Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was remiss earlier as I didn’t have the names of two Pages from the riding of Frame Lake who have been working here this week. I’d like to thank them for their service and welcome Mikaela Tuccaro and Branden Horn.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear an answer to my question. I heard an answer to the second question, not the third one. But I’d like to ask the Minister now, Mrs. Groenewegen had a wonderful suggestion of which would actually generate revenue for us, so I would like to ask the Minister if that would be a consideration that when people come to register their vehicle in this next 18-month period, will they be allowed to, (a), keep their plate and pay $10, or will they be allowed to hand their plate in for zero dollars? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister and I must have missed something in that translation. I didn’t realize that we weren’t meeting industry standards. I thought it was a matter of reflection and so on. I have a hard time when the Minister says that the people aren’t being forced to, if you need a new plate. I don’t need a new one, I need a sticker, I don’t need the plate, but we’ll leave it at that.

I’d like to ask the Minister what is the cost to the government. What was the cost? What is the cost going to be for us to find a new manufacturer and to produce these new plates? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to wade into the debate on our redesigned licence plates today. I cannot express strongly enough how glad I am that we kept the polar bear shape. Judging by what I heard from my constituents, I suspect that there might have been a revolt amongst our residents if the shape had been changed.

I can accept that there was a need to modernize and update the slogan, so that change is spectacular. But I am having difficulty with the new design, the added colour and the silhouette. I have to wonder if in the dead of winter in the dark and the snow, the plate won’t look...

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS Tabled Document 30-16(5) has been tabled in this House;

AND WHEREAS the 2010 Review of Members’ Compensation and Benefits requires detailed consideration;

NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Tabled Document 30-16(5), 2010 Review of Members’ Compensation and Benefits, be referred to Committee of the Whole for consideration.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to mention that I believe later on today we’re going to receive a number of petitions protesting the changes to the Supplementary Health Benefit Program. My understanding is that the names on these petitions total about 3,000 people. That’s some 7 or 8 percent of our population and that’s a significant number.

So I’d like to ask the Minister: in hearing that there are 3,000 people who have concerns about this program, what does that say to the Minister? And I would ask her to comment on this information and will that have any impact on her...

I think I heard the Minister commit that she’s going to work with Members and that’s the first positive thing I may have heard. I would hope that the next thing that she’s going to do in committing to work with Members is to take some of the suggestions from Members and change the policy and change the proposed plan. The Minister has stated as well across the country that we have the best plan of any across the country and these changes are going to make us equal to other plans across the country. I guess I have to ask the Minister, why are we aiming low? Why are we not aiming to keep the plan...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to put my request in words that perhaps the Minister can understand. When one has a number of options, six or 10, one lists them on a page and you then go across the page on the top and you put this is a positive, this is a negative, this is a positive, this is a negative. You then look at each option and you evaluate. You could even give them a number and assign a number to them so that you come out of each option with a plus or a minus 500, minus 600, et cetera. That then allows you to take the options to six or 10 options that you have and rank them from...