Wendy Bisaro

So to put words in the Minister’s mouth, there is going to be money available if people need it. I’m just kidding.

The other question I had related to arrears and debts and mortgage collections by housing authorities, we discussed this, as well, at business plan time. We were advised that things were improving at that point. The corporation is giving a certain amount of leeway to the local housing organizations and letting them collect as much as possible and then things get turned over to the corporation to kind of go a little further. I’m just wondering if I can get an update from the...

Thanks to the Minister for that. I guess it begs the question, what activities are ongoing to create housing for staff in small communities?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I appreciate that the department is willing to do this in house and that the superintendents and chairs are providing information, but if I were chair of a board, it would certainly be to my advantage to pad my numbers and to indicate that special needs students who aren’t severe may be severe and that’s why I’m suggesting that there needs to be an impartial person doing this gathering. So to the Minister, I’m not suggesting a study. Again, would he commit to having an impartial, outsider gather this data? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. My point is not so much that enrolments are going down and it’s not so much that we necessarily have to increase funding. I don’t think that’s what perhaps the districts are asking for, but there is an unequal distribution of very severely high needs, very severely special needs students within districts and the allocation of students is not even across the board. My point is, then, I think the point of YK1 is that the funding needs to be reallocated and redistributed so that severely impacted special needs students, the higher number in districts get more funding. I...

Or is this perhaps a trend all NWT education authorities are experiencing? The only way to know for sure, Mr. Speaker, is to undertake an independent count of the severe needs students in NWT schools. It is highly unlikely there will be an even distribution amongst all schools, but that’s what the current funding formula assumes.

Boards with a higher incidence of severely disabled students must be funded to a higher level, Mr. Speaker. ECE needs to reconsider how education authorities are funded under the Inclusive Schooling Policy. Thank you.

Maybe next year we could split it out so we have a debt expense and bad debts. But thank you. That’s all I’ve got.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I have one other question. I mentioned in my general comments that I was very dismayed to see that we have other expenses, another under other expenses. In this department particularly, the other expenses are some $56 million and they’re broken out reasonably well, except then we come down to other within other of $2.419 million. It’s a pretty large other without any kind of definition. So when I asked the Finance Minister, we did get a sheet which told us what all the other expenses were. The education one, the $2.419 million is bad debts expense. So I...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a couple of questions here. One has to do with Income Security Program. When we discussed the business plans, there was some indication from the Minister in response to one of our questions that there is a review of income security for persons with disabilities. I wondered if the Minister could advise if that is indeed correct, and when we might see the results of that review, and what recommendations are the results of the review with the recommendations that would be arising. When would we see that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to first of all thank my colleagues for their comments and their support. I think it’s been well stated, the issue at hand.

I think it’s important to note that this motion particularly requests that a dialogue gets started, that we start talking and also that we start talking to our non-government organization partners, to our businesses, and to those that are living in poverty. There’s an opportunity for efficiencies to be gained here from talking to everybody in one place.

I hear the Premier state that this is direction to the government, but I think it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS every person has the right to a standard of living adequate to the well-being of their families and themselves;

AND WHEREAS approximately 10 percent of Canadians, or 2.9 million people, lived in poverty in 2007;

AND WHEREAS in some NWT communities, up to 50 percent of households have a total income of less than $30,000;

AND WHEREAS 40 percent of NWT households with a senior have incomes below $40,000;

AND WHEREAS health indicators, educational achievement, child apprehension rates and family violence can be directly related to poverty;

AND WHEREAS poverty is human...