Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question on this item as well. It also refers to the item under community wellness and social services. In this particular one with the dietary, laundry and housekeeping contracts, we are catching up to what the actual expenditures are as opposed to what we are budgeting. This is not the first time that we have run into these kinds of requests in a supplementary appropriation. So I’d like to know from the Minister if he can tell me – we always seem to be in a catch-up situation, we always seem to be granting these requests to top up contracts or top up the...

Thanks to the Premier. I appreciate that the government is going to do a full examination. I would hope that’s what we would do. The Premier mentioned that people can talk to their MLA, they can talk to a Minister, they can go to court. Court is not an option. In the minds of most people it’s not financially feasible for them. I think going to your Member of the Legislative Assembly takes out any element of fairness or impartiality in many cases. I appreciate they need to be considered, but I hope they are looked at with an un-jaundiced eye.

I would like to ask the Premier – there is no...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Premier. I’m following up from my Member’s statement when I talked about the need for the establishment of an ombudsman office.

I want to say I appreciate the response from the government to the motion that was passed in June, but I do wish that it had been a little more definitive. The response to the motion talks about a review being underway, and I also appreciate that the government is doing due diligence in looking into things, but I hope they are looking at not only maybe adding to what we have already, I hope they’re looking at...

Thanks to the Minister for that remark. I guess my second question goes to procedure or process. The Minister just advised that through FMB, the actuals would be reported. I have wondered for a while now whether or not Regular Members see actual numbers of expenditures against what was approved by special warrant. Can I ask the Minister to answer that question? Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister for the explanation. I have to say that I was fully expecting, and I wasn’t disappointed, that he brought up devolution and the money that we’re going to get from devolution. It’s unfortunate but, in my mind, it seems that’s the money that we’re getting from devolution is going to be the one item that is going to solve all of our problems.

The Minister mentioned that revenue was discussed at almost every one of the meetings, and I would like to say that there have been two roundtables on budget and finance that have been held over the last four or five years, I guess...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance. In the last month or six weeks or so, the Minister and his staff have been travelling throughout the NWT and doing budget consultations. I think they have been very well received in the centres where they were held. I agree that it was a good move for the department and the Minister to take the budget discussion show on the road, so to speak.

Over the number of presentations and discussions that have been held, there have been remarks by the media, there have been remarks by the Minister, they have talked about...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to celebrate the launching of the Aboriginal Head Start child-centred curriculum. I visited the Aboriginal Head Start Centre in Ndilo last week and spent some time with Reanna Erasmus, chair of the Western Arctic Aboriginal Head Start Council. Reanna is very excited and proud of this Aboriginal Head Start curriculum, and rightly so. It is history in the making.

Aboriginal Head Start is an early intervention program for Aboriginal children and their families. It was introduced in 1995 to enhance child development for Aboriginal children...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have much the same concerns about this expenditure as does Mr. Bromley. I would like to, first off, ask the Minister, he mentioned that we have spent $9.5 million to date on this project. Could I know what amounts were spent in what years up to this point?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister for his comments. I have to respectfully disagree. I don’t think that we have to raise revenues through taxes. There are other options that are available to us, and some of those options were suggested in the summaries from the roundtable.

So I’d like to know from the Minister, other than looking at taxes, has the department looked at other options to increase our revenue sources, such as resource rents, for instance. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. I attended the discussion and the presentation in Yellowknife and I found it very interesting, and the Minister is right that there were some interesting discussions and some interesting ideas that were brought up there. One of the things that was mentioned at the meeting here in Yellowknife was that there was no reference at all to revenue in the budget presentation, and in the documents and in the discussions that were held that night. So I’d like to ask the Minister if he can explain why there was no discussion and no consideration of new revenues in the budget at...