Robert Villeneuve

Madam Chair, I thank the Minister for his passion in this topic.

---Laughter

Moving on to page 3 of the statement, I'm just wondering if the Minister could just give me a short briefing on what the department is talking about when they want to expand student assessment activities in relation to the aboriginal languages and culture-based directive.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thank the Minister and his colleagues for meeting with us today. I just have a couple questions with regard to the opening remarks by the Minister in the new program reductions and reinvestment in key areas. I was pretty sure that Mr. Delorey had stole my notes somehow, because he pretty much asked most of the questions that I was going to present, so I guess it's going to be pretty short. Again I can't stress any more than a lot of my colleagues who have already stressed the importance of the early childhood development initiative as far as development kids in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just wondering if this government is going to develop any plans that would address the levels of compensation and benefits of residents, some of whom would be more directly affected than others by this hydro project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my previous statements I spoke about the seniors of the NWT and their ever-increasing role of importance in the success of many of the various programs and services of this government and of the many benefits to our society. Today, Mr. Speaker, I will speak for persons on the other end of the spectrum who cannot hear their concerns in this House yet.

Mr. Speaker, today I’d like to speak about our children and the three-year early childhood development framework for action funding which comes to an end March 31, 2004. Mr. Speaker, during the past few months I have...

I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My first question would be a point on some clarification. I just want to ask the Minister if the costs of assets and services is because of the large reduction in the assets and services from 2002-03 to 2004-05. Is that just due to the department releasing all of these staff housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, and that we would see this increase in the costs of assets and service in the Housing Corporation budget summary? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to thank the Minister for his answers, and I have no further questions on 2-39. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I thank the Minister. Just for my own information on this transfer of the housing units to the NWT Housing Corporation, can the Minister provide the Members of the House with some information as to how many housing units we are actually referring to when we are looking at $2.6 million in assets?

Thank you very much for that information. Another quick question that a couple of the other Members were referring to insofar as other expenses go in the breakdown of other expenses; in particular, travel. I know that the government travel budget is still significantly high, according to a lot of Members, but a lot of the travel for a lot of the department members and their employees is directly related to their actual responsibilities in their positions, and increasing their performance, and carrying out a better service for the public. On the flipside of the coin, I also realize that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was just going to use this opportunity in my Member’s statement to drive home some of the concerns I made yesterday in my Member’s statement in the House. Just to express some of my concerns with the government’s lack of accountability with regards to increasing the number of aboriginals hired to senior management positions.

As far as I’m aware, Mr. Speaker -- and I’m sure a lot of the MLAs of previous governments are also aware -- this government is not meeting the expectations for aboriginal hiring in senior management positions and has no tools or...