Charles Dent

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. In the budget that has been considered in this House, there is no money that would be specifically allocated for that purpose. It is entirely up to the Tlicho Community Services Agency to determine if that is one of their priorities. If it is, then it is their responsibility to take the money out of their regular programming and put it into transportation. They have the right and the responsibility to do that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize a constituent of mine, Barb Wyness with the UNW, in the gallery.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If there is a concern for safety for the children in those communities, then it is incumbent on the DEAs and the Tlicho Community Services Agency to deal with that issue. Either they need to work with parents to make sure that somebody is walking with the children to school to make sure that they are safe, or they need to find some way to provide that transportation. But, Mr. Speaker, all of the money that we have within the department for schooling goes to schools. We don’t keep any money available for other special projects. So right now, all of the money is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has no program for providing capital for buses to DECs. We provide money for transportation as part of the grant that we provide to DECs and agencies like the Tlicho Community Services Agency. It is up to those agencies to determine how transportation is provided. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the Member is right; we do have a problem. I have had other Members telling me that we should look for space in government facilities and make them available for day cares to operate, because it is such an important service in the North. I am getting competing advice here. Yes, I will take a look at the situation. I will take into account the suggestions of the Members. But for me to say what the response will be, would be, right now, premature. So I can’t answer Mr. Ramsay’s direct question as to what the solution might be. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I doubt that the benefit is $100,000. It is a very old building that we are talking about. The cost of utilities is probably a lot higher than what would be the case in a more modern facility. That facility is operated out of that building since far before my term as Minister. It is a situation that has developed over time where this one operator was in a facility. The government had a spare facility at the time and offered it to a non-profit organization to run a day care out of. In the intervening years, there have been a number of other operators...