Wendy Bisaro
Statements in Debates
Okay. Committee, we will defer the title page of the bill. We’ll move to page 1, clause 1.
---Clauses 1 through 3 inclusive approved
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Is committee agreed?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2; Bill 13, An Act to Repeal the Credit Union Act; and Bill 15, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 3, and would like to report progress and that Bills 12, 13 and 15 are ready for third reading. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thanks to the Minister. That’s really good to hear. I think the sports that have been dropped, that they have an opportunity to be a part of the Arctic Winter Games, even if it’s in a different jurisdiction, is a great thing. I hope the Minister follows up and pushes for that, which I think is what I’m hearing from him.
My question goes to the hockey that’s going to be held in 2016. At the moment, from what I understand, there will be two divisions of hockey held in Iqaluit. Midget hockey will be held maybe someplace else. I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s on the radar for the sports...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I’d like to follow up on a statement that I made a little while ago with regard to some sports being dropped from the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At the time, the Minister had just come back from a meeting with some of his other counterparts. He had met with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. There was a certain amount of publicity around the whole dropping of sports issue, and there was publicity in the media as well.
I would like to know from the Minister at this point...
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we want to provide the best service, but it’s not happening. The Minister referenced that the client service officers deal with their clients, they try to have a relationship with them and that’s all well and good, but in several instances now, I have had constituents tell me that their client service officer has changed and they have not been advised. They don’t know that that’s happened until they present their documents the next month for the next month’s payment, things get held up and somebody tells them oh, by the way, I’m not your client service...
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 spoke about the difficulties that one of my constituents had in getting an income support cheque for the month of October and the delay that occurred. He applied well in advance of the end of the month, and yet didn’t receive his income support cheque until the 15th of October.
I’d like to know from the Minister at the outset, delays appear periodically, I can accept that, but I’d like to know from the Minister what length of delay...
Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to explain why this is being done here. When committee went through the Legal Aid Act we did feel very strongly as a committee that we wanted to make sure that legal aid did cover matters of child protection. So we amended a different clause to add the words “child protection” in another clause elsewhere in the bill. At the time that the bill was being reprinted it was noticed that in this particular clause, Clause 10, there was a reference to family or civil matters but there was not a reference to child protection. So child protection is being added...
Thank you, Madam Chair. The debate that committee had and the work that committee did on this bill as a whole was really interesting. There were over 10 amendments made by committee to which the Minister, over time, concurred. We found middle ground on a couple of them, but, in general, there were some very good amendments that were made which made the act a better act.
This one particular amendment or change that was suggested at committee was hotly contested. We had quite a good debate around the whole issue. Committee was split; we could not agree. I think the opening remarks by the deputy...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad to hear that hockey will be all together. I think that only makes sense.
My last question is a statement, I suppose, a comment to the Minister. I hope that he will keep the pressure on, and with the other sports Ministers that he’s already working with that he will keep the pressure on the Arctic Winter Games International Committee, and I would ask him if he could keep us up to date as things progress in the spring.