Sandy Lee

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to ask some questions on the budget to the Minister of Finance as well. It’s in regards to the tax rate, corporate tax rate reduction that he’s announcing in the budget, Mr. Speaker. One of the perverse elements of our funding formula with the federal government is that when we have windfalls in our corporate tax revenue, we get penalized. The Minister of Finance has sat with me in committees where we’ve been dealing with this for the last four or five years. We also know, and those in the know, and one of the good things today about having a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I, too, would like to make some comments on the budget delivered today. Mr. Speaker, in some ways, I, too, feel like it is a Groundhog Day budget. There is not really that much new in there, although I do support the highway idea all the way to Tuk.

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But there is really not much in there that we have not heard before. Most of the light of the budget was on the federal government. I don’t think I have ever seen a budget where about half of the print speaks to that. Mr. Speaker, I, too, sincerely hope that the new Prime Minister Harper will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It appears that we’re strong with…We’re starting with a bang in this first day of five weeks of session to come.

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Mr. Speaker, my question, however, is to the Minister of Health and Social Services. It’s in regards to the respite care program. Mr. Speaker, for many months and the number of years I’ve been here, there has been a call for the need, or speaking about the need, for the respite care program. We’ve finally got one in Yellowknife. It’s being run by Abe Miller and the Association for Community Living. But, as far as I’m aware, it’s a pilot program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since our last sitting in November, the winds of political change have swept across the NWT and many parts of our country. Canada elected a Conservative minority government in Ottawa, and in the NWT, the people voted for a change and the agent for change they have chosen is the new MP for the Western Arctic, Mr. Dennis Bevington. In my first opportunity to do so in this House, I would like to extend my warm congratulations to Mr. Bevington.

Mr. Speaker, I can speak from having watched them more closely than others, that he and his team were very diligent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe this is a pilot program. It’s running out of Yellowknife, but I have no doubt that this will have to expand to other communities. I am just wondering if the Minister could commit to this House to make this one of his priority issues to deal with his federal counterpart as soon as that person is known to advance this issue? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that answer and the efforts that the Minister and the government are making in that regard. Mr. Speaker, as the Minister stated, there is a huge need for this, and I think Members on this side of the floor have been getting lots of calls from those parents or caregivers who are able to get some relief, which is what this program is meant to do, except I think there is an opening for about a dozen placements and there is a waiting list of probably five times longer, if not longer than that. It seems like there is no system in place to move...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to welcome everybody, the leaders, artists, interested public, and the parents. I would like to recognize Mrs. Esther Braden and Mr. Ed Jeske who often chauffeur lots of seniors from Avens Court. I would like to thank Mrs. Braden for convincing my mother to come and see the first day because she usually likes to watch us on TV, so my mother, Taejeong Lee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that we will probably have an opportunity to discuss this in detail as the days come along, but I am just wondering if the Minister could indicate to the House as to whether there were any programs under federal funding that he’s aware of, or are we already accessing any federal money on that? The previous government in Ottawa spoke about homecare funding and I guess we need time to sort out all the promises and commitments by various parties, but could he indicate to the House about any federal funding available for this? Thank you.

Why is it that when we know that schools have been funding full-time kindergarten when they were not budgeted for it, and obviously taking money from somewhere else because they have decided to do so, now we are saying that we want to catch up to that, because we support full-time kindergarten? Why is it that we're not saying you could have full-time kindergarten at a maximum, or half-time kindergarten at a minimum, and then fund accordingly? Why are we just going half way?

Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously, I support the amendment, and I do thank the Minister for making this an action item. We’re not being exactly proactive in this area; we’re sort of catching up to what school boards have been doing, because we know that there are many school boards in the North who have already been providing full-time kindergarten, and now we’re just saying that it’s okay for you to have at least minimum and maximum half-day programs. We’re not even really fully legitimizing full-day kindergarten programs.

I support this amendment, but this got me thinking about how it was...