Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members of this House and the general public know that the Standing Committee on Social Programs is currently conducting a review of the Child and Family Services Act. I want to provide some of my comments on a very successful round of community consultations which committee undertook last month.

Over a period of three weeks, we visited 10 communities: Ndilo, Lutselk’e, Hay River, Fort Liard, Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, Ulukhaktok, Tulita and Yellowknife. We held 10 town hall meetings. We had the opportunity to meet community leaders and discuss their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members have heard, this Legislature played host last week to the first ever NWT Elders’ Parliament, and elders from across the Territory debated issues of great importance to them and also us. One of which was supplementary health benefits. I wish to table a motion that was adopted unanimously by the elders, a motion that recommends that existing supplementary health benefits coverage to seniors be continued. The motion also states that further consultation, study and revision is required before changes to seniors’ supplementary health benefits are implemented...

I’d like to thank the Minister for a lesson on information that I already know. I’d like to also state that we’re not in other parts of the country. We’re in the NWT and we have a policy which currently works in most cases. I agree totally that we need to cover the people who are not currently covered, but what we are doing is solving one problem and creating another. I need to discuss with the Minister some of the examples that my constituents have given to me of how they are going to be in financial hardship based on the information that we currently have. I don’t gather that it’s changing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Health and Social Services. As other Members have said today and as the general public may be aware, recently the Minister published the policy titled Supplementary Health Benefits Policy, dated September of 2007. It’s become crystal clear that the implementation of any changes to the Extended Health Benefits Program as the Minister is proposing can only be done through means testing, something which was not crystal clear before. I feel the Minister has led us down, and the public down, the garden path for about a...

I would like to thank everybody that helped us out and I hope our report, the product of our consultations, meets your expectations, responds to your concerns and improves the lives of you and your families. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there was any reference to my question in there, but I will just kind of carry on.

To the Minister’s comment that I know where things are going, I know where the department wants us to think we are going. I know where the paper wants us to think we are going. I would like to say to the Minister we got some financial information the other day, some income threshold information, and I’d like to thank the Minister for that information that we got the other morning, but it presented almost more questions than it answered.

I would like to know from the Minister, because we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple of hardworking Pages today from the constituency of Frame Lake: brother and sister Stuart Hamre and Martha Hamre have been working very hard for us this week.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, March 25, 2010, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, May 11, 2010;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to May 11, 2010, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, March 29, 2010, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, March 25, 2010, it shall be adjourned until Tuesday, May 11, 2010; and further, that any time prior to May 11, 2010, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give...

Mr. Speaker, I have to confess I was having a bit of a sidebar. I don’t think I heard a number as to how many residents are not currently covered. I guess I would like to ask the Minister... To go to her statement, yes, there are other ideas out there, but there really is no option, given the schedule that we are working under. I will try to question again. How many residents do not currently have access to supplementary health benefits? Thank you.