Robert Villeneuve

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, first I would just like to send out my condolences to the residents of Behchoko for their recent passing of a couple of their community members. In particular, my great uncle, Joe Migwi on my mother’s side. He will be sadly missed, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday I had an opportunity to meet many northerners from different communities across the NWT while I attended the AFN residential school update meeting here in Yellowknife. Although the topic of conversation mainly dealt with the residential school compensation issues, many people expressed dismay...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, you know, I don’t think we really have to study the dust issue to death here because, you know, the EBA report on dust control is very well done, as far as I’m concerned. But again, these Northern Strategy dollars, these gas tax dollars, all these sources of money that the government has offloaded on the community to tell them to spend it any way you want, you know, I don’t see anything in any of these spending requirements that mentions anything about dust and that it’s your responsibility all of a sudden. The dust control has always been a government...

I know the Minister just raised another real concerning issue for me. Northern residents schooled in the NWT 12 years, you live here in the NWT, you go to school here in the NWT, and you are only eligible for 12 semesters of funding. What’s the rationale on that? I just don’t see how they come up with some kind of an eligibility requirement like that. I think if you go to school 12 years here in the NWT, you should be eligible to any unlimited amount of funding for Student Financial Assistance to carry on and go ahead, over and above the scholarships and loans available. That’s one of these...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What is going to stop people from filling their cans with gravel, dirt and everything just to add a little more weight on them when they bring them into the recycling centres? That is what it’s going to come to and then the larger centres will say you are 50 pounds overweight, according to 1,000 cans. Then there will be another discrepancy on the other side of the coin. So it’s just more confusion than is warranted. If you want to pay a summer student to count cans, then do that. I don’t think it’s too expensive and it alleviates a lot of questions that will arise in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we are kind of stretched thin on education funding. I know the Minister has said typically we use all the funding. I know that, right off the top of my head, I know three students who are carrying on with law degrees, over and above the BAs they have and they can’t ask the government for any money because they have used their 12-semester limit. Can’t the government make the exception to the small number of students that we do have as it is at the university level to provide them with some sort of basic government grant, so that they don’t have all these...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources again with respect to the recycling program that I asked him about yesterday and I think we had some clarification on it today. I just want to let the public know that there isn’t just a trash for cash on a per container basis. This method only applies to the smaller depots, Mr. Speaker, and that the larger centres that the smaller depots bring all their recyclable materials to is based on a weight basis, Mr. Speaker. So just for the public record, I just want to ask the Minister what...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just a question to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment relating to the policies and procedures manual for the basic grants that are allowable to students in the NWT. Like I stated in my Member’s statement, a lot of students in this day and age go to university for nine years straight. They want a couple of bachelor of arts degrees. Some want to go for master’s and Ph.D.s. Our 12-semester limitation per lifetime in our policies and procedures manual for Student Financial Assistance to me just seems to undermine the initiative our students have. When was the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just on the inspections part on the weigh scales, I don’t know who is going to do that. I don’t know if the government is going to send out an inspector every month to inspect every weigh scale at every depot to ensure that the mathematical conversion that the scale comes out with is correct and accurate.

On another point, Mr. Speaker, when you are in a community, you collect 10,000 cans, with or without the tabs, and you bring them to the depot and the depot weighs them and the conversion they are doing is with or without the tabs. These tabs can add up. When you add...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I spoke about some of the successful achievements of some of my constituents in the education field. Today I would just like to mention one of the shortfalls on this government’s education system.

I am well aware, as all Members are I am sure in this House, that our government resources are stretched very thin in order to accommodate the broad range of needs northerners require every day. I do acknowledge the fact that this government spends approximately 25 percent of the $1.2 billion budget on educating northerners, which is amongst the highest...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know we are kind of stretched thin on education funding. I know the Minister has said typically we use all the funding. I know that, right off the top of my head, I know three students who are carrying on with law degrees, over and above the BAs they have and they can’t ask the government for any money because they have used their 12-semester limit. Can’t the government make the exception to the small number of students that we do have as it is at the university level to provide them with some sort of basic government grant, so that they don’t have all these...