Wendy Bisaro

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the deputy minister for that explanation. Yes, I realize that it is a big job and it is not an easy job. I am glad to hear that it is on the radar and it is being looked at.

The last concern that I wanted to raise here, and this, again, came up at least once during the Child and Family Services Act review when we were on our tour, and that is the number of hours that people get from legal aid for their concern or for their issue. Several times we heard people say that they had a lawyer. They were dealing with a lawyer and they were basically told I have used up all of my...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to revisit a topic I’ve brought to the House several times before. In May of 2008 and again last February I spoke of the need for the NWT to have an ombudsman’s office. The need for this service has not yet gone away, Mr. Speaker. We are one of only three jurisdictions in Canada which does not have an ombudsman. Our sister territory, Yukon, is not one of them. The Yukon does have an ombudsman office for Yukon residents.

There are many, many situations where NWT residents need an impartial arbiter, an ombudsman to assist them with a dispute or a disagreement...

Mr. Chairman, going forward, I guess, I need to know from the department what the plans are to try and deal with the lack of access to legal aid services that exists in our communities. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister and his staff. I’m done.

Thank you. Just one last question. What is the work going to be of the Aboriginal consultation unit?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I did want to ask a question here with regard to the money we’re spending for access to information and privacy... I forget the whole title. Protection of privacy. We’ve been receiving a lot of requests, I gather, over the last couple of years relative to residential school investigations and so on, and I understand that there’s an increase in funding for ATIPP. I think if I remember rightly, there is an extra position in this budget. Could I get an explanation as to if that’s correct and why we need to increase. Are we still getting residential school inquiries or is...

I can squeeze this question in here. Mr. Heide just said it’s $4,000 to $5,000 to train one worker.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have to express some consternation here. We’ve got $1.766 million additional money required for income assistance and the explanation is because it’s increased utilization of income assistance programs. I do have to say that I’m a little surprised that this wasn’t in the 2010-2011 budget, that the department had to come back for a supp for this amount of money. I know that it’s being explained because of the economic downturn, but a year ago at this time when we were going through the 2010-2011 budget I think we were in the throes of the economic downturn and I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Hard to know where to start here. I listened to the Minister answer Mr. Abernethy’s questions with regard to the business plan and what we thought was there and what apparently is not there anymore. The Minister just mentioned, and I am reading from page 42 of the Health and Social Services business plan, and it says work with communities to establish child and family service committees and at least five more communities in this business year. That’s from the business plan which Social Programs committee spent a great deal of time discussing, debating, getting...

Thanks for the information. I look forward to when that plan is actually developed and in place. I think it will be a good step forward and I think we then have to look at other aspects of abusers. I know it’s been mentioned we have a program for men who abuse, but there also are women who abuse and I think it is something that we probably have to look at in the future.

I wondered if the department could confirm or dispel a rumour that I heard a little while ago. I know the coroner’s office falls under this particular section and I heard a rumour that the coroner’s office is going to be...