Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the deputy minister and, yes, I did remember. I just wanted to make sure that anybody who was looking at numbers would understand the rationale. I’m very glad to see that we have a more reasonable number, so to speak. Where has the extra $4 million gone? I’m presuming it went into general revenues, but could I get that clarified? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a big emphasis on the need for economic development in our territory from this 17th Assembly government. I recognize the need for it, but our approach is somewhat flawed, especially around the issue of fracking.

This is a very controversial topic and a very confusing one. The average NWT resident hears either no info or too much info, and what they do hear is often contradictory. On the one hand, the message is fracking is all good, it’s safe, and we should allow the practice. On the other hand, the message is that it is a practice fraught with dangers and...

To the Minister, I just want it clarified. I think I understood what he said, but we had a very large increase four years ago which we have been gradually spreading out over the last four years, and in that time costs have increased and the Power Corp now faces another shortfall, so that is why we will be seeing another increase right away. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Two questions. The first one has to do with contributions to the Heritage Fund. I noted in the Minister’s opening remarks, he stated an increase of $7.4 million to the contribution to the NWT Heritage Fund and that the total will be $7.6 million. I didn’t quite understand where the extra $0.2 million comes in and how we went from what the increase of $7.4 million is. I don’t understand the numbers.

Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister. I guess it kind of makes me want to ask the question then, of why did we bother having the Program Review Office to give us recommendations, but I say that with a bit of tongue in cheek. If the department gets these recommendations from the Program Review Office, how are they handled? How does the Minister ensure that other departments at least consider them? The goal here is to try and determine program effectiveness I read on page 150, which presumably should lead us to some efficiencies as well. If we have recommendations and they’re not binding, how do...

Yes, that’s right. Thank you for the reminder, Minister. I’m done.

Thank you. So I gather we have no plan. We’re going to turn the legislation over to each individual department. They will do what they will do. I’d like to suggest, again, this is very complex legislation, and I would also like to suggest that not everybody has access to a computer and asking the question by the computer does not lend itself to making suggestions for amendments to a complex piece of legislation.

So can the Premier indicate to me, if we turn this legislation over to individual departments, what kind of a time frame are we talking about? Can he give me any idea as to when we can...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I want to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask some questions about plans for amendments and changes to the devolution legislation we passed a year ago.

With devolution, we accepted the federal legislation holus-bolus. There were no changes to any of that legislation when we took it over. We put our name on it but we accepted it as it had been with the feds.

I’d like to thank the Premier for his commitment for us to look at all those pieces of legislation and for us to review them, but I’d like to know from the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On April 1, 2014, the NWT achieved our long sought after goal of devolution, and with devolution the GNWT accepted seven pieces of federal legislation as our own. We established NWT acts that mirrored the federal acts.

At the time many residents expressed concern about adopting these laws exactly as written by the federal government, unchanged and unevaluated. Many questioned when the legislation would be evaluated, when it would be amended to suit the NWT, our unique government and territory. We certainly heard a commitment from the Premier to review the seven pieces of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have two comments that I want to make here, and the Minister has heard them already, but they bear repeating. One is my concern with the decentralization of the parks office to Hay River. Not so much that we are moving the positions but that we are uprooting families and forcing people who have lived here for a very long time to reconsider their life’s path, to reconsider whether they are going to take their spouse out of a job and move them with them, children in school. That whole ball of wax that I talked about the other day. I would just like to state again...