Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment. In fact, it’s because jurisdictions are not doing the testing that the industry now does it because they’re liable, of course.

Let me see if I can get this right. There is a portable, high quality X-ray florescence, XRF, high count rate DELTA Premium heavy metal analyzer available that can answer the Minister’s needs. It provides a response on what the contaminant load is within a few minutes at 95 percent accuracy. It’s available from Vancouver for $40,000 U.S., and it takes four to six weeks to be on site. Now, we would need this in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, I know he’s been a great supporter of the Dechinta teaching and learning institution. Does that show up on this page under grants and contributions? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. It sounds like he heard my Member’s statement. I appreciate that. We have a challenge here and I’m just wondering what the Minister’s early thinking is on handling it, given that these things need to be in place in the communities, available in the communities and so on. Thank goodness it’s an electronic age, I guess. By May 1st, that’s about seven weeks from now. Is this doable, and if it isn’t, how will the Minister handle that situation? Will there be a phase-in period or something? Thank you.

I appreciate the Minister’s response and I appreciate him bringing this up with the board of Aurora College.

Just my last point on this page, how is child support made available for students at the college, be they from elsewhere or from Yellowknife? I often hear that that is an issue and I’m wondering what supports there are for students with children that are going to Aurora College at the Yellowknife campus, and I assume it would be the same policy elsewhere.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering if there are recognition programs that the government supports. Most communities know who their really successful social workers are, and a mechanism to support social workers would be great through some recognition or awards like that. Do we have that sort of support in place? Mahsi.

That’s good. Thank you. Just how they got there, was I right in that interpretation? They’ve been overspending and then being granted extra to cover that. I’d appreciate any understanding on how they get there, and for that matter, where is the final accounting for the capital so that I can understand exactly what’s going on here? Thank you.

Thanks for that response. What is the need? Are there a lot of requests from these workers for time off and that sort of thing? What is the sense that the department is meeting the needs of social workers? Is there any feedback or evaluation going on with respect to this? Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister for those examples. I assume we would be seeing an evaluation of those. Unlike the junior kindergarten pilots, we would actually see an evaluation of those before deciding to make them operational. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A silver lining may emerge from a catastrophic fire season the Northwest Territories experienced last summer. A bumper crop of morel mushrooms is anticipated this spring. Buyers of these delicacies will be again on site, bringing millions into the NWT economy.

While the potential abundance and ease of access are welcome, potential administrative and other nightmares could derail the industry. Members have called for regulation of the industry, and the government may be responding with legislation governing the mushroom harvest in the NWT. This is welcome only if timing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks to my colleague for that reprieve. I’d like to get back into it just for one moment to see if I can penetrate the finances, which I’m sure are my shortcomings, not the Ministers.

Just to follow up on the last response with regard to the board funding, I understand that the reduction would be less this coming year than in the current one. Does the thing return to zero every year, sort of zero-based funding? In other words, it’s not cumulative and the funding reduction will actually be less this year or this coming year than last from the original amount at the...