Wendy Bisaro

Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Okay. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what the road is like after chipseal is done. I hope it can all be done with no more than $1.2 million.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I originally asked what this $1.2 million was for and did it include any work on the roadbed which, to me, seems like it needs a little bit of work done. Apart from chipseal, is there any plan to do any kind of grading and/or upgrading of the roadbed itself?

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a question under highways with regard to the Ingraham Trail realignment, a question in terms of where that project is at. I think the description of this project talks about lighting needing to be done and some what I consider reasonably minor bits and pieces that were unable to be done before the snow fell in the fall. I haven’t driven the road often, but I’ve driven it once and it suggests to me that it still needs a fair bit of work on the roadbed, not just on lighting and other bits and pieces to be added. So I’d like to know what this almost $1.2 million is...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a group of e-mails and letters from constituents concerning funding for Yellowknife school boards.

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

I didn’t hear much reference to how this is maintaining the quality or the level of education that we currently have when the boards are losing money.

I’d like to also ask the Minister: It hasn’t been stated outright, but certainly in recent actions and statements by both the department and the Minister, there’s been an indication that there’s a new policy which is being instituted by the GNWT for boards. That seems to be, from what I’m gathering and what I’m hearing, is use your surpluses to fund your budget shortfalls. You’ve got surpluses and we want you to use them up, we’re not giving you...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment and I’d like to begin by asking the Minister one or two of the questions which I mentioned in my statement, which have been provided to me by constituents and are questions which I would love to get an answer for as well.

The first one from a constituent: How can the Minister add one whole cohort of students – and by that I’m referencing junior kindergarten – and reduce funding to the boards and at the same time still maintain that the boards are able – the Minister is saying that the...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Auditor General’s observations can be summarized as follows:

In 54 percent of plan of care agreements, compliance with conditions was not properly monitored.

Annual reviews were not performed in 81 percent of the files.

Develop and implement a comprehensive action plan

The committee is alarmed by the number of deficiencies identified by the Auditor General and the degree of inaction displayed by the department following the 2010 report. During the public review, departmental witnesses were unable to explain to the committee’s satisfaction why so little has changed...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past year I’ve been very vocal about my concerns with aspects of the Education Renewal and Innovation Project as proposed by ECE. I’ve questioned the Minister with varying degrees of success. In some cases I conducted my own research and then questioned the Minister. It has been a frustrating experience for both me and my constituents because good information has been hard to come by.

Today I will give voice to the words of numerous constituents who have contacted me and other MLAs, expressing their concerns about reduced funding to the Yellowknife school boards...

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thanks, Mr. Chair. In accordance with Rule 6(2), I move that we continue to sit beyond the hour of daily adjournment to consider consideration of Tabled Document 87-17(5).

Debates of , 17th Assembly, 5th Session (day 31)

Thank you to the Minister. Could I get an explanation of what preparing the roadbed means, because it’s pretty rough in some spots right now?