Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also am in support of this motion. I think it is a motion for a territory whose time has come. It has been mentioned already and it will be mentioned again, but devolution is part of our growing up as a territory and we are growing up. As we grow up, there are things that we need to do to accept the fact that we are growing up, to accept the fact that we are becoming a little more adult. There have been concerns in the past about people who have been making entreaties to Cabinet, to Ministers, to MLAs. There have been concerns that they may not have been doing them in...

So, he said there are 18 that are going to continue next year. So that means there will be no additional junior kindergarten programs started in the school year for ’15-16. So given that, and given, as well, that the education authority budgets were reduced in the 2014-15 fiscal year, my belief is that the department has all the money that is needed to run junior kindergarten in school year ’15-16. If it’s 18, they actually have more because we’ve gone from 23 or 22 down to 18.

So, can education authorities expect any further contribution reductions for junior kindergarten implementation in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I’d like to ask the Minister some questions about junior kindergarten.

Last fall the government, in its wisdom, chose to put a stop to the implementation of junior kindergarten in the NWT.

Schools that were offering junior kindergarten in the 2014-15 school year were advised that they could cease offering that program if they advised the Department of Education prior to a December 14, 2014, deadline. There was a piece in our local paper a number of weeks ago, which talked about those...

I want to thank the Minister for the information. At some point there will be public consultation. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment on that. But in the meantime, while Cabinet is considering what’s going on, while committee is considering what’s going on, there are a lot of people who still want to provide their input. To the Minister: Is there any way that the public can right now provide input into this process and get their views known?

Thank you. So the Minister is coming back. I presume he means coming back for a supp, coming back for more money. If we know this now why is it not in the budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement about Thaidene Nene. I’d like to start off by saying the Premier advised on Tuesday… No, the Minister advised on Tuesday in response to Mr. Dolynny, that we hoped to have a northern position in the next few months. I appreciate the info from both the Minister and the Premier, and I also am really glad to hear about the work that we’ve been doing. I think the Minister said we’ve compressed 18 months of work into about six, and that’s awesome. It is...

Thanks to the Minister. I’m pleased to hear that we’re getting a little more efficient. Maybe that means we’re going to save money, ha ha. I guess I have to ask, the Minister mentioned new planes and new equipment and so on, and it may be a little crass in this question, but are we paying the contractor to upgrade their equipment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far back as 1969, through a federal Order-in-Council, land has been withdrawn and plans in the works for a national park at the eastern end of Great Slave Lake. After that initial land withdrawal, there were long periods of inactivity until 2001, and then from 2004 to 2013 talks were held in earnest to try to develop the park concept.

In reviewing the budget last week, Premier McLeod advised the House that we “expect to have some results by the end of March or early April” so that we would know “whether we were moving forward or not.” He also stated that the feds have...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. I raised it in my opening comments but I want to ask the Minister, and it goes to supplementary health benefits for what we, unfortunately, call the working poor. Those people who are working who do not have their own supplementary health coverage either through their work or they can’t afford to buy it. They’re not indigent. They are working and they wish to continue to work. I’d like to know from the Minister if there are any plans anywhere in this next fiscal year to look at providing supplementary health benefits for this small group of...

Thanks to the Minister for that explanation. I don’t disagree. I think what we’re ending up with is a different model in every sort of region and one that’s going to work for each region, and that’s a good thing because we certainly are quite different and require different services in our regions. So I can agree with the premise, but knowing how difficult it is to hire midwives and how long it has taken us to get midwives in both Fort Smith and Hay River and knowing that we’re going to have midwives here in Yellowknife, I would think at the same time that we’re doing planning we will be able...