Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Shale oil development in the Bakken area has placed immediate and unrelenting strain on all types of infrastructure. Transportation infrastructure is a primary concern. There are currently 9,322 producing wells in North Dakota, and the state expects that an additional 2,000 will be drilled this year. The average drilling rig requires at least 2,000 truckloads of materials and supplies, which has an equivalent impact of 25,000 light vehicles on roadways. A single loaded truck raises approximately 100 pounds of dust per mile on gravel roads, coating vegetation and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister responsible for the Social Envelope Committee of Cabinet, the Honourable Glen Abernethy.

What is the current annual cost to administer each of the 16 income assistance and other income security programs mentioned in point 2 on page 5 of the recent Auditor General’s Income Security Program Review? For the purposes of this question, “cost to administer” is defined as GNWT salaries, overhead for office space, travel, per diems and other program delivery-related expenses.

What are the current total annual payments made to clients under each...

I’m sure we’ll see in the Hansard tomorrow exactly what the words were, but I think they were very plain. The Minister said I have rejected some, I have accepted some, and so on.

Could the Minister tell us what exactly has he done here? Has he suggested that he has accepted, rejected and proposed to modify some to the federal Minister, and where is the clarity on this conflict of interest situation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are in follow-up to my colleague Ms. Bisaro’s questions with respect to the Giant Mine. I’d like to ask the Minister of the Environment, I know he’s aware that there’s a potential conflict of interest here with the proponent, the double role that the government is playing in this case being that there is no mining company and we are both the proponent and the regulator. Now the federal government has developed a firewall to try and keep the processes separate between the regulatory side and the proponent side.

Do we have such a firewall between the two...

As we pour money down this black hole, which we know will drain our coffers for decades to come, we are hearing rumours that the gravel being laid is sinking into the tundra. Mr. Speaker, what is the Minister not telling us about this albatross?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister of Transportation today. Once again we find this government buying a pig in a poke. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars of our citizens’ precious infrastructure dollars in a black hole project whose costs we do not even know. Having authorized $70 million for ‘14-15 for the Inuvik-Tuk highway, we are now an incredible $160 million into this project, and we do not even have a firm estimate of the cost. We are just saying it’s capped at $300 million so we are going to shoehorn it into this estimate. How can this be? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I began reviewing the Education Renewal Initiative, anticipating a statement detailing its failures. Wrong. In fact, I was impressed and offer my compliments to the people who have worked so hard to develop it and bring it forward.

The plan draws on research which reveals the need to teach, or a competency-based model that works better with how a child’s brain actually functions, with more integration of learning across subjects. Self-worth is recognized as essential for success in school for everyone.

More than knowledge and skills, learning involves the integration of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to the Minister for his opening remarks. I just want to put in a word here of appreciation, on behalf of the folks in Detah and all those that use that road, to my colleagues and to the Minister and all my colleagues in the House for approving this or proposing this expenditure.

It’s been a very long time. I think people know that the road was originally just thrown in almost on an incidental basis. They got a tractor out there and basically put soil and gravel on top of the vegetation. It wasn’t even properly cleared. As a result, it’s suffered a lot of problems...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to return to item 8 on the Order Paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

Mr. Speaker, the data are crystal clear. The research is crystal clear. Brain development primarily takes place by age three and development of the neuro pathways takes place by age three, so the focus needs to be in the ages zero to three. Research is also showing that starting kindergarten at age four with junior kindergarten does not provide net benefits to learning over normal kindergarten programs, as my colleague Ms. Bisaro has outlined.

Given this evidence, does the Minister agree that, because the most important brain development occurs from age zero to three, that establishing junior...