Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to talk about a land situation. We all have people in our communities who want the best for the community and its residents and they work very hard to improve where they live. The benefits of their efforts accrue not only to them but to the community as a whole.

Yellowknife is fortunate to have a group of dedicated, enthusiastic motocross riders. They enjoy their sport and they want others to as well. They want to dedicate a space to practice and teach their hobby.

The Yellowknife Motocross Association has been working for several years to revive the now...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of motions. I move that this committee again recommends that the Minister of Finance provide the committee with the interim public accounts by August 31st of each year in time for committee review of the government’s business plans.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to make a few brief remarks about this motion and I’m extremely pleased to see we’ve reached this point. The idea was presented to me by a constituent several years ago and I felt it was an idea worth pursuing and so I did pursue it, pushed it as much as I could at Caucus and I’m very pleased that Caucus did agree that an NWT Honours Award was something worth pursuing. I am very glad we got to this point and that it has come to fruition. So I need to give credit to that constituent, and his name is Jeff Corradetti. I want to thank Jeff for pushing me and I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am in support of this motion. I’ve spoken for probably a year now about the need for us to have a conversation on fracking, a public conversation on fracking, and to engage our residents, to help them learn more, to help them ask the questions that they want asked so they can get the information that they are seeking. I spoke last week in my statement and said that we need to have a conversation on fracking. It has yet to happen, and the answers from the Minister to my questions indicates that this government is not prepared to stop looking at regulations and have the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We hear a lot about our financial situation from the government every year almost every time the House sits, and it’s all doom and gloom. “We have no money,” we keep hearing.

I’m all for being fiscally prudent and I compliment the Finance Minister and staff for their ability to keep us financially solvent, but I’m also a firm believer in searching for new revenues and thinking outside the box to find them. We haven’t done much of either in my years in the Assembly.

Towards the end of the 16th Assembly, action was taken to look at supplementary health benefits. A working...

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

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make some comments on this bill similar to the comments that I made the other night when we reviewed the bill clause by clause.

As the Minister said, this has been a long time coming. It’s four years of work by the department, but it started with work in the 16th Assembly, as has been mentioned. I’m very glad to see that these amendments are here. They don’t go as far as I would have liked them to have gone, but certainly it’s going to address a gap in our services for youth, which has been a concern for Members since 2010 when we did the review of the Child and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Mr. Moses.

The committee commends the Minister for including a new provision requiring an application for an apprehension order to be accompanied by a sworn statement listing the alternatives to apprehension that were considered. The provision is meant to curb the frequency of apprehensions and to ensure that child protection workers have availed themselves of the least intrusive measures. All too often in the Northwest Territories, families lose their children instead of getting help.

The committee approached the department about an additional provision...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make a comment here about a change that committee wanted to bring forward. I wanted to just explain that this amendment did not change the bill, and what it was that committee wished to highlight.

The amendment that committee brought forward was to allow for the court to order mediation. It would have a family or someone could apply to the court for an order directing that mediation or some other mechanism could occur. The amendment also directed that the costs of the mediation or the mechanism would be paid by the director of child and family services.

Co...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to deal with Committee Report 17-17(5), Bill 47, Committee Report 18-17(5) and Bill 66.