Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

I guess I’m just trying to clarify, I don’t remember where I read it but I believe I read that there is an employee working in DAAIR who is doing nothing but human resources work. I wondered if that is somebody who has been seconded from Human Resources to DAAIR to do that work. Maybe the Minister could speak to that for me.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. It wasn’t so much that we wouldn’t do it, but I’m sure there are times when, for whatever reason, we don’t necessarily do an inspection. Then I’m not calling anybody’s credibility into ill repute here, but my concern was that if we miss doing an inspection, what are we on the hook for as a government?

Secondly to that, the line here states these tasks protect the public by ensuring all installations are constructed dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. So in reference to all installations, are we talking just GNWT installations or are we talking private installations?

I go back to my...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not sure if I’m in the right place but I would like to ask a question with regard to service level agreements. The Auditor General recommended that Health and Social Services and Education, I believe, develop service-level agreements. They were to be developed in conjunction with the Department of Human Resources. I would like to ask the Minister where things are at in terms of the service-level agreements for both health and social services and education authorities.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks for the information to the department. So I guess I’m just trying to understand whether or not the department covers every construction in every community in the NWT. So if somebody in Colville Lake is doing some addition to their house and they’re adding on electrical, do we send an inspector there to look at that addition and to make sure that the electrical has been properly installed?

The other question I have relative to this is if we do not, what kind of liability are we taking on? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

I appreciate the Minister’s commitment. I’d like to ask the Minister, I’m well aware that one of the boards in Yellowknife, Yellowknife Education District No. 1, has a very involved Safe Schools Policy. It could be used as a template for all the rest of the schools within the territory. I’d like to ask the Minister if the department would consider taking the YK No. 1 Safe Schools Policy and sending it to all the schools within the territory and encouraging them to develop their own policy from this template.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a couple of questions here. The Minister mentioned that some of the increase in this budget is because we’ve added new facilities to our total numbers of facilities, and that the O and M operational costs of these facilities are increasing the bottom line for the budget. I wondered if the Minister could advise which buildings he’s referencing when he says that we’ve added buildings to our stable of facilities. Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. In February of this year I asked some questions of the Minister with regard to a safe schools policy for all of the schools within the NWT and the Minister responded. Thank you very much to the Minister. I did get a letter which pretty much told me that all schools have an emergency response plan in place. But I was not referencing an emergency response plan, which is like a lockdown if we have a shooter in the school, or a bomb threat or so on. I’m referencing a safe schools policy which...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thanks to the Minister. Three hundred sounds like a lot, but I can appreciate with some…

---Interjection

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

That just leads me right into another failing of the Residential Tenancies Act, and that’s the powers of the rental officer. The rental officer, at this point, cannot make any decision that is binding.

I’d like to ask the Minister, if I have had a 15 percent rent increase for three years running and I appeal to the rental officer, what exists for me to make sure that my landlord is not going to give me another 15 percent increase in the following year?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 4)

Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would encourage the Minister and the department to seriously consider a formal evaluation after about a year. That will be the end of this particular calendar year, from the sounds of things.

I appreciate that you are collecting data all of the time, but collection of data is not necessarily doing an evaluation of how well you are succeeding with the policy. Just to comment, Mr. Chair, but I would encourage the department to not wait two years to find out whether or not we are doing the right thing.