Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You had to wake me up there.

---Laughter

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, March 10, 2011, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, May 11, 2011;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to May 11, 2011, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I support this motion. I believe that the intent and the background for this motion is very similar to something that I raised in the House last week. I was talking about transitional housing. This is talking about public housing.

---Interjection

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this motion goes to the most basic of our Territory’s needs, that of supporting our people, and it goes to the heart of the philosophy that this government espouses.

According to our strategic planning document from October of 2007, we aim for healthy, educated people. We will accomplish that, we said in October 2007, by a focus on prevention by promoting healthy choices and lifestyles and the role of personal and family responsibility. A focus on prevention, like teaching kids what healthy foods are so they eat the right things and grow and develop as they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to direct the Minister’s attention to a recommendation which comes in paragraph 31, the second part of which says, “develop performance agreements that include expected results for key programs and services, and corresponding reporting requirements.” Those are the words from the Auditor General in her report.

I’d like to ask the Minister, on another note, the Auditor General also mentions in her report that there’s no formal mechanism to monitor compliance with the GNWT’s Medical Travel Policy or to assess the program performance of the Medical Travel Program. I...

I’d like to thank the Minister for telling me again what I already know. My question had to do with what actions the department is going to take going forward. There were some concerns on the part of the Auditor General. There were a number of things that were pointed out. I didn’t hear any answer to my question.

In any organization when the devolvement of a program or a service is given to a subsidiary organization, there needs to be some kind of monitoring. There needs to be some kind of an agreement to monitor performance. To the Minister: what is the department doing to deal with the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure today to recognize two Pages who have been working on and off with us for the last six weeks. They are members of the Frame Lake riding: Martha Hamre and Kevin Huynh, and I’d like to thank them for their service and again thank all the Pages for the work they’ve done. They’ve all done a great job.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some comments which are very similar to some of the comments which have already been made, but I feel that I would like to express my point of view.

The act is described as a management act but I think some of the clauses within that act are more than a management of wildlife act. I also believe that there are some inequities within some of the clauses in the act and I think those need to be addressed. Hopefully they will be over time.

I’ve expressed a number of concerns previously about some of the clauses and provisions within the act. I’m particularly concerned...

I’m complimenting the mover and the seconder, you guys.

I think that the strategy that’s espoused here is something that the government has to take note of. We need to look at enabling our people to get out of poverty, those that are there. The only way we’re going to be able to do it is by providing them with assistance. It is obvious to Members, certainly on this side of the House, that the policies and strategies that we are currently employing are not working. We need to totally revisit where we’re at.

This motion talks about setting maximum rents in public housing. There have been other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to first of all thank the seconder of the motion, the Member for Nunakput. I’d also like to thank my colleagues for their comments. I think you can tell that this is an extremely important issue. We are very passionate about it. Regular Members have fought very hard to get this funding and this program into our budget. Last year it was intended to be a food study and we managed to get that changed to a program where we could actually use the money to go and buy food to assist the kids in our schools in the various communities.

We’ve been speaking about this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to table an e-mail from a constituent about her concerns that the funding for nutrition and healthy foods will be discontinued. Thank you.