Wendy Bisaro

Thanks, Mr. Chair. During business plans we did discuss the idea of a child advocate from a program that the department, I believe, is thinking about considering putting in place. If I could ask the Minister or his officials for an update on where this initiative is at and whether there’s any kind of a date that we can be advised of as to when this might or might not happen. Thank you.

I’m not totally sure I follow the timing. I think I’m hearing the Minister say that the planning needs to be done now so the construction budget can be included in the next infrastructure budget. If I could have that clarified, please.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, one more question. When the Minister was discussing something earlier or in his remarks he mentioned the difficulties with placing RCMP in communities and the need to provide housing for them. When we discussed the Housing Corporation, I believe the Minister responsible for the Housing Corporation indicated that they are working with various departments to try and provide staff housing. So to the Minister of Justice, is there an opportunity to work with the NWT Housing Corporation to provide housing for RCMP to try and enable officers in our communities sooner rather than...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I do have a question on this page. The $315,000 that is identified here to complete the planning study rebalancing the portfolio of owned versus leased office space. My question is not I support the project. I guess I’m just wondering why this needs to be in a supplementary appropriation, why this couldn't wait for the next infrastructure budget.

Thanks to the Minister. That information is all good. If for any reason all of that funding falls through, what are the plans for the department in terms of putting detachments in communities where there are none? Is there an outline or a timeline of a schedule that the Minister can advise us of? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oh, look, I have 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to provide a couple of comments on this supp. In general, I’ve mentioned this before, I am always amazed at the amount of money that Finance comes back for after we pass an initial budget and asks for more money, and the amount of money that is asked for kind of blows me away. In looking at the items that are in this particular supp, there certainly are some which I can agree with. I think the $1.8 million, no, sorry, it’s one point whatever, but the money that’s required for the Mackenzie Valley Highway project...

Thanks for that information. That’s good to hear. Hopefully something will come out of it. That’s great. That’s all.

Thanks to the Minister. I really didn’t get a sense, from her answer, what the format of the meeting is going to be. She’s talking about information being in front of people. I question how it’s going to get there. There is an awful lot of data that has been gathered, and I spoke earlier, I commend the department for doing that data, doing that research, but it sounds to me as though the department is putting the data out there and asking people to interpret it, and I’m not so sure that that’s an easy thing to do. Are they asking people to make their own conclusions? So I’d like to ask the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we discussed business plans, we had a fairly involved discussion with the Minister and his staff with regards to recruitment and retention strategies for particularly lawyers and I think legal aid lawyers was kind of where we focussed our remark. At the time, I believe the Minister said they were going to look at some of the programs which operate in other departments within the GNWT and also I think some other programs that operate elsewhere in other jurisdictions in Canada. So I’m just wondering whether or not the Minister and the department have had a chance to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, we have to agree to disagree, which I do often with Ministers it seems. But in terms of what’s out there, I took this recently from the website. It’s a dialogue with the public that talks about grandfathering, talks about copayments, talks about catastrophic drugs, residence requirements, third-party coverage. That is what the department is looking for feedback on. To me that sounds like a bit of a draft plan, albeit it’s not hard and fast, but it sounds like a plan to me. I’d like to ask the Minister again, how were the working group and other...