Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. There is a lot going on at Education, Culture and Employment these days, lots of change, lots of action plans, and as part of the Early Childhood Development Action Plan, last week the Minister made a statement and he announced the start of a wage supplement program. He told us about the program last year, and according to the Minister’s statement, the first payments of the wage supplement were made on February 13th, so just last Friday.

Daycares and preschools struggle to make ends meet...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to ask, there’s a great variance in the numbers between 2013-14 actuals and then the main estimates for 2014-15 and then the estimates for 2015-16. We have $6 million and then $11 million and then back to almost $7 million in 2015-16. Why the very large drop from the estimates in 2014-15 to what we’re estimating in 2015-16? Thank you.

Okay. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the DM for that. That explains that, and I’m glad we’re going to put in the $250,000. That’s great.

My other question has to do with the Northwest Territories Power Corporation general rate application. I see that in ’15-16 there is no grant, no contribution there. My question goes to the impact of the end of this contribution and this subsidy which has given us bit of a rate holiday. How is that going to impact the power bills of residents? What am I going to see on my power bill, for instance, in ’15-16 since we’re no longer contributing anything to...

Mr. Chair, thanks for the information. I certainly look forward to seeing the reports twice annually. I think that’s a very good step forward. I want to thank the Minister for his commitment to committee.

It is my understanding that the Program Review Office has been doing a review of student housing. I think it goes back to almost a year ago now. Can the Minister advise whether or not that review is finished, and if not, when it will be? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question here with regards to the Program Review Office. I note in the description that the PRO is responsible to… They have formularies of business. One of them is to report on results with a view to recommending modifications or improvements. I think it’s been mentioned once or twice in our discussions of the budget to date, but I’d like to know from the Minister if there is any consideration on the part of the department to make the Program Review Office recommendations binding on departments. Is that something that the Finance department is considering...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here. I presume it should be on this page with the revenue summary, but I’d like to know where the net fiscal benefit for the resource revenue amounts that we receive is shown in the revenue summary.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier.

Now that we are moving into phase III of decentralization, describe any and all analyses of the government’s decentralization actions to date.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized (per Premier McLeod in Hansard, February 10, 2015), advise the job title for each position, the original community for each position and the new community for each position.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized, advise how many of the positions were vacant at the time the positions were transferred.

Of the 150 GNWT positions decentralized, advise how many of...

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I’ll repeat the question that I just asked the Minister. When was the last time that the daily subsidy for daycares and preschools was increased? Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think the question was probably heard. I would have thought that the methods for the Liquor Commission and the GNWT in terms of accounting would be the same. Perhaps I could get an explanation as to why one of our, sort of, subsidiary organizations doesn’t use the same accounting methods that we do.

I hope the Minister was stating or suggesting that he did some consultation with daycares and with preschools in order to try to arrive at a reasonable figure. The fact that we have the lowest paid early childhood educator workers suggests to me that we have daycares and preschools that struggle to make ends meet.

So I’d like to ask the Minister, second of all, the Minister seemed to indicate, and I think he indicated in his statement that this grant or this subsidy, whatever you want to call it, has to go directly to the staff person. Does it go there and does it have to go there? Thank you.