Wendy Bisaro

Thank you. A briefing would be good. So, I guess, is there going to be anything concrete happening in the 17th Assembly? Thanks.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think I’m representing Frame Lake. I’ve been speaking about income support a lot this sitting and I will again speak about income support today.

There are seemingly endless contradictory policies or rationale for denying clients that apply to income support. Today I have to highlight another one. We have residents who are homeless for any number of reasons. These same residents, if they’re homeless, are generally in need of assistance from Education, Culture and Employment and income support. For some, especially those with families, the only accommodation or housing...

I guess I would just suggest that perhaps the definition be a little broader or a little more specific next time.

Thanks to Mr. Schauerte. I look forward to that information. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are two numbers here which caught my attention. The first one is $225,000 for non-renewable resource revenue. I thought that those revenues were collected under ITI so I would like an explanation of why this amount is here. Then under general revenues, the lease figure has gone down considerably from 2014-15. If I could get an explanation for that as well.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank Mr. Williams for the answer, but I’m not very pleased to hear what you have to say. Again, this has been a really long time coming and I guess I would have thought that in four years we would have been able to reach some kind of middle ground to get something accomplished.

I am pleased to hear the department is willing to go back and talk to the hotel operators again. That is something that would get this in place sooner rather than later, but I can understand why the hotel operators want to have something that’s regulated as well. I know that this is not something...

My last question here has to do with the proposed move of the NGO Stabilization Fund from the Executive to MACA. I have to say strongly again that this is a bad move. I think this particular fund reaches across many departments, as does the Department of Executive. Not that I have any qualms about the ability of MACA to handle this, but I just don’t think that the focus in MACA is as broad as it needs to be. The NGOs that access this fund provide very basic services on behalf of the GNWT, emergency shelters, housing, it’s quite varied and it’s not the focus that MACA has. I know the Premier...

Thanks to Mr. Schauerte. If there’s a capacity issue at this point, and we’re talking the ’15-16 budget, so obviously there’s nothing in this budget that’s going to allow for the legislation beyond the Emergency Measures and maybe the Fire Prevention Act. In the 18th, with the budget for the ’16-17 year, are you looking at increasing your capacity and getting more staff so that you can do some of this legislation which has been talked about for quite some years now? PATA, I think we’ve been talking about it for three or four years. Is there a plan to increase the budget so that you can get...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the deputy minister for the explanation.

My other question here, I have two other questions actually. The second one is the amount for volunteer recognition which is $30,000. This is a large change from the last year when there was money, which was ’13-14 when it was $3,000. Nothing in ’14-15 and then $30,000 in ’15-16. If I read the description it tells me that this is to promote and encourage community volunteers and through planned community recognition events.

I guess I’m struggling with the rationale that giving money to a community for a volunteer recognition...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to deal with Tabled Document 188-17(5) today, the NWT Main Estimates for 2015-2016. We’d like to continue with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and, time permitting, the Department of Lands. Thank you.