Robert Bouchard
Statements in Debates
Clauses 76 to 100.
---Clauses 76 through 100 inclusive approved
Thank you, Premier. Could you please re-introduce your witnesses.
Does committee agree that Bill 15 is ready for third reading?
---Bill 15 as a whole approved for third reading
Committee has agreed to go to detail. Clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 6 inclusive approved
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would be very interested to see how the money is being accounted for. Just because we provide money and then we just leave it at that, we should be following the audit trail of where the money is being spent; what money is being sent out to the regions; if you’re a territorial organization, what are you doing territorially to represent all the people in the Northwest Territories. I guess I would like to see the territorial government fulfil the mandate.
How is the money audited for the territorial government for these organizations? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my experience, nothing is free in this world. The point is that the funding for the junior kindergarten is going to be from within and now it’s affecting other organizations, other communities that have Head Start programs. My concern is that these Head Start programs and other organizations will fail. I’m just wondering: Has the department completely assessed this in their plan to launch junior kindergarten both in the small communities and in the larger centres?
Mr. Speaker, I kind of disagree with the concept that we’re funding these territorial NGOs but the money isn’t getting out to the regions, they’re not providing money out to these other organizations that are basically affiliates of theirs. A lot of the funds are used to employ people in Yellowknife here, and other organizations are struggling for funds.
I’m struggling with the question because I don’t want to out any one NGO, but is the government looking into the mandates of territorial NGOs, looking at where they put their money regionally?
I guess the issue is if those organizations don’t have four-year-olds, are they funded per capita or per student? How will they continue to exist? Will the enrolments be so declined that they will not be able to operate? Has the department looked at that enrolment and do they fund per student?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was able to go back to Hay River this weekend and saw that there were biathletes training in Hay River for the Arctic Winter Games. Today I thought I’d recognize all those athletes out there practicing and training throughout the Northwest Territories for the Arctic Winter Games next week.
I’d like to commend all those people that have helped them, the coaches, their parents. I look forward to being at the Arctic Winter Games next week. We have 35 athletes and six coaches from Hay River ourselves, and many of their parents are travelling to Fairbanks, Alaska, to be...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleagues, Mrs. Groenewegen and Mr. Miltenberger, for bringing forward this motion. They were the mover and seconder of this motion, but we did discuss this topic in Caucus several times and it has been done with heavy heart and consideration of a whole bunch of different issues.
I will not be supporting the motion because I feel that it’s not something we should be doing. I went home, talked to my constituents and a bunch of them had concerns and issues with it. The other thing is that as a member of the Board of Management here in the...