Statements in Debates
Many of the things I have mentioned are small things, but either on their own or added together they can contribute to a lower cost of living.
This government has danced around the issue of lowering our cost of living without any in-depth engagement on it. We have thrown subsidies at it, instead of taking action to make inroads in how we live our lives. It’s time we changed our thinking or our plans or we will subsidize ourselves into debt. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the mover of the motion bringing it forward. I’ve listened to the arguments on both sides and I really don’t know whom to believe at this point. I see the value in retaining the CL-215s, but I also understand the cost that’s involved if we do that. I do appreciate that I think the argument that the eight new 802s will suffice, that we don’t need to keep the CL-215s. So I’m torn and think that I don’t want to vote against this motion.
I certainly appreciate the second part of this motion. I do believe that we need to make sure that our communities have...
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I am happy to provide him with a copy of the letter. I will do that immediately after session.
I would like to ask the Minister, he is talking about doing a survey of communities for needs. I presume that means the number of public buildings and the number of AEDs that they would need.
Can he give me any idea of when we can expect the survey results so that we will know our needs and can get going on further applying for money? Thanks.
Thanks to the Minister. As in the response that was tabled a couple of weeks ago, I hear a lot of the tense of the verbs is in the future. I would hope that we are going to be soon present tense and doing work as opposed to we will be doing work.
The federal program is a four-year program that started in 2013, so we are already one year in.
I would like to ask the Minister, in terms of the applications for money to get AEDs for free, are we going to make the deadline of the four-year program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t often get a chance to recognize my one hardworking staff, my constituency assistant, Ms. Amanda Mallon, and it’s a really special day for her. Not quite as special as Mrs. Groenewegen assistant’s day, but happy birthday, Amanda.
---Applause
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking a lot about the cost of living today. So what makes up Northerners’ cost of living? Well, food, water, vehicles and the gas to put in it, lodging, taxes, power, heat, phone, insurance, clothing, entertainment, TV, Internet; it’s a long list. But what can we do about our costs? Some are easily controlled; others, not so much.
I have some suggestions about what we can do. We can increase the Seniors Home Heating Fuel Subsidy. It hasn’t seen an increase in four years, yet we all know the cost of fuel has gone up every year. We can apply concerted pressure to...
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.
---Carried
Thank you, Madam Chair. We would like to continue consideration of Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Natural Resources and the Legislative Assembly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister I would say that reaching out and hearing and surveying is not an intention to make changes. I did not hear one word from the Minister that tells me that he has any intention of making any change to the programming.
I’d like to know from the Minister, he needs to tell me, he needs to tell us on this side of the House, what does he need to understand that changes to the Junior Kindergarten program will make it better? What can we put in front of the Minister to convince him that there needs to be some change going forward?
Thanks to the Minister. I have been listening to some of the words, and the Minister, earlier, said that he wants to hear the perspective of the people that are involved. My question to that is: Is he actually listening to what the people are saying to him?
He mentioned the teachers’ conference on social interaction, and this is an opportunity for him to hear from the people that are in the program. That is not an evaluation. What we need is an evaluation. I think he also mentioned the survey of schools that are currently doing Junior Kindergarten. A survey is not an evaluation. We need to have...