Wendy Bisaro

I’m struggling here. I understand that this money sunsets but there is no reduction in the ECE budget of $400,000 that I can see. In fact, my bottom line for the budget is that their dollars go up. So how is the $400,000 which is sunsetting, how is that amount of money going to be used within the ECE budget?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have just a couple of questions here. The first is in regard to programs that the college offers. The Minister will have heard questions and concerns raised by other Members in the House earlier about the nursing programs which the college offers. There’s a concern that federal funding is ending I think in March of 2012. The NP educator program, the masters program, and the Introduction to Advanced Practice I believe are all delivered through the college. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not these programs are going to be able to continue. Is this...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask a few questions. I checked Hansard from yesterday and I was a little confused with the answers I received relative to the funding for the Food First Foundation and where the funding that they’re not getting is now going. I was advised that there were some concerns that were identified. The deputy minister indicated that there were some concerns identified by some of the schools relative to the previous years over this current year’s project. One of the things was that there was an increased workload placed on the schools to administer the program. But...

That’s good. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the response. I guess it disturbs me somewhat that Members have to tell the Minister how to be creative and that we have to tell our staff what to do. I would hope that they would be constantly looking for ways to save money, and in my estimation an RFP is far better than a tender.

To the Minister not having heard any concerns, that’s great. Maybe there aren’t any, but with a new contractor in any program area, I think there should be constant monitoring in the early days. So the Minister told us that we were going to have a seamless transition a little while ago. I’d...

Just one final question. Is this job of establishing appeals committees now done?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to follow up on some of the questions and statements that I made in my statement.

I talked about a request for tender and that it does not allow for -- I didn’t mention this -- full-cost accounting of the service that is being sought. There is no opportunity for the buyer to do company reference checks, to consider the ability of the company’s staff in light of the work being contracted for. To get a full value of our money on such a contract, I believe we ought to be using a request...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to echo some of the comments that have already been made. I want to first talk about the income security reform that’s been mentioned. I think we talked about it the other day, but I see this as a great opportunity to do things cross-departmentally. I was pleased to hear the Minister mention the Anti-Poverty Strategy and that that’s kind of in his sights, I guess, as they look at income security.

I look at the description from the business plans and it says that the department administers a range of programs addressing cost of living issues, encouraging...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I will speak to the recently awarded GNWT medical travel contract. Apart from the slap in the face that our local travel companies received as the contract was moved south, the decision has had a negative effect on our economy. A local northern small business will close its doors and three employees will be left without a job.

Mr. Speaker, as a government, we should be doing everything we can to encourage and increase our economy, not reduce it. In all likelihood, Mr. Speaker, as a direct result of this contract award, the NWT government will be losing revenue...

Thanks for that information. It’s good to hear that it sounds as though perhaps it is a better process than what we had before. I just wondered if the uptake has not been what we expected, whether or not the department has considered enhancing the advertising for this program and trying to make the general public more aware that the program is there, or even if it’s targeted advertising. That’s it.