Wendy Bisaro

Thank you to the Premier. I now understand where he was going. Not in my backyard, I guess. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not the issue of an ombudsman office is far enough to the forefront of this government that it might be included in transition documents to take us from the 16th Assembly to the 17th. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I guess just a comment here. I appreciate that specific situations have specific results, but I think there is sort of an educational aspect to this particular issue that needs to be addressed. I don’t think a lot of the people that mentioned this difficulty to us that the number of hours for their lawyer ran out, I don’t think a lot of those people understood that they could ask for an extension. It probably wasn’t offered to them. So I think there’s an education aspect on the part of the victims or the users of the system and there’s an aspect of education on the part of the...

Mr. Chairman, I think maybe I should thank the Minister for his example because he pointed out that the need for a focal point for NGOs in the voluntary sector by saying that when there is a problem, then the Executive has to go to the department the NGO has the contract with and work with them. To Mr. Abernethy’s point, if there is the focus of the Department of Executive for NGOs and for voluntary sector, I think there might be a little bit better efficiency in our operations.

That is all I have at this point. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It’s not ever asked, but I will ask on this page: what are the numbers for persons with disabilities in this department? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I bring this motion to the floor in my continuing effort to improve the prospects of persons with disabilities for employment within the GNWT.

At the moment, as I have stated, the known percentage of persons with a disability in our territorial government workforce is just 0.5 percent. It is quite likely that that number in actually is much higher, but, as is often mentioned by the Minister of Human Resources, our statistics rely on GNWT employees self-identifying as a person with a disability. The first action of this motion seeks to change that. It seeks to establish a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As we’ve been going through this department we’ve been struggling to try and find some way for our Aboriginal government partners to come to the table. They say they need money. We say they can’t have it until they sign the AIP. Yet I’m looking at $350,000 here which is in the budget for this next fiscal year. I’d like to ask the Minister, can this money going to Aboriginal government organizations not be used to get them to the AIP devolution agreements discussion table?

I’ve mentioned a number of times that I think daycares need to be funded differently so that they can have some stable funding to rely on so they’re not living from hand to mouth from one week to the next. I guess I need to go back and ask the Minister, was there a review done? I’m a little confused by his last answer. He mentions a report. Was a review done, is there a report, and is it available for Members to see? Thank you.

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what comes forward later on down the line. I did want to express my concern and I express it again.

I’m going to change tack a bit here. One of the concerns I think that’s been expressed by this department in terms of implementation of self-government agreements for the tables that they are currently negotiating and that also may be finished, one of the concerns that I have heard expressed is the underfunding by the federal government for implementation. I’d like to hear from the Minister or the department whether or not that’s still a concern and I guess...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. A while ago I was cleaning out my office and came across a paper that was a response from the Minister in answer to my questions about daycare funding from quite some time ago. I’ve expressed concerns several times to the Minister on the manner in which we fund our daycares. On February 15th, in answer to questions from Mr. Hawkins, the Minister stated that the department has done a review of this issue.

My first question to the Minister is this: what was the substance of that review...

Mr. Chairman, thanks to the Minister. That’s all I have. Thanks.