Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In Canada over the last year, we have had to endure too many young people’s lives lost due to suicide, suicide brought on by bullying. Most recently, we heard of the untimely death of Rehtaeh Parsons in Atlantic Canada.

I bring this motion forward so that this Assembly can show its support for work currently underway by provincial, territorial and federal Justice Ministers. They are working hard to effect change to the Criminal Code of Canada, change which will hopefully limit cyberbullying, which will allow for the prosecution of those who take advantage of our young...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

In June of 2011 an employee of the Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority made a complaint to the Information and Privacy Commissioner about inadequate protection of medical information in Yellowknife’s two primary care clinics. The investigation resulted in what the standing committee agrees is one of the most significant review reports completed during this Commissioner’s term of office.

The implementation of an electronic medical records system began in June 2010 at the Yellowknife Primary Care Centre. This is, for the most part, excellent news as electronic...

I appreciate that the Minister is working with different partners. He’s mentioned that a number of times and that certainly was something that came through in the NWT Teachers’ Association report, was that this is not an issue that can be dealt with by just one entity. It is a difficult problem and I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s going to be solved easily.

I’d like to know from the Minister if he can advise, considering all the number of different pieces and all the number of balls that are in the air, how he is going to be able to coordinate the work that needs to be done. How...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement. I mentioned in my Member’s statement that a possible option to assist with the teachers’ housing is to change the regulations to allow education authorities to own property. So I’d like to know from the Minister why the department has not considered that as an option to date and why it’s not allowed for district education councils and authorities. Thank you.

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

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As pointed out in a recent report from the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association, teachers are turning down job offers for small NWT communities because of a lack of adequate housing. The report goes on to say that in the past 11 years, the Department of Education has spent $13.9 million moving teachers out of these communities, and that doesn’t include the added cost of recruiting new teachers to replace those who have left.

Since 1996, when the GNWT got out of providing teacher housing, there have been many things tried but, unfortunately, most of these solutions...

Mr. Chair, thanks to Mr. Aumond for that. I have to ask the same question I asked with regard to the financial shared services. We are spending money here, nearly not as much money, but we are spending a bit of money here. Do we have expectations that we are going to have savings through the centralization? I think the Minister alluded to it a little bit, but are we going to basically… If we are spending $165,000, are we going to gain much more than that by having these services centralized? Thank you.

I have a question here with regard to the Procurement Shared Services Centre. We have an explanation here where there is a transfer of money in from various departments to centralize our procurement services, but we are taking in $515,000 and yet we are spending whatever $515,000 plus $165,000 is. I don’t have that number here. We are spending $680,000. If we are doing the job in the various departments and it is costing us $515,000, why is it when we bring everything in together that we can’t provide the same services for the same amount of money? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions, as well, on this particular expenditure, the financial shared services. Mr. Dolynny has mentioned two numbers, but there’s one more number under Public Works and Services a little further on in this document. It adds up to close to $2 million. I think it’s $1.9 million, give or take. I appreciate that these are one-time costs, and I appreciate that we are doing this for the better. This is going to presumably make our financial services somewhat better. But it is a large amount of money.

I guess I would like to know from the Minister, and again, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my colleagues for their words of support. I’d like to thank Mr. Bouchard for seconding the motion and allowing it to come to the floor.