Bob Bromley

The Minister and I have the same goals and what I’m saying is, after decades of failure, keeping people in poverty, recognizing this government’s commitment to get out of poverty, help people get out of poverty, let’s do some changes here and I’m suggesting some.

The Minister recently announced a clearly sensible policy that recipients of Student Financial Assistance will only have to report every three months instead of monthly. We are all aware that we have to fill out our annual tax returns pretty soon.

Why does the department continue to require that income support paperwork be completed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the deputy minister there. That is certainly substantial progress going from predominantly cows to less than 65 percent or less than 35 percent, I suppose that would be cows, 40 or 35 percent. That is certainly progress and I would certainly support the department in working on further progress on that front. I know it’s difficult. I mean, there are some cultural considerations and practices here, so it’s a tough situation, but I think the deputy minister is right. Without backing off on a cow harvest, the potential for recovery will be much reduced. I...

In terms of the budget before us, are there dollars here to start work on renewing these strategies in this fiscal year given that this fiscal year covers the date that they will be ending?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I probably missed it, but I’m just wondering what happened to the $1 million for the Biomass Energy Strategy. That’s on page 46, in the middle of page 46. Contributions last year were $1 million, scheduled to be $1.7 million but ended up being $1 million, and the year before that, $1.75 million. This year, zip.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up from my Member’s statement earlier today with questions for the Minister of ECE. I would like to know why we treat people differently, depending on how much money they make. Recognizing that the Minister is working hard on this issue, could the Minister explain what is the underlying philosophy as to why the system his department operates inherently treats people who are living in poverty with less respect than other people? Thank you.

That sounds pretty exciting. Good luck. Thank you.

Just in terms of there are specific goals and objectives there. I think with the Solar Strategies I think it was five communities with 20 percent, the five thermal communities with 20 percent of our solar generation meeting the load and a couple of communities, 75 percent or something in that order. The Greenhouse Gas Strategy I believe it was, I can’t remember specifically, it was a little bit waffley, so it’s hard to remember that one. But are we able to say where we’re at in terms of achieving those and an explanation of that? Thank you.

I think the issue was we don’t want to be discouraging people from drinking milk. This is an added cost to them because they don’t get full return of the deposit. So we thought that this should be one exception where people should actually get full return on deposits that they pay when they return the beverage container for milk. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government has committed to eradicating poverty and I fully support that statement. Looking at the Anti-Poverty Strategy and action plan, they contain many good ideas that will tweak the system and gently increase overall wellness in our communities, but tweaking the system is not going to eliminate poverty.

Our northern cultures put a high value on helping each other get through difficult times and making sure that everyone has an equal opportunity to get ahead. Our efforts to eliminate poverty should reflect those values. Despite our best intentions, however, the...

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks for that information. I’ve never known NTPC to be much of a wind expert outfit, but it would be great to see them get into that. They’ve certainly held up a lot of wind projects in the past.

Just on solar energy, again, I’m a supporter of the Solar Energy Program. I think the net metering discussions that have been going on through the board and thermal communities and so on, with participation of the department, are very productive. It would be great to see a net metering program get off the ground.

One problem there is NTPC’s reluctance to fund or waive the...