Robert Villeneuve

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...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question here today is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources just relating to our recycling program which rolled out last year. I know that the program has been receiving good reviews and good public participation. That is a good direction that everybody in the North has taken seriously. My concern is with the smaller community depots, Mr. Speaker, that rely on the larger deposit centres in the urban areas to drop off all their recyclable materials. There seems to be some discrepancy on how these materials are refunded and paid for. In the smaller...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is good to know that the Minister will be sending out some kind of a memo to all of the main operators. Is there any avenue in our appeal mechanism that the government would have? Is there an office that these small depot operators can call when there is a dispute and that they can get some mitigation to resolve it? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My question here today is for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources just relating to our recycling program which rolled out last year. I know that the program has been receiving good reviews and good public participation. That is a good direction that everybody in the North has taken seriously. My concern is with the smaller community depots, Mr. Speaker, that rely on the larger deposit centres in the urban areas to drop off all their recyclable materials. There seems to be some discrepancy on how these materials are refunded and paid for. In the smaller...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is just for the Minister’s information. I am sure he is well aware that a lot of these small centres don’t have Renewable Resource officers. They don’t have ENR officers. When they do phone the ENR office in Yellowknife, Hay River, the South Slave, North Slave, or the Inuvik office from these remote communities, these calls usually go unanswered, then these people just give up. I know of a few small community depots that are just shutting down because they are not getting any feedback from the government. They are not getting any support in trying to mitigate...