Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister and I guess I thought it was a rather larger little section than that, only four people. My recollection is that the budget was something like $800,000, but I could stand to be corrected on that.

So, I guess I’d like to know from the Minister, then, in the area of program design, and I presume that goes to making things more efficient and presumably saving us money, which is what this office was intended to do, what role does the Program Review Office play in program design and increasing efficiency in program services? Thank you.

With the Finance Minister’s statement that there will be no new taxes, we are not going to have a new revenue source in this next budget year. Somehow we have to reduce our expenditures. As was noted by the Finance Minister both during the budget consultation held in Yellowknife last fall and in today’s budget address, our current financial situation is not sustainable. The question is: What are we going to do to make it sustainable?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

To the issue of the standing offer agreement for program design, it’s to provide assistance with the design of new programs and re-design of current programs, so I’m still struggling to understand why this is not the job of the Program Review Office.

So, to the Minister, I’d like to know, in the same vein, what is the role of the Program Review Office in monitoring and evaluation of departments and/or their programs and services. I thought that’s why we established the Program Review Office in the first place. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Finance and I’d like to put some questions to him on the Program Review Office.

We got notification this last week that the Program Review Office had established two standing offer agreements. They were for program monitoring and evaluation services and for program design. I look at the Finance website under the Program Review Office and it says, “The office was established to help advance the goal of effective and efficient government by conducting a systematic review of government programs and services.” The other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, the budget is out and I look forward to discussing and debating it over the next five weeks. We as a government, as a Legislature, are stretching our resources further and further and I’m becoming increasingly concerned that we will overextend and end up in financial hot water.

In the fall we approved many millions of dollars for fire season costs and to avoid a low water rider on our power bills, some $60 million in total. That was not money in the bank. Unfortunately, we don’t have a savings account to draw on, a rainy day account that the Minister of Education...

Thanks to the Minister, but I have to frown on what I heard the Minister say, that it’s okay to penalize people for good planning. It’s okay to tell people that you’ve managed to save, you’ve got this money, use it up before we give you any money to help you out, especially when somebody has been successful and they’ve encountered a bit of a rough patch. They don’t need a lot of money, they need some money, but let’s make them destitute and then the government will look after them.

I would like to ask the Minister, he mentioned that there are some changes that are coming. I would like to know...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I want to follow up on my statement about income support policies and the impact that they have on those of our residents who apply for income support.

I’d like, first of all, to ask the Minister if he could please explain to me and explain to the House and explain to residents the rationale for the policy, which says that a Registered Retirement Savings Plan must be cashed in before a resident can access any income support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, colleagues, welcome back. It’s good to see everyone here in the House after our Christmas break. I’m sure we’re all ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work on the budget and legislation which we’ll see come before us in the next few weeks.

Mr. Speaker, there are so many things which need to be talked about, I had to choose from a long list for my statement today, but I decided to start with a long-standing, seemingly never-ending issue, that of income support.

An inquiry recently came to my office. It was a plea for help to assist a constituent with an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, I was going to ask what changes are coming. I guess I will wait with bated breath for them to come to committee.

I would like to know, when the Minister says they are constantly looking at things, are they looking at things in total? I suspect they are looking at an individual policy in isolation.

Have they considered the total impact of a change on the whole of the policies within their department, or do they simply look at one policy at a time? Thank you.