Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. I think the Minister is agreeing with me that we don’t have the capability to do the kind of inspections of buildings that we should. I want to ask the Minister whether or not there’s a possibility that we can look at this seriously. The subject has been raised a number of times. Can we seriously look at providing those services, particularly where we have no building inspectors in our communities, and maybe we should consider having a Minister who is responsible for our building standards and building codes. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that clarification. I realize that we are following the National Building Code, but my concern lies more with enforcement. It was my understanding that the Minister, yesterday, said we really don’t have any enforcement capabilities. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can advise that if I as a private homeowner am building a house, who inspects the construction of my home to ensure that it conforms to the Canada building standards. Thank you.

I encourage everyone, male and female alike, to experience the magic and the uniqueness of this event and get involved. Girls can register for a flight at www.girlsfly2.ca, volunteers can sign up to help with the event by contacting Ms. Brazier at @email.

Let’s get as many girls as we can from as many communities as we can at the Yellowknife Airport March 9th. Other airports worldwide are after the title that the NWT now holds. Let’s make sure we keep the title of the World’s Most Female Pilot-Friendly Airport for another year. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you to the Minister for the opening remarks. There are a number of things in the opening remarks I want to mention and there are a few other things. These aren’t in any particular order.

I’d like to start off in terms of the statement by the Minister about the additional $4.6 million in the budget. I think it was mentioned earlier by one of the Members that we should be able to do more with less. I’m not necessarily of that view, but I’m pleased to see that we have additional dollars in the budget. But my pleasure, I guess, ends because my view of how we should use...

Thanks to the Minister. As the Minister points out, it’s all well and good if I’m building my home in Yellowknife because there are building inspectors here who do do that service here. But if I am in a community outside of Yellowknife or outside or in any community that does not have a building inspector, what am I to do? How am I to know that the building that is being constructed is safe and it has conformed to the Canada Building Code? I’d like to ask the Minister that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on some questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Dolynny yesterday. He asked some questions of the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs with regard to safety within our buildings.

I share Mr. Dolynny’s concerns about home safety, about construction of homes, installation of furnaces and so on. I feel, I think as he does, that the NWT lacks adequate inspection capabilities.

My first question to the Minister is: What building codes or what building standards exist in the NWT to guide construction? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to talk to talk about a great worldwide initiative entitled Girls Fly Too. The year 2012 was the first year to celebrate more than 100 years in aviation, and it was called Women of Aviation Worldwide Week. As part of that week, last year, under the leadership of Yellowknife helicopter pilot Kirsten Brazier, Yellowknife Airport earned the title of the Most Female Pilot-Friendly Airport Worldwide.

There were over 400 girls and women who participated in the event, and they weren’t just from Yellowknife. Families drove in from Tlicho communities, there was a...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have some questions here related to the Business Development Investment Corporation and I’ve been wondering about the BDIC for a number of years, a while, I guess maybe not a number of years, but I did a little looking into the organization and the number of staff and so on, and I’m more than a little concerned. I’m quite concerned about the org chart, I guess, the staff that work this organization. There are 14 staff if the org chart is correct, but out of that 14 staff, I think one is empty, but there are scheduled seven managers. So 50 percent of the staffing of this...

I’d like to thank the Minister for that commitment. We will perhaps be back from committee once we’ve had a chance to discuss it.

The Minister, in his remarks over the last little while, has indicated a focus on persons with disability numbers and on numbers of Aboriginals in our GNWT workforce. We’ve heard the Minister provide us with numbers on recent successes. The numbers seem to be going up and that’s a good thing. But I’ve heard little, I’ve heard little said, I’ve heard little in the comments by the Minister about the number of women that we have in our workforce, particularly women...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a question on the housing for staff item as well. This was tried a number of years ago and it wasn’t really successful, so what is the corporation doing different this time around to try and get a better buy-in from communities to provide housing for professional staff? Thank you.