Bob Bromley

Mr. Speaker, I would like to recognize Mr. John Stephenson, chair of the YK 1 and resident of Weledeh. Also, Simon Taylor, chair of the Yellowknife Catholic School Board, and some of the staff here today. Also, the residents of Weledeh, Jacob Schubert, one of our Pages today. Thanks to all the Pages for the service they are providing. I believe I heard John Stewart was in the gallery. I can’t always see behind me here, but another resident of Weledeh. I understand Roy Erasmus is in the crowd. I’m very happy to see him and any other folks that are returning for our celebration coming up here...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to make a very brief comment. This bill represents a big effort to date, as the Minister has said, but still leaves the public hanging on a number of issues that should properly be dealt with in the legislation.

It’s an important improvement over past efforts and I congratulate the Minister on that. Unfortunately, it is not an impressive piece of legislation, other than its length and its propensity for unnecessary and confusing detail. While I wish I could support it, I cannot in good conscience endorse it. Fundamentally, the bill is unnecessarily...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to start by thanking all of my colleagues who have spoken to this motion. I think everybody was detecting the possible gain that could be made with this program, even those that were most concerned about the bottom line, so I appreciate their support and the concerns expressed, many of which I agreed with, with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Yakeleya mentioned it’s something like over $40 per day per child daycare costs. I assumed $40 a day and did a quick calculation: For two children at $1,800 per month; three children, $2,640 per...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS one of the goals of the 17th Assembly is “healthy, educated people free from poverty;”

AND WHEREAS one of the priorities of the 17th Assembly is “supporting child care programs to help parents become or stay employed;”

AND WHEREAS the “$7 per day” daycare program in Quebec has been shown to decrease poverty by cutting in half the number of single parents on welfare and increasing their after-tax income by 81 percent in the first decade;

AND WHEREAS the child poverty rate in Quebec is now half of what it was before the “$7 per day” daycare program was started;

AND...

Thanks for that commitment. Thanks to the Minister. Unfortunately, and I agree with most of what he said, but towards the end, we have not done the research. That is what I’m saying. Let’s do the research. Let’s commit ourselves fully. Do the research. What are the programs? What are the success rates of the different models? What is our situation? How would it work, jibe with on-the-land programs and so on? Let’s put the effort and the commitment to resolve this once and for all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the new Minister of Health and Social Services, with my congratulations, and it follows up on my Member’s statement on the need for a treatment centre or not within the Northwest Territories.

Does the Minister agree that the need for a drug and alcohol treatment centre in the NWT, which means the allocation of substantial funding and efforts, versus focusing on other programs and accessing southern institutions, remains unclear and needs attention and focus to be resolved? Mahsi.

Thank you. On our trip to North Dakota, we saw that fracking requires a huge number of trucks; so many trucks that they were wearing 10-inch-deep ruts in the asphalt and causing the state to go to concrete road construction at substantial cost. Now this government is promoting fracking for the Sahtu.

How does the Minister plan to ensure the public roads we have already built are not destroyed and the public is not paying for roads and repairs that should be paid for by the extraction industry? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Transportation. I recognize that the Minister is quite new to this position, and I’d like to start by offering my congratulations, and I hope he’s ready to get on with things in his new role. My questions are on the issue of public highways and what happens when resource exploitation puts extra pressure on them. My constituents on the Ingraham Trail are concerned that the secondary winter road to the diamond mines may not be built this year. They are concerned that this will cause an increase in truck traffic on the Ingraham...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last night I attended, as did the Member for Frame Lake, an event sponsored by the local chapter of the Council of Canadians, a national non-profit group supported not by governments or corporations, but by individual citizens in Canada. The event featured a talk by Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the council.

Maude Barlow is an amazing person, the recipient of 11 honourary doctorates and untold awards and recognitions. She recently served as the United Nations first senior advisor on water issues. During this term, in July 2010, through Resolution 64/292, the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to thank all involved for bringing this legislation forward. This really addresses a very serious issue that at its most serious, of course, can lead to severe consequences, most extreme would be suicide. It’s a national concern, but it is a concern, as well, in every community.

What is the role of schools and our educational system dealing with bullying is the question, given that they have considerable responsibilities already for educating our youth. I know there has been considerable discussion on that and I appreciate that.

Schools and the education system...