Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

The petition contains 123 signatures of Northwest Territories residents, and the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut adopt the proposed Occupational Health and Safety Regulations as drafted in 2011 by the Safety Advisory Committee of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to go back to item 5 on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thanks to the Premier. If new clean and renewable energy systems are to have a maximum economic benefit for our communities, they must be locally owned and operated. Buy-in, efficiency, community self-sufficiency and economic stability are all positive impacts of locally based power systems.

What steps has the Premier taken to ensure discussions are open to, or directed to, consider a community-based approach to energy solutions moving forward? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Premier today as the head of our energy issues. The recent comment in the House about renewable energy was that from an economic or commercial objective, you would be lucky to recover your capital costs within 15 to 20 years and by then you are almost at the point of replacement, so the vicious cycle repeats itself. Such uninformed and misleading statements undermine the very opportunity that citizens have to help themselves to cut energy costs and they derail effective government action yielding the unaffordable energy costs of today.

That didn...

Thanks to the Premier. I have become aware of several complaints from teachers and parents regarding areas of concern, as have other Members: one teacher in a classroom with 23 pre-Grade 1 students, tension between existing programs, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, and some of these are actually three-year-olds until Christmas. These are happening now and these concerns have been brought to the attention of headquarters in ECE; however, the response has been to pass the issue on to the local school, yet this is a territorial program. JK is a territorial program delivered...

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to acknowledge several Weledeh constituents who received Medals of Bravery from the Governor General of Canada on October 21st of this year.

On September 22, 2011, my constituents Kent David Bissell, Matthew Lewin Grogono, Mike Joseph Murphy and Allan Randal Shortt played a vital role in the evacuation of several passengers from a Twin Otter that tragically crashed in the Old Town, here in Yellowknife, claiming two lives.

Despite heavy smoke coming from the engine, leaking fuel and the risk of explosion, these brave citizens managed to bring several survivors to safety...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate ECE’s plan to slow down the revised rollout of the Junior Kindergarten program. This will give all of the stakeholders, education authorities, early childhood workers, families and other early childhood care providers a chance to take stock, learn from experience and adjust the program as needed going forward.

Examples of areas needing adjustment that I hear include one-teacher classrooms overburdened by 11 four-year-olds and 12 five-year-olds, tension between existing local programs and ECE’s, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, loss of...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, colleagues, on both sides of the House here for their comments and I appreciate the Member bringing this forward for discussion and debate. I think there have been good points made on both sides and, ultimately, it really does depend on performance of the Minister and the department with respect to how well the intent, as the summary states, to fill vacant positions is actually accomplished. I think there have been some arguments made for having flexibility. I think really what we’re dealing with here is a matter of trust and the lack of trust, especially when...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, thank you for that response. I am getting some clarity on it here.

I guess, are there any corralling sidebars with respect to this potential to double fill? To ensure that the example that was used, somebody is about to retire, that would be acceptable, but somebody that was not about to retire and was being forced out without due process, that would be something, I suspect, committee would not appreciate or support. So are there any controls at all on the double filling potential? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just going to attempt once more at my question. I apologize; I do not have a legal background. I’m trying to determine, with reference to the initial phrase under Section 4(3), “Notwithstanding any other provision of this act...” I’m just wondering, going back to the Public Service Act as it now stands before amendment, whether it enables the Minister to appoint a person into a position that is already filled, thereby displacing that person. Can the Minister do that already today without reference to what’s happening in this amendment?