Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Nunavut Minister is aware that I would like to move on this issue fairly quickly or very quickly. We still have to take due diligence with reviewing the applications that have been received. I will be asking the chair of the appeals tribunal to comment on the application and get that information back to me and I will work with the Minister from Nunavut to move as quickly as we can. It is something that we will advance as quickly as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, the board and governance council focus on workplace and worker safety, along with good financial stewardship, means the WCB of the NWT and Nunavut is well positioned to look after the interests of both workers and employers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have two documents I’d like to table today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are hoping we can develop a policy that is rational and meets the needs of the people of the Northwest Territories. I would hate at this point, with the amount of time and effort and consultation that’s gone into reviewing this policy, to announce any changes suddenly. We intend to make some rational changes to this. Let’s be very clear about this; there may be some changes to the policy around how we subsidize housing for seniors. I expect that there will be, but I would rather we bring forward all of our proposals in a comprehensive, cohesive manner and make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, both the elected boards have ultimate responsibility for dealing with their constituents. If they are not satisfied with how things are happening, then they have to sit down and try to resolve that in their areas of influence.

Mr. Speaker, I am in a situation where we have, as I said, we have a board that has a surplus of space and one board that is short of space. We need to make sure that we have partners who are willing to work together and I am hopeful that we will. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am prepared to put efforts into working with the two boards, but I think to be fair it has to be recognized that there is not likely to be a resolution in terms of space by fall of 2006. All of the parties have agreed at this point that we are working towards the fall of 2007. I am prepared to continue efforts. I have recently received a letter from the Yellowknife Catholic Schools that calls into question their willingness or interest in continuing this process. I am going to have to check on that. If there is an interest, I would be quite prepared to put every...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The answer is yes.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am afraid I can’t give a specific date or even a range of dates at this point, because once we have the new person selected, they have to be formally appointed to that position. Then, as the Member has rightly pointed out, there needs to be a process of them learning how to do their job properly. It’s unlikely that would happen within a matter of days. It will probably take a couple of weeks for somebody to get their training. Then when everything is ready, we will have to contact the lawyer for the appellant to see when they are going to be available, when the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do not believe that at any time the standing committee was informed that we might be having to look at replacing this building. Mr. Chairman, there were extensive consultations with the MLA for the region over the past two years. The village council has been involved in the consultations, the band has been involved in the consultations, and unfortunately it appears that in the act of maintaining good consultation with the community, the step of informing the committee that this was an impending issue was overlooked.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The additional cost would be whatever the cost per square foot is to add the space in a school when that school might be under construction. We have a number of schools in the Northwest Territories in several communities where childcare programs are being offered in classrooms that are essential or not in use as part of the regular school program. For instance, schools that are under capacity. So it is not an uncommon situation. In fact, it’s one that we think is good use of a space. Thank you.