Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Minister. Thank you to your officials. Sergeant-at-Arms, would you please escort the witnesses from the Chamber?

Alright, committee. We will move on. The next department is Education, section 10. I would like to ask the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment, Minister Lafferty, do you have any opening remarks?

Page 7-23, Public Works and Services, activity summary, petroleum products, operations expenditure summary, $2.134 million. Mr. Bromley.

Great, thanks for the answer. That makes sense. One of the things that has occurred to me – and I’ve expressed this in my opening comments about the difference in the standards or levels of education that students achieve depending upon where they live and what school they attend – is that high school students in particular probably don’t take the high school courses that they need to get themselves into post-secondary institutions because I don’t think they understand, nor do their parents understand, courses that are required for them to get into a post-secondary course or institution.

One of...

Thank you. Anything further on page 7-26? Information item, Technology Service Centre (Chargeback). We will move on. Page 7-27, information item, Technology Service Centre (Chargeback), active positions. Seeing no questions, page 7-28, information item, Public Stores Revolving Fund. Seeing no questions, we will move on to page 7-30, information item, Petroleum Products Revolving Fund. Seeing no questions, I will move on to page 7-31, information item, Petroleum Products Revolving Fund, active positions. Page 7-32, information item, work performed on behalf of others. Page 7-33, information...

Thank you. Committee, we are on page 7-17, Public Works and Services, activity summary, asset management, operations expenditure summary, $82.229 million.

So this is an on-line program. So it’s not a classroom taught program? My question was also whether this certificate was recognized nationally or not.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Question here with regard to pay and benefits. A number of years ago we had quite a backlog. Staff were hired to get rid of the backlog. I’d like to just get an update as to where things sit now with our pay and benefits. Are we up to date, so to speak? I realize that there’s probably always some stuff that needs doing, but does the Minister feel that the department is on track and getting things processed in a timely manner?

Thanks to the Minister. I do agree with the fact that there are as many opinions for as there are against rent controls, but I have to disagree with the Minister that the government is taking the position that there’s no intent at this point to look at the Residential Tenancies Act.

I’d like to get a little information from the Minister on what tenants can do if there’s a huge increase or if there’s a major increase one year and then for the next three years running. Can the Minister tell me what process exists, what avenue exists for tenants to deal with what they consider as an unjustified...

Just to follow up, I can appreciate that it’s been a relatively short period of time since you’ve, sort of, started to implement the policy, but can the Minister tell me when they will do an evaluation and whether or not Members can get the results of that evaluation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Residential Tenancies Act of the Northwest Territories was first enacted about 25 years ago, in 1987. It was modelled on legislation that was in effect across Canada at that time. It’s been amended over the years since, but only on a piecemeal basis. There are three areas of the act in particular which require some amendments: rent increases, the lack of power in the rental officer position, and coverage in the act for residents in transitional housing. Today I want to talk about rent controls.

The Residential Tenancies Act does not currently control the amount by...