Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. Committee would like to consider Bill 1, Bill 2 and Bill 3.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. At the outset I would like to thank Mr. Yakeleya for seconding the motion and I bring this motion forward in the interest of safety of our residents and the preservation of lives.

It’s a fact that defibrillators can make a life and death difference in the same way that a fire extinguisher can make a significant difference between life and death. AEDs are portable, easy to use, and modern technology, with some defibrillators, now provides voice prompt instructions and requires virtually no training whatsoever. That’s not to say that training is not required. It is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a document, a position statement from the Heart and Stroke Foundation, titled “Public Access to Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs).” Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I don’t think the Minister understood where I was going. I’m not talking about a category in PeopleSoft; I’m talking about something that happens before the job ever gets to PeopleSoft. It certainly, I think, is well known within the government service that a job may be coming vacant and it’s not put into PeopleSoft, it’s not advertised because there’s somebody either within the department or, I hate to say it, somebody’s friend who they may want to get that job.

The Minister kind of led me into my next question and that’s the use of casuals. Casuals are a very common...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions this morning are addressed to the Minister for Human Resources. I’d like to follow up on some of the conversation that has been happening in the House and during the budget and during questions and statements in the last little while. I’m going to ask him some questions about jobs.

The Minister has advised us that some 15 to 20 percent of GNWT jobs are empty at any one time. So that is as of October of 2013, it was about 571 jobs that were apparently vacant. I’ve spoken before about the difficulty that I see people are going to encounter because they can...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has reviewed Bill 3, Surface Rights Board Act.

The Surface Rights Board Act mirrors federal legislation, pursuant to the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. The act provides for a Surface Rights Board to resolve disputes relating to terms and conditions of access to lands and waters, chiefly for commercial purposes. This includes disputes over compensation for access.

The act covers Gwich’in, Sahtu and Tlicho lands and waters as well as Inuvialuit lands and other lands in the NWT.

Alternatives...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning has reviewed Bill 1, Reindeer Act.

Pursuant to the Northwest Territories Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement, Bill 1 mirrors the Government of Canada’s Northwest Territories Reindeer Regulations as provided for in the Northwest Territories Act.

This act applies to all matters respecting reindeer that were previously governed by the federal Northwest Territories Act and Northwest Territories Reindeer Regulations.

Following the clause-by-clause review, a motion was carried to report Bill 1 to the Assembly as ready for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank Mr. Yakeleya for his remarks and thank the Minister, as well, for sounding very positive. I really look forward to working with the Minister to get this done.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. WHEREAS every 26 minutes a Canadian suffers a sudden cardiac arrest;

AND WHEREAS more Canadians die each year from cardiac arrest than from car accidents, diabetes, breast and prostate cancers combined;

AND WHEREAS each minute that passes decreases the chance of survival from cardiac arrest by nearly 10 percent;

AND WHEREAS almost 80 percent of all cardiac arrests in Canada occur in homes and in public places;

AND WHEREAS a defibrillator can dramatically improve cardiac arrest survival rates by more than 50 percent;

AND WHEREAS automated external defibrillators can be...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a bit of a preface, I guess. This was my second opportunity to review the public accounts and each year it adds to the learning, it makes it a little bit easier. I still struggle with some of the accounting language and some of the ins and outs. My colleague mentioned debt and net debt and that’s a difficult concept to get the head around, but I do want to thank the office of the Auditor General; their staff were extremely helpful to us. They’re still teaching us how to deal with the public accounts and we’re learning every time we do them.