Wendy Bisaro

WHEREAS distracted driving affects more than just drivers and passengers on our roads;

AND WHEREAS the 2008 “NWT Traffic Collision Facts Report” shows a 17 percent increase in collisions, and identifies that 16 percent of those collisions result from ‘loss of control’;

AND WHEREAS cell phone service is available in seven of our communities to approximately 75 percent of NWT residents;

AND WHEREAS cell phone use is increasing across the Territory;

AND WHEREAS drivers using cell phones and hand-held devices are four times more likely to be involved in a collision;

AND WHEREAS the Canadian Automobile...

I would like to thank the Minister again for that answer. I would like to follow it up a bit with a question relative to whether or not the Power Corporation has ever considered a different process in an effort to try and minimize the cost to customers on their power bills, and in order to try and eliminate rate riders and to keep things on as much of an even keel as possible. Has the corporation ever considered a different model for the recovering of capital costs other than the current one? Thank you.

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. Thank you to my colleagues. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used by CSOs with YK income support clients, a focus on service to the client, not the CSO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to discuss difficulties encountered by Yellowknife residents who happen to be clients of the Income Assistance Program.

Every MLA in here has heard from constituents regarding how hard it is to get decent customer service from Education, Culture and Employment’s Income Support Program. But in Yellowknife, because the office is located in the Greenstone Building, a very secure federal building, it presents special difficulties for clients who have to visit the office to meet with their client service officer, or CSO. The CSOs work in an...

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.