with that.

Thank you, Minister. Ms. Gardiner.

Thank you, Ms. Gardiner. Mr. O'Reilly.

Have you finished, Ms. Green?

No.