Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. That was my last question, but I have to comment that if we think that remediating the environmental liabilities sites is important, then I would urge the department to request funding to make sure it gets done.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thanks for the explanation. It seems a little strange that the department is required to do work and doesn’t have any funding for it. Is this something that is minimal to no cost, or you’re overfunded and we don’t need to give you money for liability assessments? It just seems strange to me that if there’s work that the department has to do that there’s not an amount earmarked in the budget. Can I get a guesstimate of how much might be spent on environmental assessments in any one year?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note the last line of the text on page 354 says that this section is also responsible for coordinating MACA’s responsibilities for environmental liabilities. I thought that those environmental liabilities came either under Lands or under ENR, so could I get an explanation of what MACA’s responsibilities are under for, or under environmental liabilities?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question on this page in regard to the number. It looks as though the revenue, for instance, in 2015-16 is $187,000, but then there’s a line underneath that total, and I need an explanation. The total for 2014-15 revised is $187,000 and then beneath that it has $2.561 million, and I don’t know quite where that other number comes from, so if I could get some explanation, please.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thanks to the Minister. I have no further questions.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of comments and questions here. I appreciate the need for this bill to come before us, but it is somewhat concerning for me. We have encountered a number of expenditures which have been unforeseen. The fire season expenditure is the biggest one and the one that we were most unable to control. The $20 million for the low water surcharge, that was a conscious decision to undertake that payment, which put us into this situation, partly put us into this situation. The other one that was a conscious decision was accelerating the payments of the Inuvik...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a little hard to be short when the Minister is questioning the value of this analysis. This was a P3 project which went from a P3 project to not a P3 project which was fraught with problems and cost us all kinds of money.

To the Minister: It’s not the value of the bridge itself, it’s looking at the process and the process that broke down and determining why it broke down and what we can do to make it better. Why will he not consider that instead of the value of the bridge? Thank you.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thanks to the Minister for his comments. It was on February 13, 2014, when I asked the Minister whether or not the work on the bridge was completed, and his answer: “There is no further outstanding work to complete the bridge.” I’m a little surprised to hear that now there are deficiencies and we can’t start this analysis, this investigation, one that was supposed to be completed almost two years ago now.

To the Minister: He says now we have deficiencies and maybe then we’re going to start this retrospective analysis. When can we expect results from this analysis?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my honour to rise today to recognize and pay tribute to a Yellowknife pioneer, a true Northerner in spirit and action. Barb Bromley passed away on February 15th here in Yellowknife. She’s been described as a pillar of the community, and our community is leaning due to the loss of that pillar.

As we’ve heard, Mrs. Bromley came north in 1948 and never left. Her life’s work was nursing, and as Yellowknife developed and grew, she advanced public health nursing services in Yellowknife and beyond. She was instrumental in starting the NWT Registered Nurses’ Association and...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 66)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Last question here. Can I ask the department, over time we’re going to get more and more closed sites and sites that need to be remediated, so is it the intention of the department to put money into their budget to fund environmental liability assessments?