Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to discuss the need for access to will and estate planning for our residents. We do have one GNWT lawyer, a community outreach lawyer, whose job it is to visit communities and provide legal services to our residents. But one lawyer can hardly even begin to make a dent in our residents’ needs around will and estate planning. There’s a huge need to educate people about the need to have a will and another huge need to give residents access to lawyers to draft their wills and help them do estate planning.

Employees of the GNWT have access to assistance with...

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think we could proceed with Industry, Tourism and Investment, the Minister’s comments and any opening comments from Members, if there are any. Thank you.

Great, thanks for that. So the 10 positions that we are adding, could I just get a rough idea of what types of positions they are, are they all lawyers or what functions do they have? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. So I note two pages in, I think, there is an increase in five positions. Are all five of those positions related to devolution or not? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note a pretty large increase in compensation and benefits under services to government. Could I get a bit of an understanding as to what we are adding here?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Committee wishes to continue with Tabled Document 22-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2014-2015. We would like to start the Department of Justice and, time permitting, Industry, Tourism and Investment and perhaps Finance. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I have a comment with regard to health card renewals. Some months ago, over a year ago I guess, it was a huge issue and there were major problems with health card renewals. Interestingly enough, I haven’t heard many comments from my constituents, certainly within the last six or eight months, but just recently I had somebody who phoned and left me a message, didn’t really want any action but wanted me to know – and I’m sharing this with you, Minister – that his health care card, he had just discovered it had been expired for a year and he had no knowledge. Now, I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question with regards to the numbers on this page. When I looked at them and considered the results of year over year for the last number of years and the fact that our authorities tend to be in deficit, I wondered how close these numbers are to actuals. I know the Minister mentioned the other day that we do have authorities that are still operating under deficits. I don’t necessarily need to hear the numbers right now, but if the Minister would commit to providing us with a list of these same authorities and some actuals so we can see how much authorities...

Madam Chair, I just wanted to apologize. I must have gapped out when Mr. Bromley asked his question, so I’m very sorry for wasting everybody’s time. I’ll read it when we get it. Thanks.