Wendy Bisaro

I’m referring to the text on page 8-16, the last paragraph.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for his statement, I guess. I appreciate the information. I certainly had no intention to inflame. It’s simply a query that has entered into my head and I’m glad to hear the Premier say that there are phone calls going on so there is some personal touch that’s happening with regional leaders. The more of that that happens, the better, in my mind.

One last question, Mr. Speaker, and it has to do with the scheduled meeting for the Northern Leaders’ Forum in March. I wonder if the Premier could advise what the purpose of that meeting is. Thank you.

I would like to thank the Premier for the response. I am gratified to hear that Members are being heard, that residents are being heard and that there is going to be a change to the approach to getting information out there and educating our residents.

I’d like to ask the Premier, if we are going into communities, and I’d like to state again we need to go to every community. We can’t just hold these meetings in regional centres; every community deserves the right to have a meeting and to hear these explanations. When the Premier and/or his team or a portion of a team goes to a community, what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I was lucky enough to witness a little bit of history, a big piece of history for the NWT. Of course, I refer to the signing of the devolution agreement-in-principle last Wednesday. I fully support the principle of devolution and I believe that it was right to sign the agreement, but I am deeply troubled by the deep divide between the GNWT and the Aboriginal governments that has resulted from this event.

This relationship break has been building for some time, Mr. Speaker, and hindsight is 20/20, but we can now see that the Premier has failed with the Regional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

What amount is identified in the 2010-11 budget for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

What amount is identified in the 2011-12 budget for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

Provide a breakdown of these funds showing

the activities this funding has been / is being / will be used for;

the amount for each activity;

the community(ies) where it will be spent.

How are the activities in question 3 being evaluated?

Provide a copy of the evaluation framework for this initiative.

Thank you...

Good information to hear and I’m glad to hear that. I would hope that in any meeting, that the government would be open at a community meeting to hearing from both sides, and that if an Aboriginal leader, a regional leader or a community leader wishes to be there to speak to the issue, that they would be able to have the opportunity to do that.

One of the other things that the Premier mentioned is that he is sending a letter to regional leaders to invite them to come back to the process, so to speak. I have to ask myself why would they do that. What can we say to leaders at this point that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the Premier. I would like to say to the Premier, having been deluged, I guess, with questions a couple of days ago, many differing opinions on the AIP and people telling him what to do and so on, I’d like to know whether or not the Premier is open to making changes to the communications plan that we heard about the other day. Has he considered making any changes, and if he has not to this date, will he consider making changes to be a little more personal in his approach to our residents? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say that I’m distressed by that answer. It sounds to me as though the last update we had from the Program Review Office, which was some months ago, to my recollection, quite a long time ago, the Minister made an assumption based on conversations around the table and feedback from Members. I’d like to ask the Minister to confirm to me that there was no correspondence. I presume it was from the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning. Did he receive any correspondence from the committee which led him to make the decision that he did, or did he make the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Finance, as well, today. I want to follow up on the questions asked by my colleague Mr. Ramsay. He and I were obviously on the same page when we were developing our questions relative to the budget address.

The Program Review Office has been there for three years, since 2008, and I agree that it was a necessary office for us to set up. I have some concerns with the results as well. The budget address read by the Minister lists six reviews that have been done by the Program Review Office. They have done other work, I presume...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In preparation for today, budget day, I’ve taken a look back at comments I’ve made at various times during this Assembly in regard to previous budgets. I was struck by the similarity of my concerns then until now.

On May 26, 2008, in my Member’s statement, I said, “I am disappointed in three aspects of this budget: that there’s no new revenue source; that budget reductions seem to target jobs first; that there is no coordinated approach from the government for the consideration of saving the environment, energy planning, and minimizing climate change through all of our...