Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I would also like to recognize Mr. Brian Chambers. He’s been an acquaintance for a long time, and a colleague. We worked together on municipal issues when I was on city council. Welcome to the House, Brian.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve just got a number of things that I want to mention in no particular order. I don’t think it will be any surprise to the Minister to hear me talk about the cost of electricity and what we are doing about it or not doing about it. I am particularly concerned about our subsidy program. It’s a great subsidy, it’s keeping my bills down and I’m happy for that. But I am extremely concerned about what happens when we get to the end of our subsidy for the increased power rates that we’re now experiencing. What are the next steps, is where my head is going. What plan do we...

Thanks for the explanation, Ms. Magrum. So am I right in seeing, then, that there’s $2.3 million or so? As a closing balance that would be what the surplus is I think. What sorts of things do we use this for? That’s a fair bit of money. I understand we use it for something, but could I get a couple of examples of what we use it for? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m done.

Thanks to the Minister for that. My other question has to do with our Protected Areas Strategy. It’s been moving along. We’ve been adding sites and approving sites over time. I wondered if the Minister could indicate, first of all, the number of protected area sites. I guess I want to know between 2010-2011 and 2011-2012. Have we approved, has there been a trend, a downward trend or an upward trend, I guess is what I’m trying to say, in the number of protected areas and number of sites that we’ve added to our strategy?

Thanks to the Minister for that. I guess I’d have to disagree with the Minister, I don’t think it’s the majority that are legislative changes. Certainly, there are a lot of changes suggested to legislation and I’m really glad to hear that there will be an LP coming in 2013. That’s this calendar year. So that’s a good thing.

The Minister mentioned one of the actions the department has tried to put into place, and that’s child and family service committees within our communities. I appreciate that there has been some difficulty in getting these committees organized, but I have heard from my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today is not only Valentine’s Day, as evidenced by my colleague Mr. Dolynny, but it is also the 15th anniversary of V-Day.

V-Day is an organized response against violence towards women. Today is also the launch of a new campaign, the One Billion Rising Campaign. One Billion Rising invites one billion people, representing the number of women on the planet who have been raped or beaten, to walk out of their jobs, schools, homes, and dance. I won’t be dancing today, but maybe next year we’ll all be dancing.

The One Billion Rising Campaign can be a catalyst. It can unify and...

My brain automatically said, so why not all communities? But I totally understand why we’re not doing them all.

I guess my next question would be, in relation to the plans, if the assessments have been done, presumably the department is assisting communities to develop a plan to reduce risk if there is any. Are plans being implemented in the communities where these wildfire risk assessments have been done?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’m sorry if I missed the question earlier. If you’ve already covered that, my apologies.

My next question would be, there is some interest, I believe, in the Sahtu of potentially developing a wood pellet industry there. If the inventory hasn’t been completed in an area where somebody wants to develop a pellet industry, is that something that the department has the resources to do within a short period of time, to try and encourage a business to get established? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to thank Mr. Bromley and Mr. Yakeleya, the mover and the seconder of the motion, for bringing this motion forward for a second time.

We had great debate at committee about this last fall, and we have had debate about it, not quite so much debate in the last week or so. Members have received evidence of considerable public support for this motion since the motion was given notice of on Tuesday.

I rise in support of this motion again, as I did in the fall. I support the motion because I am still – my views have not changed – gravely concerned with the...