Bob Bromley

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a little bit of follow-up and then one more area. First of all, I want to correct the Minister. I didn’t say it was a failure across all regions; I said it was a failure in my region specifically in Yellowknife. If the Minister had been with us on our tour of Aurora College Yellowknife Campus, I probably wouldn’t have seen him because we had to squeeze single file through the areas, and if anybody stood up from a desk, that stopped our procession and you would have been out of sight. This has been a known situation for a long time now. Talk about sardines in a tin can...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I appreciate, I guess, that I now know I am dealing with this in a timely way, given that this will be discussed in the next few months. So, I guess I would ask the Minister, is he prepared to push for school projects to finally be addressed in Yellowknife and including Aurora College to try and get them on the capital as soon as possible as a priority of this department?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a few questions here. I see the department or this activity includes the overall development, design and planning of capital infrastructure projects. As we know, there’s been a real paucity of infrastructure for the Department of Education over the last three years in the order of 2 or 3 percent of the infrastructure budget. I’m wondering, given the many requests the Minister has heard, at least for the region I’m in, can we expect that there will be significant proposals coming forward to address some of the infrastructure deficiencies we see in, for example, some...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, again, appreciate the Minister’s return there. I just mentioned that I focused on eggs today. The same thing could be true for the birds themselves which are a well-known source of nutritious food, and so I just ask the Minister that he include the possibility of harvesting the birds. The Sachs Harbour hunters have had a lot of experience with them and are fully capable of answering this need if directed and provided with the support. I’ll leave it at that.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that follow-up. As I mentioned, this issue was highlighted 20 years ago. I know the Minister is about as long in the tooth as I am with this department. With an NWT proposal to address this issue and benefit our people at that time, yet almost every province and state in concert with their federal government have recognized both opportunities and need and acted to try and address this issue, we, who are holding the solution in our hands, have done nothing.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any ideas why, given the clear benefits, the many opportunities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to acknowledge and congratulate my Ndilo constituent Brent Betsina on his outstanding performance in the sport of judo at the Canada Winter Games in Prince George, BC.

Master Betsina, an active member of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, is 18 years old and competed in the over-100 kilograms category at the Games. Brent has been active in the sport of judo for eight years and contributes his success to his role model and coach, Mario Desforges.

Brent went into the Games with a goal of having fun, having a positive attitude while competing and doing his best...

For 15 communities with demonstrated need, about 500 dozen goose eggs would go to each community, the equivalent of over 1,000 dozen chicken eggs. A significant contribution to the health and well-being of residents while helping to solve a North American wildlife population issue and provide some modest employment in Sachs Harbour.

A smaller harvest the first year could prove up the methods of harvest and distribution, followed by larger harvests in subsequent years as assessed and approved by federal and territorial government biologists. International funding would undoubtedly be available...

I thank the Minister for that. I will leave it at that, I just wanted to raise that possibility. It sounds like a comprehensive review will take a bit of time. I am anxious to plant seeds, if possible, at the early stages of this. I appreciate the Minister’s response. That’s all I had on this page. Mahsi.

I guess I’ll have to leave it at that. Again, I’m not encouraged. This Minister has absolutely failed our education infrastructure in this area and the need just accumulates year after year, as he well knows.

The second area I want to talk about is the reform and innovation section that leads major innovation and reform initiatives. I’d like to talk a little bit about the possibility of a guaranteed basic income initiative. Would the Minister consider looking at that concept, looking at the research that’s been done, looking at the Dauphin study and the gains that were achieved and lasted for...

Results from the Dauphin study showed that a guaranteed basic income lifted more people out of poverty than a welfare-based one. Over the past weeks we’ve heard the old-saw “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting to get different results,” several times in this House. It certainly applies here.

Let’s try something new that has the promise to be effective and efficient. Let’s shift to a guaranteed basic income. Mahsi.