Robert Villeneuve

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, rise in support of this motion. It is a good start. I know a motion like this doesn’t give all families 100 per cent confidence that our systems are protective of our children, but at least we are starting somewhere to give people a level of confidence to look at this government and say that we do care about our valuable resource here in the North, being our children, and that we are willing to take some extreme steps to ensure that that safety is covered under an umbrella motion like this which would basically give all our families in the NWT some level of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, if we need some more marine transportation legislation, fine, let’s just forget about the toll on the ferry. Let’s have a toll on our highway system. How about that? Why don’t we put a toll fee right at the weigh scales in Enterprise where the trucks come in? Why can’t they pay a toll fee right there? I don’t see that charging them $10 extra is going to make any big difference. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If I remember correctly, too, that $6 is based on a $60 million project and not 130 or 150 million dollar project. So that just changes everything drastically. I’m just looking at the $2 million over and above the already $2 million that we pay for ferry and ice road operations. So that looks like we’re paying out about $4 million per year out of our government revenues, taxpayers’ money, I guess, to finance the Bridge Corporation. I want to ask the Minister, if we are so hard on seeing this bridge project go through and we give the green light automatically or with not...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to speak more about the elusive Deh Cho Bridge project since this has become the basic coffee shop talk-of-the-day here in the NWT. Mr. Speaker, I can attest that much of this coffee shop talk is really not favourable towards the public’s trust in our government, Mr. Speaker. Although the majority of the people in the NWT, more specifically in the North Slave region, myself included, Mr. Speaker, are supportive of a bridge across the Mackenzie River, many have expressed concerns of the costs to northerners associated with a project of this...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, the honourable Minister Dent, on our income security reform, or income support reform that the department is going to be going through. I just wanted to talk about the recent payout of IBA to some income support clients in Fort Resolution that have been clawed back through their income support assistance for the month. I just want to ask the Minister in relation to the request for an exemption on the Hook Lake Bison Recovery Program and the compensation settlement on that. Will he...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well let me ask the Minister this, if he can explain to me what the difference is between the Inuvialuit regional claim distribution payments and IBAs. I don’t see any difference in it, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister to tell me what that difference is. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Okay, well, let’s just get on the topic of compensation here and section 20 of the Income Assistance Program policies, Mr. Speaker. You know, we’re treating the Japanese Canadian Redress Agreement and the Merchant Navy Agreement as compensation and as exempt. I don’t know who thought that up, but any stuff like the Indian treaty money received is also exempt. It says here the beneficiary will not…your calculation of net monthly income. We receive treaty money once a year, Mr. Speaker. It’s $5 a year. They’ve got it in here. That’s an insult for the treaty money...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize nurses week being May 6th to the 13th. I also would like to express my congratulations to Gail Beaulieu on her completion of the Nurse Practitioner Program at Thebacha college last week.

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I would also like to see Ms. Beaulieu return to her hometown of Deninu Kue and continue to provide nursing services to the residents, because we do have a shortage of nurses in our community and people are encouraged to visit our health centre on an emergency basis only.

Mr. Speaker, the nurses here in the North have to be very dedicated, hard...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that through the RC distribution payment being considered exempt, they did take the government to court and the court did decide it should be exempt as income, as unearned income or exempt from clawback on your monthly income.

Mr. Speaker, if we are going to see residential school settlements being included as exempt in the new income support reform, then why can’t we include IBA dollars? A lot of claimant groups only get this money based on…It’s not guaranteed every year. They could have used the money for something else and they could have distributed it...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess my point is more directed toward people who can actually pay some sort of rent. The Income Support Program tops up to $32 or whatever your rent is to what the market rent was set at and that’s just basically money going from Education into Housing, you know. It’s just from one government department to the other. There is really no money going into another person’s hands except from one department to the other, so I don’t really understand how the income support is going to be affected directly or indirectly. My question is how can we accommodate people that...