Wendy Bisaro

Does committee agree that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Human Rights Act, No. 2, is ready for third reading?

---Bill 12 as a whole approved for third reading

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members know, in June the Minister of Health and Social Services tabled the department’s Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan. With the mention of enhancing addictions treatment programs an element in the priorities of the 17th Assembly, it’s good to have the Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan lining up with those priorities. But today I must follow up on the subject of the questions I asked the Minister last week about the Minister’s Forum on Addictions.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not one to suggest that consultation is a bad thing. It is a good thing. But...

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Bouchard, would you like to bring witnesses into the Chamber?

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have an amendment. I move that subclause 10(3) of Bill 5 be amended by adding the words “child protection” before the words “family or civil matter” in that portion preceding paragraph (a).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in support of this motion. I believe very strongly in the comments that have been made by my colleagues already. This is a small amount of money which does have a huge impact on families. It does allow them to provide for their children in ways that they would not be able to if their rent has been increased. I am particularly concerned about the inconsistencies that we have in our policies across government. We assess our income for a particular program one way in one department. We assess it differently in a different department. It is no wonder that our...

Thanks to the Minister. That’s really good to hear. I think the sports that have been dropped, that they have an opportunity to be a part of the Arctic Winter Games, even if it’s in a different jurisdiction, is a great thing. I hope the Minister follows up and pushes for that, which I think is what I’m hearing from him.

My question goes to the hockey that’s going to be held in 2016. At the moment, from what I understand, there will be two divisions of hockey held in Iqaluit. Midget hockey will be held maybe someplace else. I’d like to ask the Minister if it’s on the radar for the sports...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are addressed to the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. I’d like to follow up on a statement that I made a little while ago with regard to some sports being dropped from the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At the time, the Minister had just come back from a meeting with some of his other counterparts. He had met with the Arctic Winter Games International Committee. There was a certain amount of publicity around the whole dropping of sports issue, and there was publicity in the media as well.

I would like to know from the Minister at this point...

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we want to provide the best service, but it’s not happening. The Minister referenced that the client service officers deal with their clients, they try to have a relationship with them and that’s all well and good, but in several instances now, I have had constituents tell me that their client service officer has changed and they have not been advised. They don’t know that that’s happened until they present their documents the next month for the next month’s payment, things get held up and somebody tells them oh, by the way, I’m not your client service...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement. I spoke about the difficulties that one of my constituents had in getting an income support cheque for the month of October and the delay that occurred. He applied well in advance of the end of the month, and yet didn’t receive his income support cheque until the 15th of October.

I’d like to know from the Minister at the outset, delays appear periodically, I can accept that, but I’d like to know from the Minister what length of delay...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to explain why this is being done here. When committee went through the Legal Aid Act we did feel very strongly as a committee that we wanted to make sure that legal aid did cover matters of child protection. So we amended a different clause to add the words “child protection” in another clause elsewhere in the bill. At the time that the bill was being reprinted it was noticed that in this particular clause, Clause 10, there was a reference to family or civil matters but there was not a reference to child protection. So child protection is being added...