Robert Villeneuve

Tu Nedhe

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 7)

I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one more issue with the education and culture. I just wanted to touch on a subject that I’m sure we’ve all had questions about and we’re all familiar with. That has to do with sex education in our school systems. Just noting that, I know that people and students that are well educated in sex, and the outcome of irresponsible sexual behaviour would make more informed decisions with respect to the actions they take and some informed decisions in modifying their sexual practices. It would help alleviate a lot of problems we have with combating STDs and other...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That sounds okay to me. It sounds like the Minister is willing to keep it under consideration for further discussion.

Just getting back to some of the increase in some program funding, the increase in the student financial assistance and the income support program, I am curious as to the levels of increase that these programs are going to be receiving. What percentage of those increases are actually going to be going to the students and what percentage is going to just administration of the program delivery?

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On another point, the question of students being sent to southern institutions to be more academically challenged with their curriculum, I wonder if the Department of Education has considered the development of some type of a multilateral strategy that includes the government, industry, the federal government and any private input from individuals or families into some kind of an education fund that would assist a lot of academically challenged students from the NWT to go to institutions which will challenge them academically, intellectually, socially and mentally so...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just moving on to the issues of colleges, there is the Aurora College system with expenditures of $28 million within the next year and it does have some primary responsibilities of basic education and training. I am just wondering what proportion, if any, of that expenditure is going to be directed to the development and the accreditation of a lot of the instructors that are in our northern college system -- and no disrespect here -- which do have the expertise in the fields they are instructing in, but really don’t have any education experience in educating. I am...

Debates of , (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to thank the Minister for his answers, and I have no further questions on 2-39. Thank you.

Debates of , (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the Minister. Just for my own information on this transfer of the housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, can the Minister provide the Members of the House with some information as to how many housing units we are actually referring to when we are looking at $2.6 million in assets?

Debates of , (day 4)

Thank you very much for that information. Another quick question that a couple of the other Members were referring to insofar as other expenses go in the breakdown of other expenses; in particular, travel. I know that the government travel budget is still significantly high, according to a lot of Members, but a lot of the travel for a lot of the department members and their employees is directly related to their actual responsibilities in their positions, and increasing their performance, and carrying out a better service for the public. On the flipside of the coin, I also realize that...

Debates of , (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first question would be a point on some clarification. I just want to ask the Minister if the costs of assets and services is because of the large reduction in the assets and services from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Is that just due to the department releasing all of these staff housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, and that we would see this increase in the costs of assets and service in the Housing Corporation budget summary? Thank you.

Debates of , (day 3)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just going to use this opportunity in my Member’s statement to drive home some of the concerns I made yesterday in my Member’s statement in the House. Just to express some of my concerns with the government’s lack of accountability with regards to increasing the number of aboriginals hired to senior management positions.

As far as I’m aware, Mr. Speaker -- and I’m sure a lot of the MLAs of previous governments are also aware -- this government is not meeting the expectations for aboriginal hiring in senior management positions and has no tools or...