Wendy Bisaro

To the Minister: Part of the review, as I understand it, was to look at the review, to review child care costs for parents and to particularly look at the impact that child care has on their cost of living and so on.

I’d like to ask the Minister, is that part of the review that either has gone on or is going on? Will the review be looking at costs of child care for parents? Thank you.

The best would be a licenced facility with required certified early childhood educators and a mandated curriculum, but the NWT has no standards. Day homes do not have to have certified early childhood educators on staff, nor does the Department of ECE require the use of an approved curriculum. That’s not the case in other NWT ECE programs.

As part of the education renewal project, the Department of ECE has advised that the Early Childhood Development Action Plan includes a review of funding and governance for ECD programs. Part of that review is supposed to evaluate child care costs for...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I just have a quick question here with regards to the Yellowknife Airport. I haven’t heard anything recently, but certainly over the last six to 12 months there have been a couple of comments about making changes at the Yellowknife Airport, making changes in the management, perhaps privatizing it and so on.

Could I get a comment on whether or not there’s anything reflected in the budget around that kind of action and/or what the department has planned, if they have anything planned for the Yellowknife Airport? Thank you.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I just have one quick comment here and a question, I guess, about the expenditures. But I want to add my voice to those who talked about the need to dredge both the Hay River harbour and the Mackenzie River. I know that it’s a federal responsibility but I think it is something we as a government, as a territorial government, are going to have to seriously consider biting the bullet and funding within and then maybe going after the feds for some money, because this is only going to get worse, it’s not going to get better.

My formal question to the Minister is whether or not...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too rise in support of this motion and I want to thank the mover and the seconder for bringing it forward. I think it’s a very important issue to consider. We have had a very serious situation at Stanton. We’ve had several serious situations at Stanton and it seems that it is happening more and more often. As has been mentioned, we have other health care facilities within the NWT and we don’t want the same thing to happen there.

A change is needed. Some adjustment is needed, and it needs to be made sooner rather than later. The Minister has said that the hospital is...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I appreciate the information from the deputy minister, but the effort’s been ongoing for a very long time. Is there any end in sight? Obviously, the answer to my question about the research is that no, it hasn’t been done. It’s in the throes of being done through this test section, but is there any kind of a time frame that the Minister or the department can give me as to when we will get to some point of being able to turn this piece of road over? Thank you.

I can appreciate that we need to be cautious, but I only asked the Minister if he would consider looking at revising the policy.

I would like to ask the Minister if he would like me to forward the information on RRSPs in other jurisdictions which I have gathered.

I’m trying to get at how the Mackenzie Valley Highway is going to be financed. There’s no money in this next bundle of Building Canada Plan money, but is it conceivable that there will be money for the Mackenzie Valley Highway coming from the Building Canada Plan sometime in the next period of years in these bundles as they come forward? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up on my statement and ask some questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. When I questioned the Minister previously, he told me that he would consider reviewing policy. I’d like to ask the Minister, to start off, considering the information regarding locked-in RRSPs right across the country, will he consider revising our income support policy with regards to registered retirement savings plans? Thank you.

I didn’t hear any reference to the Building Canada Plan, so can I just get confirmation that the Building Canada Plan money is not going into the Mackenzie Valley Highway? Thank you.