Statements in Debates
Growing up in western Canada, I never knew anything about Black history or the history of African-Canadians in our country until, as an adult, I went to Halifax and first heard of Africville. It has come to my attention that literature around Black history is all but absent in our school curriculums and systems. What is the Minister doing to change this in our educational institutions in the North?
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at the actuals for 2019-2020 for compensation and benefits at $847,000. It has gone back to its original estimate of $1,096,000. I am just curious to know: there are no changes to positions within this area of the department, so I am just wondering why there was that drop over the last year. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. February is Black History Month in Canada and throughout the world. Here in the North, we have a thriving Black community that, in June, organized a rally to protest racism against Black people. This rally was organized to coincide with a growing international movement in protest of rising incidents of violent acts against people of colour.
From this, a group was formed called the Black Advocacy Coalition up North, or BACupNorth, with the goal of providing community support to Black Northerners. Its mission is to end racism and dismantle barriers to equity in law...
Thank you, Madam Chair. Does this fund apply to all of the 33 communities, or does it have a tax base, regional-centre-type distribution? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to get a bit more information on page 348, the water and sewer services funding. Could the department explain: is that for operations and maintenance of water and sewer services, or are there any new projects or any capital that ends up out of this budget? Thank you.
Thank you for that explanation. I think that the hiring of relief staff, I'm not really sure how much you need to analyze the fact that you need relief staff and you need to have other management requirements that are not currently being met, so I'm not really sure that another study on what is lacking, it's my understanding the department actually has quite a good understanding of what's missing in this department, from a staffing requirement. Has the department looked at potentially moving Med Response out of 911, since there seems to be a lack of communication or working together there...
I don't have another question, but I am just going to take a moment to plug for the seniors. I don't think that we should do the income testing because I think they contribute in so many other ways, and we do want them to stay. As one pointed out to me, we get $37,000 a year for them, so I will just leave it at that. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Would the department or the Minister characterize that the trend is going, across all those programs, towards income testing, or what is their feel about what is going to happen?
Thank you, Madam Chair. My question is around the assessment or legislation to do with the property tax for seniors. I have had several constituents reach out to me about what the department is going to do to help them should the municipality assess their properties at a higher value than they have in the past, whether or not there is going to be some help there or some control. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Just more of a comment, again, I want to reiterate that I think that that is a key area and very important to be providing those supports to SAOs because I do think that high turnover rate of SAOs seems to be affecting the North. Like the conversation we have had with the teachers, it is way better to retain people we already have with northern knowledge than trying to retrain and bring up people all the time from the South. More of a comment than anything. Thank you.