Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to Mr. Heide. I appreciate that there’s an appetite. I appreciate that some stuff is being looked at. But apart from conflicting policies, there still needs, in my mind, to be a review of how we provide our income security programs, all of them, whether they are in step with the rest of the country, whether they are serving our clients to the best that we can do. I think there are certainly areas where they are not. Some of them are contradictory polices, but some of them are policies which don’t conflict with anybody else but they’re just probably not up to date, and they’re probably...

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

---Carried

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. I’ve been asking the Minister questions about income assistance and trying to highlight some of the inconsistencies that exist with the income assistance/income security division. In his response, as the Minister has talked about possibly making some changes, it’s not been clear to me what sort of changes the Minister is talking about.

I’m advocating for a comprehensive review of all of our income support or income security programs. The Minister has advised that there have been some changes in 2015 already, and I’m not clear on what those...

That’s good. Thanks.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have questions here with regards to the increase in positions in the regional offices. I see that it increases from nine to 12 positions. Could I hear what those three positions are, please, and what communities they’re in? Thank you.

We’ve been advised that there will be a reduction probably in the cost of the implementation of junior kindergarten in the ’15-16 school year. So I can anticipate, then, that the Collective Agreement increases are larger than the comparison of one school year to the next. It would also include, because there’s a reduction in JK. So it’s gone down because of JK, but it’s gone up because of? Maybe I’ll ask what the Collective Agreement increase is in dollars. That would be easier. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am very pleased to recognize the NWT Wise Woman Award of the North Slave region, Ms. Pertice Moffit. Along with Pertice is Linda Golding and next to Linda is Barb Hood, as we’ve heard, the director of the NWT Seniors’ Society. To all the other ladies up there, welcome on the two days prior to the International Women’s Day. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just curious that there is an increase in this budget, about $400,000 or so, $500,000 maybe. Could I get an explanation as to what this increase is attributed to? Thank you

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see an increase of five positions here. Can I be advised what they are? Thank you.

When?