Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question with regard to the huge increase in compensation and benefits. I presume that it’s for the transfer of employees into Finance from elsewhere. Can I get an explanation, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2014-2015. We will continue with the Department of Finance and if we finish that, Education, Culture and Employment and if we have time and get through Education, Municipal and Community Affairs. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister and his officials. I am done.

I hear what the Minister is saying, but I don’t hear that we have addressed the word “bullying” in anything that we do. That’s where I’m trying to go. Harassment is not the same as bullying. Yes, it is similar, but I couldn’t find anything in any literature on the GNWT website which talks specifically to bullying and I think we need to go there.

The Minister mentioned earlier that there are some programs that people can access. He mentioned that people can go to their supervisor and work themselves on up the line, but I’d like to know from the Minister if he could tell me, please, what those...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, too, am in support of this motion. It’s been mentioned by a number of people. I think it’s also been mentioned by the Minister, but there is a big need in the territory for daycares, for new daycares. The Minister talked about junior kindergarten and in the same breath mentioned daycare. I know he recognizes that there is a need. We have some daycares, particularly in Yellowknife. We have existing daycares. I have spoken before about the impact that I think junior kindergarten will have on the profitability for the daycares in the city that exists.

We need to provide an...

Thanks to the Minister. My last question has to go with something which I think is being reviewed by the program review office, but I don’t think I heard it mentioned. If I did, I apologize for not listening properly. Is the program review office currently undertaking or doing a review on Aurora College student housing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Human Resources. I want to follow up my statement and talk a bit about bullying in the workplace.

Certainly over the last year to two years there’s been some excellent work done on behalf of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and they’ve been targeting young people. But bullying, as I said, transcends age and gender and it applies to society as a whole, but it also particularly applies in workplaces.

So in terms of the GNWT workplace, I’d like to ask the Minister of Human Resources whether or not there is...

Thanks to the Minister. I have to say that I’m really concerned that we are not placing junior kindergarten where I believe it rightly belongs, in early childhood development. Placing it within the schools, albeit junior kindergarten is play-based and kindergarten will become more play-based, and again, from a pedagogical perspective, it’s probably going to be taught differently, but putting it into schools and treating it like schools is, in my mind, quite dangerous, and I think there’s an opportunity for schools to treat junior kindergarten not like early childhood education but to treat it...

Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister for the explanation. I do have to say that I know that committee recommended that the program review office stay within the Executive. We didn’t feel that it should be transferred to the Department of Finance. I think there is a risk that it will lose its function of properly evaluating programs and services and that it will be used more as a tool from simply a financial standpoint. I think that’s a fairly large risk.

My second question has to do with the output, I guess, of this office. Certainly in the 16th Assembly, there were a number of programs that were...

Mr. Chair, I want to ask again, in the 2014-15 budget, is there money specifically earmarked for ERI initiatives? Thank you.