Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to continue with TD 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016. We will continue with the Department of Health and Social Services and, time permitting, the Department of Transportation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to ask the question again. The education authorities were scheduled to be reduced, some of them were scheduled to be reduced three years running. The first year’s reductions have already taken place.

Will there be reductions to education authorities in the second year when there is no increase in the program offerings for junior kindergarten?

Thanks to the Minister. The Minister, the House knows, Members know, and I think the public knows that there’s now a review underway for junior kindergarten. The results are not likely to be known, I don’t imagine, before the election occurs.

I’d like to know what plans does Education, Culture and Employment have with regard to junior kindergarten for the 2015-16 year. Will it go beyond the 18 communities that the Minister just mentioned? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I’m really glad to hear his description in that answer is very close to my own consideration of what the park should be, that it is able to accommodate all the interests of the people that are wanting to use that land.

I asked if there’s a way for people to get any information. The Minister didn’t really advise. I know there is a website for Thaidene Nene. Is there any other place that people can go to, any information on the GNWT website or any other website where people can get information on this project?

That’s okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thanks to the Minister for that. As I mentioned, there are a lot of rumours, I guess, currently going around about what kind of developments, what kind of agreements, what kind of negotiations are taking place. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not he would put in place some kind of consultation or education process with the public so that the work that is happening is being learned about and it would be not necessarily the details of the negotiation but that people can find out what it is that we’re doing.

Thanks. One last question in this section and it has to do with the extended health benefits figure. It hasn’t increased, I see, but there was an increase… Actually, it went down from ’13-14 actuals to ’14-15 estimates. It stayed the same in the ’15-16 estimates. It’s my understanding that that area includes costs for seniors’ health benefits, our seniors are increasing and as our seniors increase we know that there’s going to be a bigger drain on our health system. So I’m surprised to see that there is no change in the estimate from this current budget year to next year. So can I ask why...

We should take on this task, and one of my constituents said it best, “The time has come for the GNWT to exercise its new authority under devolution in favour of this park and the people of Lutselk’e and the entire NWT, establishing this park and making the appropriate arrangements with the community.”

I will have questions for the Minister at a later time. Thank you.

It’s unfortunate. I’ve heard a lot since we started this session, an awful lot about, well, it wasn’t a priority at the beginning of the 17th so we can’t do anything about it, and that’s starting to wear on me a lot. I appreciate that the department has a lot of work to do and that they are doing a lot of work, and I know that they have staff who are working very hard, and I appreciate that staff are doing good work, and I wish that to be known. But there are an awful lot of things which suddenly seem to be not a priority and there are an awful lot of things which suddenly seem to want to be...

Thanks again to the Minister. I guess the next question I have to ask, then, is it sounds as though there won’t be a midwife who is assigned full time to the city of Yellowknife, so am I correct in that? If that’s the case, it sounds as though the service to Yellowknife residents in terms of midwifery is going to be somewhat reduced. Will there be, within this territorial program, a midwife who is basically assigned or a PY that is assigned to Yellowknife full time?