Weledeh

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

Thanks to the Minister for that breakdown. I have some of that information. What I would be interested in, in particular, is how the expenditures have varied from what was planned at the beginning of the fiscal year, so I would appreciate that. I know the Minister made a commitment to have a fully qualified – which I assume means meeting the federal standards – early childhood worker employed at each of the two child and family resource centres. Could I just confirm that those fully qualified people are employed in those programs as per that commitment?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

Thanks to the Minister. I wonder if the Minister would commit, just so we know what we’re talking about, if the Minister would commit to developing a briefing note, an information package on what we’re talking about here. If we were to upgrade all of our early childhood workers and their salaries, what would be the cost, in terms of the salaries, salary difference across the government for early childhood workers, just so we know what we’re dealing with and if we need to plan for it. I think that’s a good starting point. That would be great.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

I think I’m understanding the system now. I don’t have the expertise to criticize or critique it. I guess I would ask if that is the most efficient, having TSC look after our GNWT throughout our communities, and now slowly adding all the health authorities, but having our education authorities contract their own separate maintenance system. Is there an opportunity for an efficiency there, or is that something the Minister would look at?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

That’s all I was looking for, that we are looking into that seriously, so thank you for that.

Early Childhood Development Program, I see, is $7.7 million. Could we get a brief outline of how those dollars will be allocated and, if it’s possible, a comparison to the current fiscal year? That’s the $7.719 million under program delivery details and there were categories such as family centres and Aurora College training programs and so on that were used in the current fiscal year.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

Thanks for the Minister’s commitment there. I know the Minister is aware, just from listening in the House, that there are many millions of dollars now just from the GNWT being spent in this area. It is a big project in Simpson, of course, but many other projects such as Diavik’s wind project and many community projects, and our new goal of getting 20 percent of all our thermal communities on solar or deriving their electricity from solar, biomass projects coming on stream quite commonly. Of course, the expertise is coming from the South. That’s the sad thing to me.

We’ve been talking about...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

That’s news to me. I didn’t hear that discussed earlier when it was up. I appreciate that information. As I understand it, our education authorities do use our TSC programming but it’s done in a separate way. But they are integrated across authorities, so we just provide funding to them. Do they get chargebacks on their own? Would it show up in their budget, TSC chargebacks?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start with the early childhood development aspects here. First of all, I note that early childhood and school services division is the title. Could I first learn, is early childhood development programs within that division, or does the early childhood just refer to preschool programs aspect?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 17)

That was my basic question. I appreciate that straightforward answer, that’s good to hear. Will it be as straightforward for carving out the budget from YK1 for this DEA or are we anticipating that to be a challenge and what are the issues? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 16)

I assume that would come before committee at some point as we get into this new area of activity. Just in terms of our work with Aurora College, our relationship with them and clarity and so on on roles, what is happening on that front and is there a budget identified in the directorate and administration for that? I’ll leave it at that. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 4th Session (day 16)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the Members bringing this motion forward. I am absolutely not happy with the distributors of gasoline, the retailers who are putting such a markup on our gas prices and consistently across distributors. It shows a real lack of competitive spirit. I think already we’ve seen a response from the Minister of MACA who has done some investigation on what our authority is in this area and, unfortunately, I think the window of opportunity for doing much about this is small from a GNWT standpoint. The Minister raised a number of valid points and certainly that’s...