Bob Bromley

Thank you, Madam Chair. I appreciate those comments. The one thing I very rarely hear and I don’t think I heard again, was working with industry, which was, in fact, where our biggest growing use of energy is happening, and we know that our Greenhouse Gas Strategy is absolutely useless in terms of providing guidance for them. We know that we’re doing pretty good internally, but we’re not doing very well with outreach. Of course, the biggest one is industry, which, as far as I can see, is getting nothing in terms of the requirements, guidelines, direction on how to be more efficient and switch...

Thank you, Madam Chair. The biggest increase in the budget for the Legislative Assembly is the compensation and benefits, $1 million roughly. Could I get just some explanation of what this is about? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a Page who’s a resident of Weledeh, Linnea Stephenson. I’d like to thank her for all her service to the House the past couple weeks, and also Jacob Schubert, who I don’t know whether he’s working today or not, but thanks to all of our Pages. Mahsi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just referring to the Speaker’s notes here, I see we are taking advantage of some efficiencies. I’m happy to see our General Election costs are anticipated to be only slightly larger than four years ago.

The 11.5 percent increase is obviously quite a bit compared to the departments, but I know there could be some reasons for that. I see about $860,000 of that is for the office of the Chief Electoral Officer for the election, so that’s 40 percent of that. I’m just wondering if there are any comments on what the rest of that is.

One other thing. I appreciated the...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Just on that, and I appreciate that information, we want to be maximizing the benefits to the individuals in our communities who would be accessing this – I know the Minister supports that – for their own education, health and certainly economic development opportunities. As currently planned, are we using the best way of getting this service to each home in the communities that will be serviced by the fibre optic line? I understand that that is typically getting a fibre optic line right to the homes, but I don’t have the technical expertise to carry it beyond that. Has...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that and I will look forward to what comes out of that.

My last note is I see we are not really making much adjustment to the arts investment in the grants and contributions. That is just something I really support. I think we have gradually done a better job since the early days of the 16th Assembly, but I think there is more room for achievement here and investment. It has a very well-demonstrated impact on local economies and helping people realize their full potential, obviously, their personal and community identities and cultural aspects. I just raise...

I don’t see it here but I believe this division would deal with legislation. Am I correct in that assumption?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that information. I’m glad to see an expansion of that. It seems like there’s an obvious need for it and I appreciate that. On the other hand, I see a reduction in the grants to early childhood programs of almost $800,000 and I’m wondering why the drop there. I know the Minister is aware that Members put this as a very, very high priority, this area for investment, and yet we seem to be going the opposite direction in terms of our net investments in early childhood.

Thank you. I get the sense that there are still lots of areas for investments and pretty positive payback periods and returns. On the utilities side, I’m just a little bit surprised at the increase of $2.5 million given our focus on this, especially when our fuel costs are down. The deputy minister has mentioned LED lighting and so on, and I have to say I’ve just put that into my kitchen and I’m pretty amazed with some efficiencies and still some very good lighting.

Is this simply new assets that are being brought on stream and if I can get an update on that? Like I say, $2.5 million given...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s comments on the interdepartmental confusion which clearly is a barrier to grandparents accessing the support they need. Currently, ECE is the route for grandparents who are informally fostering grandchildren to receive financial support through income assistance while apprehended children are the responsibility of Health and Social Services. I appreciate the Minister’s look here, but I ask the Minister to hark back to when he was part of a group of MLAs that revised child and family services and highlighted the needs to support grandparents...