Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for NTPC, the Power Corporation. I’d like to ask the Minister, in terms of planning for capital projects and major infrastructure replacements, I’d like to ask him how NTPC plans for and puts in place major capital projects or replacements. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we start into this year’s winter season, I hope my constituents won’t experience the struggles with power bills that many had to deal with last winter and spring. In the past couple of months, power companies have made the news, not due to high bills but because of major equipment failures. The Taltson hydro plant is out of service, Northlands Hay River has a generator that needs replacing and then suddenly the Bluefish hydro dam is about to fail and needs to be replaced. All of these situations lead to costly infrastructure replacements and under our current...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I bring this motion forward because I believe it is a very serious matter of public safety and I believe it’s a situation that needs to be corrected. Distracted driving is said to be an unreported traffic safety problem and I believe that statement as well.

I made a statement two weeks ago and I said that distracting driving can be many things: eating, drinking, changing a CD, using portable video games or DVD players, fiddling with radio dials, talking to a passenger, experiencing emotional distress, minding children, personal grooming, looking at...

The Minister’s answer points out two things for me; one is that this Assembly, this government has little input, can provide little direction to the NTPC board and the Minister referenced that he’s not really aware of what the board has done in this particular instance. I’ve totally lost the other one out of my head, so I will go on to my next question and that is, to the Minister: how will the replacement of the Bluefish hydro dam be funded? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2009, I will move the following motion: now therefore I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the government provide clearly articulated preference for persons with disabilities and clearly articulate how persons with disabilities fit within the existing priority hiring categories; and further, that the Department of Human Resources develop and publicize an awareness campaign outlining all categories of the Affirmative Action Policy and the...

Thanks to the Minister. I accept the explanation of the on-call system, but again I would have to say that this is a system that is not working. The experience of the constituents that I have heard from is that they go to reception, they are told to make a phone call, they phone their CSO who doesn’t happen to be there. There is then no opportunity for them to speak to anybody else. The receptionist doesn’t help them. They are not transferred to the on-call duty officer. Again, I think the Minister needs to do some investigation into this.

I understand that there’s confidentiality issues and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I spoke in my Member’s statement about some of the difficulties that some of my constituents have encountered in trying to access their client support officers at the income support office here in Yellowknife. I did want to express these are difficulties my clients have encountered. I don’t mean to say that all the staff that work over there create these difficulties, but there obviously are some problems that are encountered. My first question to the Minister is whether or not he can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2009, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, November 5, 2009, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, January 27, 2010; and further, that any time prior to January 27, 2010, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and the 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...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the commitment from the Minister to look into this. It’s my understanding that clients very often have to leave the office without ever having talked to a CSO when their own is away, so there’s something wrong with the system.

Lastly, it suggests to me, from the experiences that I’ve heard about, that there are a few basic office procedures which aren’t being followed or aren’t evident from within the office. I come from a service background myself, so I find it hard to understand why there’s no things like an e-mail out of office reply which is...