Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that at least we’ve made some changes since last week. That’s a good thing, but I am concerned that the people that made submissions, the people that have concerns... For instance, I heard concerns from air carriers, I heard concerns from individuals, I heard concerns from organizations. How will those people and their questions be advised of the changes that have occurred to date? How will their questions which they posed during the consultation process be answered, and how will that information and the answers to all these questions and concerns also be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This past December and January I attended public meetings for consultations on the Wildlife Act. The presentations were excellent and thorough but I came away with concerns for the act; concerns that were strengthened by submissions by a number of NWT organizations.

I want to start by saying that I appreciate the efforts of the Minister and the staff of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for their work in the development of the act over these lo many years and for the presentations and consultations that are recently concluded.

I will not comment on the...

Okay. So what was that $272,000 used for and are we dropping programs because we don’t have that revenue? What’s it being used for in this current year and how’s it going to impact the 2011-2012 budget?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of comments. In general I echo many of Mr. Bromley’s comments. I think that there’s an opportunity in all the budgets that we’re seeing and all the budgets of each department that we’re going to go through. There’s been an opportunity for them to do some things differently and I don’t see that either of the departments that we’ve looked at so far have taken up that challenge and have looked at what they’re doing and looked at doing it differently to try and encompass some of the main philosophies that Members on this side of the House have been talking...

Thanks for the explanation. I did have a question under children services as well. Maybe it’s not so much a question as a comment. I look at these numbers and we spend almost $7.7 million on foster care and about $3.6 million on residential care, yet we spend $858,000 on intervention and protective services. I guess that’s apprehensions. If we look at the paragraph below we spend some $900,000 on prevention and promotion. It seems to me that we’ve got these numbers in the wrong place. I know it costs money to put children into foster care but it goes to the recommendations from the Child and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question under the prevention and promotion paragraph on page 8-30. There’s a huge increase in the money going to authorities and agencies from the revised estimates from 2010-2011 to the main estimates for 2011-2012; about $600,000. Could I get an explanation of what that’s for?

Mr. Speaker, to that review, a couple of the concerns that I know of is the hunter education for only some of our residents, the limitation of age on hunters, those two things for sure and there are a couple of other ones. But I guess what I would like to know from the Minister that the review that was done by the Department of Justice, was that done before these concerns were raised or after? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some further questions to the Minister of ENR to follow up on some of the questions that I asked earlier to see if we can get some clarification as to what the department can do to advise our public and our residents about the results of the consultations that have happened relative to the Wildlife Act.

The Minister at one point, I think in his last response, said he didn’t know what I have in mind, so maybe I will try and explain to him what I do have in mind. There were numerous consultations. There were notes taken at those meetings. There were...

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, February 10, 2011, it shall be adjourned until Monday, February 14, 2011;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to February 14, 2011, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m very pleased to hear about the legislation being looked at, because to me that is the crux of the issue of why we release patients way too early. They’re not ready to be released but they can’t be held. Can the Minister advise if there are recommendations to change the legislation and when that might come forward?