Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I understood the Member’s questions, he was focussed on college level courses. So I would be pleased to contact the college right away and let them know the region’s interest and ask that they have a representative meet with the Tlicho Community Services Agency to discuss the need in the region for this kind of course. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think everybody’s been recognized except for one person. I’d like to recognize a close friend, Ms. Janet Marshall, who is one of the instructors with the course.

---Applause

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the funds identified in the budget that we’ve just passed in order to do a special project like that, but I’m certainly prepared to advance this. I agree with the Member that it’s an area that needs to be dealt with and I am looking to try and deal with it through the business planning process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member and I had some discussion about this last fall and I would agree with the Member that there is a gap in our policies right now wherein living allowances are not provided for people who are looking at adult basic education, adults who may want to upgrade. I believe my commitment at the time was through the next business planning cycle that I would attempt to see if we could not approve the supports. Mr. Speaker, that business planning cycle starts for the government in June and I would hope that by that time I would be able to advance this proposal and see...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I certainly hope that we don’t see these businesses go down. I enjoy being able to access the services and products that they provide as much as anybody else. Mr. Speaker, just as insurance on a car is a cost of doing business, so is insurance for your employees. I’ve probably put $60,000 or $70,000 more into the pockets of insurance companies than I’ve ever claimed back for my car and I think that we’re going to have to recognize that there are costs to doing business. I’d be happy to, as I said, direct the governance council to consider this. I think all of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First off I would like to point out that everybody in the Northwest Territories, every employer in the Territories has typically seen an increase over the past three or four years. Until 2003, because of good investments, the accident fund was what was called over funded. The governance council thought that in order to reduce their over funded position and to give some money back to employers, that they would offer subsidies. So up until 2003 there was a 35 percent discount. Mr. Speaker, that means that if your rates were $1 per hundred that you were paying, after the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t say that the courts were going to set the policy. I said that the governance council had set a policy in place and they were going to the courts to seek a reference to ensure that their policy is compliant with the Charter of Rights and is in compliance with previous rulings of other courts in Canada. I want to be perfectly clear that the WCB policy does allow for chronic pain sufferers to be allocated a pension, whether a temporary or partial pension or total disability pension. Those are all possible right now. What the WCB is doing, though, is making sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it’s worth noting that in 2001 this worker, through the worker's advisor, approached the governance council and asked that a ruling of the appeals tribunal be reviewed. The governance council at that time agreed that it needed to be reviewed and it was the governance council itself that directed the appeals tribunal to rehear the case, but the appeals tribunal felt that it wasn’t appropriate for it to rehear the case and, based on that, it got bounced back. So the worker followed the process of going to the courts and having the court rule that the appeals...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Countries around the world will celebrate International Women’s Week from Sunday, March 5 to Saturday, March 11, 2005, with the highlight being International Women’s Day on March 8th.

There are many challenges in our work to advance women’s equality. Through the dedication and commitment of organizations such a the Status of Women Council, Native Women’s Association, the NWT Coalition Against Family Violence and a large number of dedicated people, much good work has taken place. We have seen the development and implementation of the NWT Family Violence...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In order to do that, it would take legislative change because the SFA Act stipulates that support is only provided to post-secondary students through that program. Just in terms of the overall changes to our regulations of policies and the legislation, I think that would be too time consuming. I’m trying to move forward with something that would respond more quickly to what I see as an important need that we should address.