Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Some years ago, Volunteer NWT was established. It’s, unfortunately, an organization which is now defunct. When the federal funding which we received to establish the organization went the way of the dodo birds, so, unfortunately, did the organization because GNWT did not follow through and replace the funding.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs held a Volunteer Summit last March and published a report in September of 2009. The intent of that report apparently...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am really glad to hear the Minister say that we are going to expand the funding. That is great. I take that commitment. I look forward to that in the 2011-12 Business Plans. In order to effect any real change, I think that we have to go beyond sort of the questions that are out in this round of consultations. We have to get deeper into sort of the meat of the matter. I would like to know from the Minister whether or not there will be consideration within the government to reorganize it so that all the volunteer initiatives, all the volunteer programs fall under one...

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that information. I guess better late than never. I feel, and I think many Members on this side of the House agree, that volunteers are the backbone of our communities and, in our view, the government should be providing strong support, both moral support and financial support, to enable our volunteers. In the last couple of years that I have been here, we have talked about multi-year funding for NGOs, non-government organizations, to ensure better treatment with them, better communications and operations between government and NGOs. I know a program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This morning I had the opportunity to attend the very first NWT Education Hall of Fame ceremony. I would like to credit the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for taking the initiative of developing an idea and establishing an NWT Education Hall of Fame. I am more than pleased to be able to use my statement today to acknowledge one of the 15 inaugural inductees, someone who is also a personal friend, Mrs. Toni Auge.

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Mrs. Auge, now retired, had a teaching career which spanned 40-plus years and included teaching in her home country of New Zealand, at...

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that commitment. I will look forward to that. I would ask the Minister to copy other Members because I believe that everybody is interested in this document which is presumably coming.

The Minister talked about a report being available in the fall. I know in May of this year we received another letter from the Minister which talked about Volunteer Support Initiative consultations which apparently are going to be ongoing in the next couple of months, I guess. The letter talked about some of the focus of the questions for these consultations as being...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Over the last, probably, year, I think, the department has been doing or has been starting and has been engaged in a facilities needs study for the city of Yellowknife. I know we referenced it, Members referenced it in our October 2009 discussions of the capital plan and we also talked about it in February when we discussed business plans for 2010-2011. There are renovations that are needed by several Yellowknife YK 1 schools and there also needs to be a permanent home for Aurora...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to follow up on my colleague Mr. Bromley’s comments and speak, as well, about the electricity review response, and we are not in collusion.

As Members are aware, the Minister of ITI tabled the government’s response last week and the changes outlined in that report will have a huge impact on power rates for our NWT communities, and I feel it is a significant achievement for this Assembly. Though, Mr. Speaker, I cannot fully endorse the report.

I’m concerned about the philosophy, which underpins the substance of the report, and I have concerns about some of the...

If I could ask the Minister to advise where these units are going. Thank you. Where they are being moved to?

Thanks for the explanation. I guess my next question would then be if we are sharing the system, are we also sharing the costs? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, I understand the answer but I guess it doesn’t please me very much. It is a bit distressing that it takes a year to get information and analyze it and then get it into our budget. That is a comment. I will leave it at that. Thank you.