Glen Abernethy

I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just for the record, this Liquor Act came into force on October 30, 2008. Prior to this act coming into place, did peace officers who obtain a warrant have the ability to seize prior to that point under the old legislation?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank my colleague Mr. Hawkins.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment review both the aboriginal language and culture-based education directive and the inclusive schooling directive in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of both initiatives.

The Standing Committee on Government Operations recommends that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment report performance according to major categories such as education council, ethnicity and gender, with a recognition...

Mr. Speaker, I am really happy to hear that. I would like to go back to the Minister’s first response, where he was talking about reducing some of the red tape. I appreciate everything he was saying, but we are in that reality today. The red tape exists today and every day that it continues to exist, businesses continue to struggle. Frankly, I want small and medium-sized businesses to succeed in Yellowknife. I want them in small communities. I want them to offer employment in small communities. Every second counts. When can we expect to see some progress on this? When can the Minister commit...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and follow along with my Member’s statement today. I talked about red tape and the existence of red tape. We know we can’t eliminate red tape and I’m not talking about the red tape as a result of legislative requirements, but there is lots of extra red tape that comes out of policies and procedures. It is not all GNWT, but I think we have an opportunity here to work with NABA and the NWT Chamber of Commerce to identify what the real burden is. I am asking the Minister today if he can work with...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

So this is basically to return that power that once existed that got missed by way of some sort of oversight.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We’d like to go through Bill 12 and, time permitting, Tabled Document 75-16(5).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. For an hour this morning I was very pleased and very optimistic. When the Minister came out and said they’ve rescinded the Supplementary Health Benefits Policy that was great news. Unfortunately, since then I’ve heard a bunch of my colleagues ask some questions and I’ve heard responses from the Minister, and that optimism is pretty much gone. Mostly from one statement.

The Minister said that the problem with supp health is that people just don’t want changes to the supp health. That is not true. That is not true at all. I’ve heard people talk about changes. People do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Ditto. I’d like to thank the Minister for her Member’s statement today.

Frankly, the Executive Council’s decision to rescind the 2007 policy on supplemental health benefits is a great step forward. Since this policy came into place and it was passed by the 15th Assembly in their dying days, it’s caused nothing but problems. It’s fundamentally flawed.

Sure, something needs to be done. We can’t argue that. We need to find a way to provide support to the low-income families who don’t have access to insurance or can’t get insurance. Clearly, that needs to be done. We’ve...