Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question here with regard to the Inuvik Tuk Highway. It’s almost $5 million and it is a carry-over. I understand that. It’s my recollection we had an extended discussion in the House about advancing money for this project. So I’d like to get an explanation as to why this project is seemingly behind, perhaps, where we are in terms of completion of this project, are we going to be finished on schedule, why it is that we are lapsing $5 million from last year’s construction season. Thank you.

When I use the term “Commissioner’s lands,” I’m thinking it’s the land that we’ve taken over since devolution, but I think those are called Territorial lands. So we think we’ve found all the sites on Territorial lands and Commissioner’s lands, just to confirm for me. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question with regards to the $300,000 for a planning study for Taiga Lab. I guess I would like to know, this is a new expense, I think. It looks to me like it’s a new expense. So, why are we not able to put this into our budget which we passed not very long ago? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions. I presume that’s acceptable? Thank you. I don’t have major concerns, but I think I need to ask some questions to ensure anybody who is listening to this and wondering about this great expense, to ensure that they understand what this is all about. The Minister stated in his opening remarks that this is a one-time expenditure, but I would suspect that we would see that it’s entirely possible with new developments happening, and/or the discovery of contaminated sites which we haven’t yet discovered, that we would see another one-time increase.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I look at the list here in tourism and parks and it’s not a huge amount of money. I mean, it’s $2.4 million but in the grand scheme of things it’s not that huge, but there are an awful lot of projects in here. So I’m wondering if this is a situation where ITI is trying to get too much done in a year. I seem to recall that in previous years we had a fairly long list in each of the last several years of tourism and parks projects, which didn’t get done.

So, although there’s not much in each of these projects, there are a lot of projects here and it adds up to $2.4 million...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister: I have to say that I am very dismayed. I am quite surprised. This is something that started last September, October, and now we have to wait until the 18th Assembly for any kind of change to take place. I’m very dismayed. I urge the Minister to get it done sooner. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Ministers for that info. The other item here that I have questions about is the health centre in Norman Wells. It’s a large amount of money, almost $15 million. It suggests that that project wasn’t even started. Could I get an explanation as to why we are carrying over such a large amount?

Thanks to the Minister. He mentioned a lot of types of funding. My understanding was that this was a review of licenced daycare operations, governance and funding for daycare operators. I appreciate that they’re reviewing the information, but according to the terms of reference, which I found on the website, there was supposed to be a report as of the 31st of March of 2015.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, you’ve got answers from some 100-plus operators. Two things. Did it include the Montessori Children’s Centre here in Yellowknife? I don’t believe it did. Secondly, was there a report? I...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. The first one has to do with the amount of money for the H.H. Williams Hospital in Hay River. I see that this is a carry-over amount of some $200,000. I thought that we had advanced money for this project, so I’m wondering why we still have a carry-over at this point. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to revisit the subject of daycares and daycare funding. Over the years this government has repeatedly professed that children are important and that we care for our children, but the actions they’ve taken belie their words.

We don’t have many licenced daycares in the territory. Lots of communities have no daycare at all. Those licenced daycares which do exist in the NWT can get some funding from Education, Culture and Employment to help them with their operations, but it’s well-known that the current funding opportunities are not really working for them. For...