Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We spend huge dollars on our Education department, almost 25 percent of our total $1.6 billion budget, and of the money appropriated for Education, Culture and Employment, $26.6 million is allocated to ensure our schools follow the ECE Inclusive Schooling Directive.

All classrooms are not created equal. Some have one or more special needs children who require a personal classroom assistant in addition to the classroom teacher for them to be able to be included in a regular classroom. That extra staffing requirement is funded by ECE through funds allocated to the...

Thank you to the Minister. I understand that, but you also said or somebody said that the payment is going to be on a schedule established by the board. I presumed that schedule would not be in advance of the licence. I presumed it would be I get my licence and then I pay over a number of years. Pardon me, Mr. Minister, but I’m getting a little confused or I have been confused and I’m trying to just find out where we’re going. I’m happy if you tell me that these things are going to be worked out and you will advise Members and committee later on down the line, but it’s a real concern for me...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I need to just go back and try to make sure I clearly understand how things are going to work around contaminated sites here. If I’m doing a development, I’ve gone to a board and I’ve got my licence and they’re going to grant me my licence and they tell me I have a payment schedule, there are two things and they both have to do with enforcement. Who is going to make sure that I keep to that schedule? If I do not, where does the enforcement come from? If, during the life of my project, which is 10 or 20 years, but after 20 years it’s determined that the liability for...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for the clarification. ENR is going to identify the site, one of the boards is presumably going to establish the amount of security that is required, so who then demands of a company that they put up that security and once ENR determines, say, that liability is a million dollars and the company has only put up $500,000, who is going after the company to make sure we get that other $500,000 so that remediation is not going to fall on the taxpayers of the NWT?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to Mr. Campbell. So, I look at the amount on page 17 and its $357,000. It doesn’t seem like much money to deal with the contaminated sites that we’re going to be taking over.

Can I get an indication of how many sites or what kind of remediation to sites we expect to do with $357,000? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for those comments. I did forget one item and that’s the NGO Stabilization Fund. I think the Minister is well aware, as well, that committee felt that that fund needed to be increased in value. I believe last year we had, I don’t remember I think it was thirty or more, it might have been closer to fifty applications and I think the total amount of money applied for was somewhere near a million dollars and we have $350,000 in that fund.

It is obvious that it’s not enough money. Committee has been writing to the Minister for quite some time, trying to get that fund...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks, Ms. Magrum. Okay, this is telling me we have a surplus of $150,000 – that’s what we’re estimating – and in ’13-14 it cost us $1,000. Am I right in that? Thanks.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s good to hear and I look forward to positive results. Thanks.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, we do have a lot in front of us. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2014-2015. We’d like to start with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, then Public Works and Services, then the Executive, and then the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.