Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to provide a little background to this motion so that people know why I’m bringing this motion forward, why we’re debating something that is before the House of Commons in Ottawa.

Bill C-583 is a private member’s bill sponsored by Mr. Ryan Leef, Member of Parliament for Yukon, and it is soon up for second reading. If passed, it will amend the Criminal Code of Canada to (1) add a definition of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) to the Criminal Code, and (2) to establish a procedure for assessing individuals involved in the criminal justice system who are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question under the water resources section. There’s a fairly large increase here for the operations of the Taiga Environmental Lab. Could I get an explanation of why the increase? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to waive Rule 44 and deal with Motion 20-17(5), which I gave notice of yesterday. Thank you.

No, I’m not suggesting we have the debate here tonight. I think it needs to be done in a different time and venue. I just want to say two things and then my time is up. One is that the books from De Beers are not being handed out by the government. They’re being given out by the company, and albeit they’re being given out in our schools and to our schools, they’re not coming from the government. These iPads presumably are coming from the government, and I think they are being recognized that they are coming from the government. I don’t have a problem with the concept of the iPads, giving the...

That doesn’t give me very much comfort. I know you’re working with staff, you’re doing this, doing that, but what does “encouraging” mean?

Can the Minister give me more detail? When he talks to the AANDC Minister, just what does he do to encourage the Minister to make a decision? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess I would ask the Minister if he could provide me and other Members with a written summary of this practice and convention that we’ve been following for however many years he mentioned.

I have great difficulty in seeing a similarity between what we’re talking about here with iPads, which are branded, presumably, and putting money into, for instance, Arctic Winter Games. I don’t see that these are equated quite the same.

It’s one thing to take funding and to put a logo on a program or put a logo at an event on a sign. It’s another thing, in my mind, to take a piece...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, who is also responsible for the Giant Mine Remediation Project. I would like to follow up on some of the questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Bromley the other day about the environmental assessment agreement for the Giant project.

In the fall of 2013, there were some excellent hearings held by the Mackenzie Land and Water Board. They produced a very well thought out decision and a whole bunch of recommendations. There was a really good response from the responsible Ministers in...

Thanks to the Minister. I think distrust is too strong a word. I think it’s a concern for the accountability of the money. The Minister mentioned the business planning process, but the business plans, we didn’t have business plans for the ’14-15 budget year. The business plans coming up are for ’15-16, and if I understood the comment earlier, it was that this $10 million is going to be spent in this year, ’14-15. I appreciate and accept the offer from the Minister to get reports on how this money is being spent, but for me and other Members to feel like we are adequately monitoring how this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On March 21st of this year, Premier McLeod announced the recipient of the 2014 Council of the Federation Excellence in Water Stewardship Award for the Northwest Territories as the Wek’eezhii Land and Water Board.

The award recognizes outstanding achievement and innovative practice and leadership in the area of the water stewardship and is presented to organizations, partnerships, businesses, institutions and communities in each province and territory.

In a press release that day, Premier McLeod stated that the Wek’eezhii Land and Water Board recognition “is an excellent...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have some concerns about this money that’s associated with the Devolution Final Agreement as well. I believe we brought this up before, but I think there’s a concern on the part of Members that, you know, the money is there and we are being assured that it’s going to be used for devolution purposes, whether it’s to refit an office or whether it’s to hire a person that we didn’t anticipate that we needed to have hired before. But I think there’s also some nervousness about the fact that this money is sitting in general revenues. We get assurance that it’s only going to...