Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to use my Member’s statement to speak about two accomplished Yellowknife women. Arlene Hache and Lyda Fuller are both well-known non-government organization leaders at the Centre for Northern Families and at the YWCA. Both of these women work diligently and tirelessly on behalf of all NWT women and families who are in need. These talented ladies have just demonstrated their skills and commitment at a national conference: the first ever Canadian Forum on Housing and Safe Communities for Women. They were presenters at several sessions.

A few years ago both the...

I didn’t want to be gruesome, but I think it’s better to be realistic than not. So I guess just to try and solidify, clarify in my head, if we end up having to spend $10 million and we only have $4.8 million in our reserve fund, we will borrow to meet the financial or the funding commitments that we have to. Is that correct?

Thanks to Mr. Kalgutkar. I almost understood that. That was great. However, what I kind of heard was we let somebody else set up a line of credit and borrow the money and then we pay it off, which I understand it’s a Crown corporation, but I have a bit of a problem with that. I would like to clarify, I do believe that when and if this project goes forward and there are revenues to the Taltson project, that the GNWT will be paid back for this money that we are paying out. Is that correct?

Thanks, Mr. Speaker, and thanks to the Minister. I think, again, I’m not exactly sure that I understand what their function and role is. The Minister mentioned one of situations that this group deals with and I believe that’s the Homelessness Assistance Fund, which is supposed to help people. As I read from a document, “the Homelessness Assistance Fund supports and prevents individuals from becoming homeless in the NWT.” If that’s the case, I need to ask the Minister why in recent months a family of four was basically refused a minor amount of funding, $600 I believe, which would have kept...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m a little surprised to hear that we have a Homelessness Coalition led by the City of Yellowknife, which basically works for facilities within the city of Yellowknife, that that is leading a strategy, which, if I understand the Minister correctly, is going to be GNWT strategy or policy. So I’d like to ask the Minister, if my understanding is correct, could he explain what he meant by the strategy is being developed by the Homelessness Coalition? Thank you.

I guess I need to ask the Minister a written question, perhaps, to show me exactly how we reach 3 percent when we started something just under 3 percent and ask for millions and millions of dollars. I wonder why we don’t go over the 3 percent cap.

I’d like to ask the Minister as well, he talked about finding critical investments, sorry, financing critical investments by finding partners in the private sector to assist us with certain large projects. It’s well known that our last effort with private partners was rather controversial and it’s unfortunately still ongoing. I’d like to know from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance. I would like to thank the Minister at the outset for the fiscal and economic update that he provided us today, but I have a few questions with regard to some of the statements in his statement.

Initially, my first question goes to the announcement that BHP Billiton made recently that they plan to invest, along with partners, some $323 million in the NWT in the Ekati Diamond Mine as they go to expanding one of their pipes. I think that’s great news. Initially, I thought that was wonderful, we’re spending an...

I almost got it all in. We as MLAs would be well advised to listen to what our residents were telling us.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I recently held a constituency meeting in advance of session, something I’ve made a habit of doing since I was elected. It was a very successful meeting and I heard a number of valid concerns from those who were in attendance and I would like to share those with you in the House.

In regard to legislation, two things came up. First, there was a need expressed for the NWT to have a building standards act. When any government in the NWT, whether it be local, territorial, or regional, approves the construction of a building, what governs how it is built? Who inspects or...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask a question under highways. The very last one on page 13 refers to the Deh Cho Bridge. It’s a rather large amount of money: $25 million, almost $26 million, $25.88 million. I would like to ask why this amount of money is here. It was my understanding that we had approved the funding for the bridge and this seems like we’re asking for more money all over again. So if I could get an explanation.