Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d say the energy planning role of this government is one of our most vital roles and, unfortunately, the challenges are so huge that we have made very little progress in this area. I’m very disappointed to see that our funding has continued to decline, I think, $4 million a couple years ago and a couple million last year, and for this current year it’s down another half a million or so.

I think there are some fundamental issues that we should have been able to address that we haven’t. An example, certainly, is that incredibly we are still spewing megawatts of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I noticed the mortgage principal and interest amounts going down steadily over the years. Maybe I can just get an explanation. If these are what we are carrying, is this related? Like, these are under other expenses so it doesn’t seem to be the grants and contributions aspect. Maybe I can get an explanation of that. Thank you.

I know committee’s looking forward to that offer for information. What I’m specifically asking, recognizing that this is apparently the best educational system in the world, they were where we are now, they moved to address that and now they’re the best in the world. Will the Minister specifically have his department look at the Finnish system and bring to us the results of that review and what could work in the Northwest Territories? I know social passing and so on, and many of the things that are brought up today are addressed in that Finnish system.

Thanks to the Minister for that good news. I think it would be useful if the Minister could provide an update to all of us really, probably in our respective ridings, on where we’re at. Maybe by community it would be useful for us to once again get on top of that. Just sort of a parallel question, if I could get a similar update of how our LHOs are doing knowing that those are related issues, but I know some of the LHOs have gone through real bottlenecks and difficulties with paying for utilities and so on and working within their budgets. If I could maybe get an update there. Thank you.

Thanks for those comments. I guess I’m particularly interested in the Small Scale Food Program. I know we have a very active program in that area and I’m getting a lot of feedback from the communities that our approach hasn’t been the most productive. We tend to go into communities, choose the location of a plot of land, plow it up, plant it, then leave. I think the work that the department has been doing more recently and the partners that they’ve been supporting who are bringing in many other partners are actually working with individuals in the communities to be much more effective and I’m...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement this afternoon with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I described the Finnish educational system now recognized, after 30 years of reform, as about the best in the world. It has some neat characteristics that really ring sympathetic bells with many of the Members, I think, because some of these things address the issues we still see as being needed to be addressed. I know the Minister has some of that too.

Will the Minister and his staff have a critical review of this system and consider what...

Just very quickly, there is a very steady and seemingly steep drop in the CMHC repair programs. Could I just request an explanation on that once again? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Very quickly. I appreciate this being brought forward and I will be supporting the motion. This is the sort of thing that both Yukon and Nunavut have. It’s been called for for a long time. We did a review of support for the film industry during the 16th Assembly. Some good improvements were made and this is taking the next logical step that addresses the big gap that remains out there. The SEED program is supportive but what is needed is exactly what’s defined in this motion. I will be supporting it.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister once again. We have indeed had several reviews that have recommended that this funding be extended to adult learning and basic education students. We’ve received $8.6 million new funding to concentrate on upgrading and adult learning. Obviously, we want the intake of these students. It is also obvious that they need shelter and food as much as college and university students. The Minister recognizes these recommendations and mentions that there are many other programs.

Will the Minister act on the recommendations of the SFA and the ALBE program reviews...

I appreciate the Minister. I know he has mentioned this before. I think I’m starting to get some understanding of what he’s saying here. I think that’s important information to have, an important perspective. Obviously, it still leaves a considerable number of people on the waiting list.

Just to back off to sort of a larger-scale situation, I think it would be really good to try and have our fingers strongly on the pulse of where our people are at in terms of being on waiting lists across the territory. Will the Minister take on to come up with some sort of automated mechanism whereby we can...