Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this motion. This amount has not been adjusted in many years and is intended to more accurately reflect the increased cost of living. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Member. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I support this motion.

Thank you. To the motion.

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Recommendation 13 looks to replace the current child care travel allowance with a family responsibility allowance. I move that this Assembly recommends that an amount of $2,000 per year be paid to all MLAs with dependent children regardless of the number of dependent children they have. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Hay River South.

Madam Chair, since this Legislative Assembly began reimbursing Members for child care expenses at the beginning of this Assembly, I have heard that some Members with children are reluctant to claim reimbursement for child care expenses under the existing program. I think the existing program is a good one, and I encourage all Members to make use of it when they're required to attend meetings outside normal working hours or when the Member's child or children are required to travel with the Member while the Member is performing constituency or Legislative Assembly business. I recommend against adoption of this recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I was also surprised to hear colleagues mention that perhaps they weren't feeling comfortable accessing this amount of money and just also wanted to clarify that it is the trip money for child care; it is not regular everyday child care, which I think sometimes gets confused. I did try to get it so that I could have my cats covered under this but that wasn't -- wasn't something that Caucus bought into, but I do strongly also encourage everyone to take use of this, and if anything, I would like to see us providing more support to families. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.

Yeah, thanks, Madam Chair. So I would encourage members of the public to actually read the report from the commission, particularly on this area. You know, we budget $30,000 a year as an Assembly to provide child care expense reimbursement for those Members that have children. And we worked very hard in the last Assembly to try to make this place more family friendly and to encourage young people to run for office and to make sure that they had the ability to participate and, you know, get child care expenses covered given the duties and the time and travel that it takes sometimes to be an MLA and odd hours working and so on. So we set up this, you know, $30,000 allocation each year in our budget to help cover those expenses. But so far, only $1,358.50 has been claimed, after three years. So it's not working. And I think the commission actually made, what I consider to be a reasonable recommendation, to try to address this. And I don't know what the problem or the issue is. I don't have kids that are young enough to claim any expenses. But, you know, having been here seven years now, I know what this does to family life. So I think this was a reasonable recommendation from the commission, and I encourage those Members of the House that do have kids, and that do have expenses because of their duties, that they should be claiming those be back. That's just part of making sure that we all get the work done. And I'm not blaming anybody or anything, but clearly the current system is not working. And I think what the commission proposed is a reasonable approach, and I support it because the current system is not working. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Yellowknife South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I do want to echo some of the concerns that I -- it certainly has been my experience with two children who are under the age of 12 that this is a difficult job. It's a difficult job for a parent. It doesn't matter of your gender. But I worry that it becomes a barrier. I worry that thinking of an advance about whether to run, as people may well be doing in the next year, they will worry whether or not this job is barrier to them if they have young children who are of that age.

This week alone, I have eight different family member -- eight different families in this city helping me get my kids where they need to be this week. There's no child care expenses that I'm charging for that. I also have two different child care arrangements between yesterday and today and Wednesday when I will be on work duties up until 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock at night. And, you know, would have more, but I have a spouse who comes back into town just in time to cover the last night. So, you know, the child care expense, it doesn't change that reality for people but it acknowledges the reality. And I am someone who has tried to make those claims, because I actually want to make use of the facilities that are available to us. I want to make the point that we do need it. I hope other people will use it. I appreciate the effort here. I think what they're trying to do is take the stigma away. Take the stigma away of having to be someone who says, I can't always travel, having to be the person that says I can't always go to the event, having to be the person that's having to make those arrangements and walk out of the meeting to take phone calls from their children, I think there's a stigma associated with that. And that's why I have used the fund that's available on the days that were appropriate for me to do so. I'm glad it's there. I think this is a conversation that's good to have. I also don't think that making a blanket amount is the solution. This won't cover the cost of having to fly someone's child for folks who are from outside the community, from outside Yellowknife. I don't know how those of you who are outside of Yellowknife are managing; I really don't. But $2,000 won't do it. I hope people access the funds that are here now so that it makes it a little more palatable to them. And I hope this discussion reminds us the fact those funds are there and that there shouldn't be stigma associated with using them. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. To the motion. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. In principle, I support the concept of what we're trying to do here and I was in the last Assembly, and we did try to make it a family friendly place. However, in practice, I can't support this because it's saying that everyone shall get $2,000 no matter how many dependent children you have. That, Madam Chair, is -- I can't accept that because I come from a family of eight children and, you know, my only flight with my two children that might do but if you have eight children, and some community members have large children, how is that fair, Madam Chair? It won't cover the cost. So in principle, I support the concept but I cannot support this motion because I think it would be punitive to large families that have dependent children. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. To the motion.