Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, education of our children is right up there with the health of our citizens in terms of its importance in determining quality of life, and I believe that the constituents of Range Lake have every right to expect the very best out of this government. This is the best gift that life in the North has given to me, and I take my job of improving on this tradition very seriously, and I have to tell you that this Minister and this government is not doing a very good job in this regard.

Mr. Speaker, reducing the PTR and reducing special needs funding is not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe the supplementary funding that the Minister will be bringing forward will have some of this information. Could the Minister indicate when we should expect to have this information in the House, so we can have further discussion on the details of what he is proposing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to narrow my supplementary question to individual homes rather than the government, although I started on two and I might have confused the Minister. I know the Minister is referring to many of the committees and meetings and, God only knows, the studies we did in the last Assembly, spending millions of dollars. If we spent that money trying to make our homes more efficient, we might be a lot better off now. Mr. Speaker, the Minister indicated in his Minister's statement about working with the Arctic Energy Alliance and the supplementary funding that he will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to take this opportunity to respond to what appears to be a theme day on the part of the Cabinet on energy issues. Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I like some of the points raised by Cabinet, especially the fact that the Arctic Energy Alliance is going to receive the kind of respect and financial resources that I believe they have deserved for a long time. There was lots of warm and fuzzy stuff said in those statements, but if anybody was looking for a very specific financial break in regard to the rising fuel costs, I don’t think anything was to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. Mr. Speaker, I really like this thermal scan thing. I think that that is something that we should use a lot more, and I know that we are going to use this for government buildings and huge buildings. I think we should somehow set up a program where individual homeowners could use this service at a low cost or no cost to see how energy efficient their homes are. Failing that, I am sure there are experts in our communities who could do this. Will the government look into helping our people do that; help with the cost of getting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are in line with the statement I made earlier about the energy issues that the Cabinet read out earlier today. Mr. Speaker, my question goes to the Minister of Public Works and Services. I believe in the long run that this has to be about reduction of consumption no matter where the energy cost levels are. They go up and down. We have no idea how bad this is going to be and for how long. I think that we have to be always vigilant. We live in a very affluent society. We like to have big houses and big cars and such. We forget that we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to report that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has reviewed Bill 3, An Act to Amend the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Bill 4, An Act to Amend the Education Act, and Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Judicature Act, and wishes to report that Bill 3, Bill 4 and Bill 5 are ready for consideration in Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that the Minister works hard to increase funding in special needs, but the Minister has even admitted himself that he has an obligation. We have an obligation to students to provide support to those who need it, and obviously we are not meeting that. I am thinking that the only way we are going to know whether we are meeting them or not, we have to know what the needs are. I am telling you, Mr. Speaker, there are classrooms in our territory where there might be 50 percent of students who need special needs funding, and 10 percent, 15...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question today is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. It is in regard to the Member’s statement I made earlier. Mr. Speaker, it never ceases to amaze me how in government we often throw money at things hoping that that would fix things. Only six years ago, when I got here, our first budget for the NWT post-division was around $700 million. Now we have increased it to almost $1.2 billion. I think it is incumbent on us to make sure that the money we are spending is going to the right places, doing the right thing and doing the...

Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that there are a lot of problems that we deal with in this hall that are not just about money. As we speak, I don’t believe the Minister and the Department of ECE knows exactly how the priorities are set. They have no idea what the real needs are for special needs students in our schools and our board in our areas. They’re just saying, okay, we’ll just give you a part of school funding and you do with it what you can. I’m telling you, as I walk through the halls of Range Lake North School, in the six years, even if the budget went up by 100 percent, there is...