Bob Bromley

I appreciate the response from the Minister. I have no doubt that he’s fully committed to making sure that does progress strongly during the two years of this interim agreement. The Yellowknives Dene First Nation agreement contains measures for a limited harvest to meet subsistence needs. One aspect of this is, of course, the understanding of what sort of adequacy this meets in terms of their nutritional and subsistence requirements and so on. I’m wondering if the Minister could tell me what we must see in terms of herd recovery before the harvest guidelines will be opened up a bit to meet...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are to the Minister responsible for Environment and Natural Resources in follow up to my Member’s statement earlier today.

Mr. Speaker, the agreement with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation around the management of the Bathurst caribou herd is a two-year plan of activities. I’m wondering if the Minister can tell me what resources, both the dollars, direct dollar support and personnel support, staffing support, are being provided to the Yellowknives Dene First Nation to carry out their end of the bargain and whether this is going to be assessed partway...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the mover of the motion, I will offer remarks on the need to make this call on the federal government for preservation of the full, long-form census data collection.

Accurate, reliable and detailed data is essential to this government’s ability to develop policies and programs and, very importantly, to evaluate whether our programs are having the best results. Long-form data is essential to the continuing improvement of our services. The information obtained through the long-form census is essential to the well-being of our citizens.

As the motion points out, the...

There are clearly different perspectives on how much information analysis has been provided towards the consideration of the proposal put forward. So putting that aside, Mr. Speaker, I’m asking the Minister if she will commit to providing thorough and transparent analyses whenever she’s bringing forward proposals for consideration of committee. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not surprisingly, my questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to start by again thanking the Minister and Cabinet for moving forward in this way. I think they’ve heard the people, and this is democracy in action. I’d like to start by saying this whole process has been like crossing a wide and dry desert and finally having a glass of tall, cool water offered by the Minister here. So it is greatly appreciated. But this is relief that needs to get out there to all as the first step. There’s an anxious and traumatized public awaiting relief...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I applaud the government’s reconsideration of changes to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program. The Minister shows, with this action, that she has listened and respected the clear voice of democracy and has benefited from the input of Members and the public in reaching a wise decision. The response of the government shows that the detailed input of Members and the public has been, and will be, taken into account. The announcement of the requirement for third-party insurance where it is available, measures to ensure parity between the emergency health benefits of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A couple of quick questions here. On this one, I just want to confirm that a wood pellet densification unit is a device for manufacturing wood pellets. Is that correct?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have similar issues with this item. First of all, I’m concerned that it’s only five positions. As the Minister knows, the Members have called for a SWAT team, or certainly a comprehensive and focused effort with a good bump-up in number of people to deal with these arrears that are plaguing our people and our local housing offices. The five positions that are mentioned here, is that the same five positions that would have been transferred from Housing to ECE previously when the transfer took place five years ago? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m just wondering a little detail on this. Basically my question is why the frequency of twice a year. Are all communities going to be done twice a year? Typically I would think these things would be done once a year or every three years. I’m looking for some justification for the twice a year. Perhaps that’s in how complete the surveys are done each year.

I know that there are still issues of employee satisfaction in the department and these are brought to my attention. I think that shows some progress if the net has dropped from 1,800 to 1,400, but it’s a pretty modest progress. Again, we’ve been dealing with this for much longer than the Minister had indicated. I guess I’ll leave it at that and just highlight my concerns that we need to show better progress than this. We need to demonstrate that things are in place to prevent further accumulations at the same time that we’re working to clear up this backlog.