Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ll keep them brief here. I know that the department is doing some work in the fuel efficiency area, particularly in the marine transportation and in some of the greening of the transportation facilities. This is good work that needs to continue and, in fact, needs to be government-wide. For the Department of Transportation, the potential gains compared to the emissions of greenhouse gases, for example, are pretty modest. So, much more serious is the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts from transportation activity itself.

I’d like to know what this...

Thanks for the Minister’s commitment and reminder that he’s already committed. I appreciate that. It is difficult, because obviously schools have to be funded ahead of time as to what they’re doing and so on. So I appreciate that there’s a bit of a need for some advance.

Obviously this has been under discussion before and I’d hoped that some thinking had been done on this, but I’ll look forward to working with the Minister on this and seeing if we can increase our effectiveness, and perhaps with fewer dollars and it being done and tie the funding to real needs in each school. Obviously a...

Mr. Chair, I look forward to that update. Just more general backing off to a bigger picture here, are our educational authorities consistently within budget from year to year? I know, for example, in some of our health authorities there, they are very challenged and they end up with some annual deficits. Could I get a little update on how the education authorities work fiscally? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d prefer to bring that motion forward tomorrow, with your permission. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I note three here that the Yellowknife District No. 1 has been covering for K’alemi Dene School in my community of Ndilo in Weledeh. I know that that community is interested in activating their education authority which they have chosen in the past and they have covered by Yellowknife District No. 1. I would like to get an update from the Minister on whether or not that will be happening this year and where we are at in discussions on that.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Is this the opportunity to speak to the motion?

Just drilling down a little bit, the Seniors Home Heating Subsidy, obviously fuel rates are up quite a bit. I think it’s 54 percent, if I remember the number right – something like that – from 2007. Are there automatic adjustments? I suspect there are in that, but I’m wondering if there are automatic adjustments for those costs. Is it a number of litres as opposed to a value?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our belief in the critical need for action on early childhood development has become well known to this Assembly. It is good to see things getting underway, but we need to start off right.

The basis of ECD is brain and body development which begins before birth and is most critical through to the age of about six to eight. There are two stages. From prenatal to age three, the focus needs to be on establishment of physical and mental health and resilience through development of secure and consistent relationships with caring adults. Programs to support that development...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to follow up on some discussion about vehicle registration, an issue that my constituents and many others in the Northwest Territories have raised from time to time when there are people like me who have been fined twice for their vehicles not being registered. In both cases, I was returning from months away. People are not getting notices. It is the same sort of thing in our health care system where people are missing appointments and it is costing the system, obviously, as well. I did have a constituent that sent an example of a digital mechanism, no PYs...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m wondering if there are any plans for review of our income security programs specifically this fiscal year.