I appreciate the answer from the Minister. I guess I’m a little surprised that it’s a necessity for Members to bring these items to the attention of Ministers. I would hope in five years that the minimum wage would be a consideration for at least one department. It’s unfortunate that we have to force the government to consider the plight of some of our people who are living at the lowest level of income.

I’d like to ask the Minister: now that it’s been brought to his attention, when can we expect a change in the minimum wage?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past few months Members have talked a lot about the high cost of living. Gas prices at the pumps have skyrocketed, the cost of home heating fuel has increased dramatically, landlords are increasing rents, power rates are going up and groceries and other commodities are costing us more. But the NWT has not raised its minimum wage since December 23, 2003.

We have been at $8.25 for five years. For comparison purposes I would like to provide a few examples from other Canadian jurisdictions. In April of this year Alberta raised their minimum wage to $8.40. The Yukon...

Thanks for the explanation. I guess I’m just wondering whether or not this particular project is associated with a possible lawsuit from the French school board, which I believe has entered into some sort of court case with GNWT — lobbying, fighting, for extra space in their school.

Okay. I presume it was another school that was leapfrogged ahead of Sissons’ renos. But can the Minister advise why Sissons is in such good shape and can be left for two or three years and what project it was that got moved up?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions with regard to the projects that are on page 7-8, but I believe they apply to the numbers we’re talking about.

In the capital plan for 2008–2009 there was a project listed for the Sissons School. I don’t see that in the capital plan for ’09–10. I wonder if I could get an explanation from the Minister as to why it is no longer part of the capital plan as we go forward and if and when it will eventually reappear.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would appreciate this opportunity to actually ask a question that my brain remembered shortly after I sat down.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment this question. I’d like to say that I appreciate that there are funding implications to raising the minimum wage. I do want to say, though, that I think there are likely very few people who are currently working at minimum wage in our territory. If it was a large percentage, I’d be very surprised. People simply can’t survive on that amount of money.

My guess is that even an increase of $1.75 per...

I appreciate the Minister’s answer and that it does require a certain amount of time, but I don’t know how anybody, let alone myself or the Minister, can expect anybody to live on $8.25 an hour when they’re working. There’s absolutely no way anybody can survive on that. I appreciate that it does take time, but I think time is of the essence here, and it behoves the Minister to try and push this along.

I realize he can’t give me a specific date, but we have business plans coming forward in another month. I think that if it was the will of the department to put it forward, we could see it in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I noted more than once that the minimum wage in the NWT has remained stagnant since 2003. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment or whichever Minister is appropriate, because I’m not absolutely positive, why there’s been no adjustment to the minimum wage in the NWT in the last five years.

Just one last quick comment. I guess I missed it when I was looking at the substantiation sheet, but it would help me particularly if that kind of a priority number was put into the capital estimate document or such other kinds of consolidated material we receive.

It’s difficult to ask questions under this new process, but I am given to understand there was a fairly large reduction in the amount of money that is earmarked for the upgrades in this particular capital budget year compared to last year. I guess I just would like clarification from the Minister or from the deputy minister that the reference was made to putting things back in, in terms of technical upgrades once the master development plan is done. I would like to know if what is going to go back in is a minimal amount of money or a fairly large amount of money; i.e., $500,000 versus several...