Jane Groenewegen

I look forward to hearing what the Premier finds out about that. It’s not just that they…. They have everything in place to retire: the pension, everything, all the numbers; they’ve reached the goals. But before they do that, they would like to know for sure that they could come back as a casual, because it’s important to their decision whether they retire or not. If that kind of thing could be accommodated, I think it could be a win-win for everyone.

When I look at private sector employers and even the federal government, they have a lot of opportunities for their employees to partake in different things, like transitional retirement, where instead of going from working five days a week to full retirement, they look at reducing their work week to four days a week and then down to three days a week and then they’re off on their retirement. There is an opportunity for people to work six-hour days instead of eight-hour days. There are all kinds of different opportunities available to people who have different lifestyles or different times of...

I’ll be happy to inform my constituents that they may be able to have some input into that consultation that will set those policies in place.

Mr. Speaker, under the current Business Development Fund process and in the upcoming SEED program, will it be possible for businesses to apply on a consecutive-years basis for those business development funds? Would it be possible for a business, for example, to apply every year and get those funds, or will there be something in the policy that will preclude that from happening?

I think the Minister is aware of the situation I brought to his attention, where one business is producing something in a community and getting business development funds to bring that product into Hay River to compete directly and head-on with existing businesses in Hay River. Now, this may be a bit of an anomaly, but it has happened. What could the Minister tell me to assure me that that type of thing would not be accepted — that it would be part of the application for the applicant to tell where they’re planning to market their product?

I don’t represent them all, but I’ve certainly seen them around a lot lately, and I want to thank them for the fine job they are doing, representing their constituents. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to talk about how the market disruption policy is interpreted in the business development funding guidelines. Under the current policy, market disruption is said to occur when an investment by the government in a community impacts an existing business. Exceptions to this policy will only be considered if it can be demonstrated that a substantial portion of the market cannot be served by existing businesses, and that those existing businesses will not be seriously impacted by the proposed projects.

Recently a constituent who operates a small business informed...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The wish of the committee is to continue with the Main Estimates for the Department of Health and Social Services today.

I appreciate the fact the Minister agrees we could do better, and I think time is of the essence in trying to come up with something. I believe, as I said in my comments yesterday, that with the increased cost of fuel and electricity, this is going to become an urgent matter for seniors. You’re going to see many seniors unable to cope with these costs as they come upon us this winter.

Mr. Speaker, another anomaly within the support to seniors is the fact that some of the support is means-tested, some is not. For example, if you are living in public housing, it does not matter how much money you...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on one of the questions asked by Mr. Robert McLeod from Twin Lakes, and it has to do with the fairness of the support we offer to seniors when it comes to housing generally. My questions are for the Minister Responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation.

Mr. Speaker, we know to live in public housing as a senior over 60 there is no rent charged. With the changing demographics, the aging demographic in the Northwest Territories, is that offering on a universal basis sustainable?

Mr. Speaker, my constituent is in second year of law school. They would like to complete their degree. Why can’t the students who are currently enrolled, at the very least, be grandfathered and receive support for the remainder of their degree?

It may be that when these young people do graduate from law school there may be some attraction to stay down south for awhile. Ultimately, a lot of people will return to their roots and will return to their homes when they get ready to settle down, perhaps raise a family. They will come back to the North.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t believe we can cut off...