Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have one comment and then a question. I would like to add my voice to those of my colleagues in terms of moving forward on bringing the employees of the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority into the GNWT workforce. I support particularly Mr. Bromley’s suggestion that there are little things or small things or bits and pieces that we can do working towards a final solution. I would encourage the Minister to certainly look at that and advance us as far as possible before we have to spend the $11 million twice over that he is referencing.

I do have a question...

I guess I’d like to thank the Minister again for his comments. Part of the facilities plan and the options that were presented, the work that was being done by the consultant to look into things was renovations, to complete the renovations, I should say, at Mildred Hall School and to do a very large and significant renovation of J.H. Sissons School. So I’d like to ask the Minister, are there plans being considered for those two renovation projects?

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.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. I guess I’d just like to confirm or have the Minister confirm for me, he talks about these renovations being part of the capital plan process. I would like to ask the Minister, does he mean that Aurora College renovations, Sissons renovations and Mildred Hall School renovations will be part of the 2011-2012 Capital Plan?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one quick question. I recognize that the changes to this act don’t apply to veterinarians who are currently licensed in the NWT, but we do have, certainly, small communities where we don’t have a licensed veterinarian in residence and there are people within the communities who do do some semi-veterinarian work. I’m just wondering whether or not any of these changes to the act are going to infringe on the work that some of these people do in the absence of a licensed veterinarian onsite or anybody who comes in from time to time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the Order Paper, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

---Unanimous consent granted