Jane Groenewegen

We still don’t know what the Minister is going to suspend. We’re going to be in suspense wondering.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for the benefit of seniors currently living in public housing, I need to know if the Minister in the next few weeks is going to go to Cabinet and ask them for some kind of moratorium on the existing current Seniors’ Rent Subsidy Program. I need to know what context that that request is going to be made. We can’t do this open ended. Do seniors know by now that the government is considering a change in the policy for assessing rent? Yes, I think they do. Between the work of ECE and the Housing Corporation, I think they do. But Mr. Braden asked for...

Mr. Speaker, I was really happy there for a minute. I thought we actually got an answer from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation on something to do with the seniors’ rent. First I heard we were going to suspend the rent policy that’s in place now. Then I heard we were going to suspend it in market communities. Then I heard we were just going to take it back to Cabinet to see if we can suspend it in market communities. I just think this has created so much lack of clarity now that if I was a senior living in a housing unit right now, I would not be getting any sleep this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the meantime, there are people who are resigning from positions. There’s not a lot of clarity around liability, there’s been lawsuits that have been filed by the Workers’ Compensation Board. There’s just a lot of outstanding questions and I think the time is of the essence. What is the Minister going to have in hand by the fall that is going to actually not just see more review and more study, but something tangible in the hands of these folks who are offering these volunteer, but very, very important services to our communities? Thank you, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, after we leave this House today I would like to get somebody to go back and do a word check and see how many times we heard the words "under review" during the last eight days, because it was quite significant.

But, Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Health and Social Services, the Minister responsible for perpetual planning. That’s his own phrase that I’ve stolen from him there. Mr. Speaker, the emergency response services in our communities, I raised this last time in the House, I asked for a measly $10,000 to give to our local emergency response volunteer...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the Honourable Charles Dent. Mr. Dent wrote a letter to Mr. Roland subsequent to our budget session. I had inquired about the status of the Diamond Jenness Secondary School in Hay River and had asked if the functional report technical review that was done in 2003 could be updated. So Mr. Dent wrote to Mr. Roland asking that this happen. I was just wondering what is the status of that technical and functional review of the Diamond Jenness Secondary School today? Thank you, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Transportation awards fixed-price contracts containing a specific scope of work to be performed for the construction of winter roads for resupply to northern communities. This was an unusual year this past year in terms of weather and conditions for winter and ice road construction. These are circumstances beyond the control of the Minister or the contractor. A bad year such as this past season makes the work of contractors potentially very costly and difficult.

The contractor has the option of ending the contract and pulling their...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Well, I will look forward to seeing that. I think we are allowed to ask hypothetical questions in Committee of the Whole. If you were building a building just for your government client departments, would these amounts remain consistent? Are they just taking up large amounts because they are in an old building with big rooms or under the standards of space that would be allowable to them, how does that compare with what they have now versus what they would mean under PWS standards for allowable sizes for offices and common areas, et cetera? Thank you.

I just have a few comments and I will conclude with my motion. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for the numbers, but as Mr. Ramsay said, there are 838 square metres unaccounted for. That’s kind of embarrassing. At least I would be embarrassed. You are saying that’s a burned out section of the building, but it doesn’t say…Okay. It says total building, vacant space, GNWT space, NGOs. If you add all that up, there is 838 square metres missing. Now if you say it’s a burned out section of the building someplace, that’s great, but say “burned out section of the building, 838 square metres.”...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When we left here last night, we had a few questions that we were looking for some answers to. Some of the ones that come to mind I wanted to know. I wanted to know the existing square footage of the Deh Cho Hall, the amount of that square footage which is now occupied by client departments of the GNWT and the amount of square footage occupied by non-government organizations who are co-habitants with government departments. That’s my first question. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.