Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Finally a government document that references Highway No. 7. All kidding aside, Mr. Chairman, of course I have been using my favorite two words trying to get resolution over getting Highway No. 7 reconstructed and I know that it is very, very expensive. In the capital planning that we approved last fall, we are certainly making strides towards it and I just want to highlight it once again so we can keep paying attention to it. It is part of the Deh Cho Trail, the loop that goes from BC and all the way around to the Alberta border close to Hay River. It makes...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. When it comes to income support with the federal Minister’s recent announcement about increasing the amount of insurable hours, has the department done an assessment yet? It will affect the income support of people if it’s harder for people to get on, something like that.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to advise that when it comes to junior kindergarten in the communities, I have had constituents that are very supportive of it and it is something that we need in the communities, especially small communities, because the stats for progress in writing and reading is so low. In fact, it is so low that the department actually cancelled those Alberta achievement tests, but that is another story.

I certainly support junior kindergarten. I think that will give our younger preschool children a leg up as they enter our schooling system. It’s too bad someone already...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Once again, I cannot be supporting a motion that’s including additional dollars to the budget. I know the mover of the motion originally said in the motion to reallocate, but it also says an additional $2 million, so I can’t support the motion with that. We’ve got a bigger fight coming ahead of us. We’ve still got a $30 million reduction in the next fiscal year. All Members are aware that because of the late new information on deductions and taxes that we were going with the printed budget as we speak, and that further reductions will be coming next year. My...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to speak on Education Week and to recognize the hard work of the Dehcho Divisional Board, the principals, teachers, assistants and all the hardworking staff that make education a success in our region and small communities.

Over the years during my tenure as MLA for Nahendeh, I’ve travelled to our communities and seen the teachers in our schools and admired the attention and care they give our students and the involvement they have in the communities. It really does take a special calibre of teacher to venture north and live in our small and remote...

Mr. Chairman, that’s fine. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, this is in regards to some numbered questions here. Projected in the main estimates are liquor sales of $48.5 million, cost of goods sold, $16.9 million and last year we had $47.5 million in sales and cost of goods sold as $17 million, so what the numbers here are saying is that we are buying cheaper products or something there. We like to drink $1 million worth, so somehow we must be buying bulk sales but we are consuming the same product for almost $1 million less. Can I get an explanation on that?

Thank you very much. I just wanted to get right into the financial shared services and amalgamating people into the financial shared services. I’ve been trying to find some documentation on this from the last time the committee had an update on it. I think it was just before our election in 2011, so I don’t know if P and P have had an update on where financial shared services is going.

The original intent, of course, was the logical thing to do was when we split the Department of ITI and ENR and there were some similar functions so we just kept shared services. I’ve spoken earlier in the House...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I certainly look forward to that research that the Minister wants to do and see what other resources are there that can assist these organizations.

I’d just like to know if the convictions for drinking and driving have increased. I think it was during the last review, I’d like to ask the Minister, has it increased? Thank you.

With our government’s efforts to reduce drunk driving, parental groups like MADD and even SADD, Students Against Drunk Driving, have we seen a decrease in the amount of drunk driving convictions and charges in the last five years? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.