Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that they provide as much as they can, but it’s certainly not enough and I think we’ll find with cancellation of this program it’s going to have a huge impact. There are two comments from teachers again: “the school nutrition program has positively impacted attendance” and “student attendance is higher on days when breakfast is being served.” The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is focussed on attendance, the Healthy Foods Initiative or the Healthy Foods Program is focussed on attendance. I’d like to ask the Minister how much of the money that -- I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I focussed on the cancellation, the sunsetting of the nutrition program that was run by the Food First Foundation. I mentioned that there were a lot of comments. There are six pages of comments from educators across the NWT and none of them are negative, Mr. Speaker. They all point to the positive aspect of this program and the need for children in schools to be fed in order to learn adequately. I believe the Minister of Education, Cultural and Employment would probably agree that students with full stomachs have improved learning. My first question...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister, I think. As Mrs. Groenewegen has said once or twice, it would be nice if you just sort of said, yeah, that’s a good idea, we’ll look into it. I heard the Minister say that he’d like to sit down and talk. Absolutely. I’m going to ask him if he would commit to meet with me to talk about this idea so that we can try and find some sort of a solution. I would also like to ask the Minister if he would commit to work with other departments within the government to find the right funding for NGOs so that the people within transitional housing don’t have...

Thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I look forward to that. Further on in his remarks, Mr. Polakoff mentioned that NGOs can provide a good source of support in terms of administering things like transitional housing. I’d like to ask the Minister, and hopefully he has at least some of this information, but under what program could the Housing Corporation provide operational funds to NGOs who provide transitional housing, new programs, existing programs, programs from another department? Any information would be helpful. Thank you.

The people in Yellowknife’s transition housing come from all over the Northwest Territories. Many are trying to rebuild and regroup after troubles in their lives. I use Yellowknife examples because it’s my community, but I know there are people in other communities who also cannot afford to eat and pay market rent.

Samuel Johnson once said that a decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization. I hope to hear some civilized answers from the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation during oral questions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to speak a bit to this bill. I do feel that the Dog Act as presented is a far improved act from what we had before. There are certainly provisions in there which are going to make things much easier for prosecutions to happen.

I do have a concern, however, with the section that deals with accepted activities and the section which allows for exceptions and exemptions to certain activities. I don’t feel that part of the bill is necessary. I stated that yesterday and I just wanted to restate it.

That said, the bill as a whole is far better than what we currently...

I guess I’ll have to ask the Minister if he can commit to provide me with that information since he hasn’t mentioned what that is. One of the things that happened during the building of Bailey House was that the units were designed to a certain size and the Housing Corporation came along and said that they needed to be larger. By making those units larger, that increased the cost of running that facility. It led them to the situation where they are right now, where their revenues don’t meet their expenses. The tenants at Bailey House can’t afford any more than the $800 or $900 that they’re...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned at the end of my statement, my questions are directed to the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation.

During the review of the budget of the NWT Housing Corporation, the president of the Corporation, Mr. Polakoff, made a couple of statements. He said, in terms of transition housing, the Housing Corporation has provided significant funding to a number of facilities in the past. Further on he said there’s an opportunity for transitional housing through the overall housing continuum. I’d like to ask the Minister for Housing, the transitional housing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Reducing poverty in our Territory has been a priority for this Assembly and very much a priority for me in this job. We’ve made some progress as a government, but certainly not enough.

The high cost of housing and housing shortages are a big part of the poverty problem. Many of our residents who work hard but earn low incomes simply cannot afford rent in Yellowknife and the regional centres. We’re fortunate to have some transitional housing in Yellowknife, most notably the YWCA’s Rockhill Apartments and the Bailey House for men run by the Salvation Army. There’s also...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just to help out my colleagues. It is on page 3 of the bill. It is at the top of the page.

I wanted to make this motion because I believe... I know this is a recommendation from committee. I sat in on many of the committee meetings. I attended the public hearings here in Yellowknife. I did not travel with the committee to other communities, but I got a pretty good sense, I think, of where people sit in terms of the clause that talked about traditional practice and use of dogs in traditional practices.

It is my belief that we don’t need these three sections in the act...