Wendy Bisaro

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.

Thanks to the Minister and I appreciate your commitment to look at it. I do want to just add that I know of at least one young person who couldn’t get into the Mine Training Society Underground Miner Program and has since moved to Manitoba. So we’ve lost our 22 or $25,000 annual payment for that young person.

I wanted to also ask a bit about the adult basic education programs that are run in pretty much all of our communities. We as Members did get a bit of a report from the Program Review Office quite a while ago, but it did have some telling information about adult basic education programs...

I’ll try again. Mr. Minister, I know that the program is funded by the feds. I do know as well that it is supported by the Department of Education, but also know that when non-Aboriginal students apply they are on a very low priority and it totally depends on whether or not there’s any space. My understanding is that there’s some waiting list of about 20, I think, persons trying to get into the next application for the Underground Miner Training Program. So if anybody wants to get into that and they’re non-Aboriginal, they don’t have a hope.

I also know that as much as a year ago, I think it...

That’s fine. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that there’s going to be some work done. The Minister said at that time, so does that mean that we’re going to wait until 2012 to do something or will there be some work that’s done in the near future and when can Members expect some kind of a report on these programs?