Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Thursday, March 12, 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 March 12, 2009, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, May 27, 2009.

And further, that any time prior to May 27, 2009, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and 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 give notice...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer from the Minister that they’re looking at this. I guess it goes to the question which I think Mr. Hawkins asked, but I didn’t really hear an answer. If the Minister is looking at alternative models, when might we be able to see some sort of proposal? If they’ve been working on these models since 13 months ago, is it going to take another 13 months before we get a proposal?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to follow up as well on Mr. Bromley’s questions and some of the questions asked by Mr. Hawkins relative to funding for daycares in the NWT. I’ll go back. I spoke to this issue at least a year ago, I think. At that time, the Minister indicated that there was some possibility to look at different possibilities of funding for daycares. I’d like to ask the Minister now, and I apologize if it’s already been answered, but what is the basis for the funding that daycares currently get? He mentioned that they’re funded for O and M, that they’re funded for staffing, et...

Thanks to the Minister. I totally agree that if any employee is involved in an activity that could put them in a conflict or could leave them in a situation where they have access to confidential information, that should not be shared publicly. So I fully agree with the policies that are there, but is the Minister aware -- if he doesn’t know of a practice or procedure -- of instructions that are given to managers, deputy ministers, directors, or senior managers to find out from their employees what activities they are involved in?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement, I talked about a number of policies. I have some questions in regards to the comments in my statement for the Minister of Human Resources. My first question would be to know what policies exist that apply to employees within the GNWT public service. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I want to speak about some concerns that I have with actions that we, the GNWT, the employer, require of our employees; actions that, to me, feel like an infringement on their rights. As individuals, we all have our own interests and activities that we pursue outside of our work day and our work environment. I firmly believe we are each entitled to our own opinions and beliefs, but I also firmly believe that those beliefs, activities and passions should only be curtailed or interfered with in exceptional circumstances.

As a government, we have policies in place to...

Thank you to the Minister for both being willing and hopefully he is able. There are a lot of pros and cons to developing a policy of this sort. I fully acknowledge that up front, but I think that we should have that discussion. It should be an in-depth discussion. When does he think he might bring something back, a draft policy, even just a draft discussion document to Regular Members for consideration? Thank you.

I don’t know if the Minister intended to segue right into my next question, but he did. There may be financial constraints but we certainly make an awful lot of contributions to any number of groups in the NWT, one of which is the Aboriginal Pipeline Group. I would like to know from the Minister whether or not there is a policy that exists that guides the GNWT when they make contributions to organizations such as the APG, to organizations who are involved in a resource development. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use my Member’s statement today to address the issue of long-term financial stability for the NWT. I believe we can partially achieve this goal through equity investments in our resources and resource development.

Currently, as Members are well aware, our revenues come from two main sources: about 75 percent from the federal government through the territorial funding formula and the bulk of the remaining 25 percent from taxes.

Well, these sources fluctuate sometimes quite a bit from one year to the next, making it difficult to budget for our yearly expenditures...

Thanks for the explanation. I guess it just begs the question as to why the budgeted figure for utilities didn’t start with the $800,000 in it. I will just leave that as a comment. I don’t think the question needs an answer. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.