Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll be in touch with the department immediately to see how quickly we can arrange that. I can’t promise within the next two days, but we will ensure that it happens as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In one of the supplementary bills that will be shortly before this House there will be some money from the previous commitments made by the former government. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are hoping, through the business planning process, to be able to build on the federal government’s addition of $100 monthly to all parents with children under the age of six by increasing the user subsidies in the next business planning process. That should then allow day cares to increase their charges to parents. That should help to alleviate the problems that day cares may face with funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Aurora College, through the Aurora Research Institute, has been asked by the Government of Canada and NRCAN and the Japanese Oil Gas and Metals National Corporation to assist with the delivery of a major research project in the Inuvik region. This is called the Mallick Gas Hydrate Research Program. With us today in the gallery we have a number of key players as we try and move this project towards fruition. I’d like to recognize the leaders of each of the parts of the team. The Japanese scientist team is lead by Mr. Kenji Ohno, who is the general...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The money is proposed to be allocated on a regional basis. So, yes, there will be some money available for operators in Yellowknife. We believe that this money will help the operators. If they are facing a financial challenge, for whatever reason, this money will be available to them to defray other expenses that they would otherwise have to take out of their operation. So, yes, we think that this money will help the operators in Yellowknife. Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is proposing that we put $200,000 of that money into the Language Nest Program. That program was started as a three-year pilot project and when we brought it forward three years ago, we proposed that the funding would decrease over time because we believed that the operators would find economies of scale and there wouldn’t need to be as much training each year and the cost would go down. As it’s turned out, almost all of the operators are using the funding to pay salaries. So the reduction, which is about $200,000 this year, is something that would...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on the needs assessed loans, the answer is yes. On the regular grants, no, the size of the family isn’t always factored in. Again, the Member has raised a good point and it is an area that I have also suggested that we need to take a look at ensuring, particularly for northern students, that we are encouraging those students to attend the college. I think we do need to recognize the higher cost for single parents. I have already asked that we take a look at doing that. I don’t think we need a full-blown commission to do it. I think we have enough expertise...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The amounts are looked at on a regular basis. It’s not a formal review every year. There hasn’t been a formal review of the amounts since I think the year 2000 when we had a commission that did a study and made some recommendations that the government-of-the-day acted on. This year, for instance, we will be increasing the amount of support for tuition; we’ll be increasing the amount of support for books. So it is an area of support that the department looks to whenever we can make the argument successfully for new funds that we add to the program. The cost of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I’ll ensure that the department knows that there needs to be an interpreter/translator available for the meeting and will work to get that done as quickly as possible. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I’d be happy to arrange to have people from the regional office visit the community at a convenient time for both them and the community to have a public discussion about public housing subsidies.