Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of comments here. I’ll start where Mr. Dolynny left off with the Mackenzie Valley Highway, the road from Inuvik to Tuk. I, too, am concerned. I appreciate that the Minister has advised that we haven’t got a decision yet, but we also don’t yet know the total cost of the project. Sometimes I feel that we are heading pell-mell down a road without considering what’s at the end of the road when we get there, and I just want to say that I am extremely cautious about this project. Once bitten, twice shy. And the Deh Cho Bridge, having gone through the Deh...

Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.

Minister McLeod, please introduce your witnesses for the House.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Page 11-21, Transportation, activity summary, highways, operations expenditure summary, $64.766 million.

We move on to page 11-30, Transportation, activity summary, Community Access Program, grants and contributions, contributions, $980,000.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here and it involves the Arctic Energy Alliance. We, and I can’t remember in how many other budgets, but I think certainly within ENR the government provides a contribution to the Arctic Energy Alliance. So I’m trying to understand why we have a contribution here under MACA and another contribution under ENR and maybe somewhere else. I can’t quite remember; it might be in ITI as well. Why do we as a government not make one contribution to Arctic Energy Alliance in one place, one department for wherever the government decides it should be? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I guess if the Minister is looking to be efficient and to reduce work, I really don’t understand why he’s establishing a committee. We are committed to death, I think, in this government.

I’d like to know from the Minister why we would not simply do something as simple as tying minimum wage to the cost of living and do increases to the minimum wage when our cost of living increases. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. You’re done, Mr. Dolynny? Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have to go back to my issue with heritage and projects. Maybe it’s just the way that it’s written, but if I look on page 10-20, the NWT Arts Council gives contributions to artists and cultural groups – okay, that might include heritage – but then it goes on to say to encourage creative artistic projects in visual literary performing and new media arts in the NWT. I would think that a heritage organization is not likely to want to do a creative artistic project.

I again would have to stress to the Minister that I don’t see much opportunity in here for a heritage...

Mr. Chair, I don’t think I quite understood that. If we are comparing mains to mains, we had the mains for 2012-13 that were a dollar, say. We have the mains for 2013-14 that are $1.4 million plus one dollar more, so we added after the revised mains from 2012-13 were $1.25 million bigger, from what I understand. Can I get that clarified? Are the revised mains numbers from 2012-13 $1.25 million at least higher in terms of education than the 2012-13 mains for education? Thank you.