Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that consideration of Tabled Document 207-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, be now concluded and that Tabled Document 207-17(5) be reported and recommended as ready for further consideration in formal session through the form of an appropriation bill. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we’ve heard already, Sunday is the 104th International Women’s Day. Sunday is also the 24th celebration of the NWT Wise Women Awards.

International Women’s Day is March 8th and it’s a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women, past, present and future. International Women’s Day honours the work of suffragettes who marched and fought for the right for women to vote, and the women who continue to fight for women’s rights today. In many countries across the world, International Women’s Day is a national holiday.

On International...

That’s good. Thanks.

Thanks. I guess I have to wait for the action plan. Thank you.

Thanks. I’ll just confirm there’s no money in this budget, I presume, for this kind of a program, and is the department aiming for money to support upgrading students in the ‘16-17 budget? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one other question that I forgot earlier around the Student Financial Assistance program, and certainly it has been mentioned a number of times over the years that I have been here. It seems to be, up to this point, the department has basically said no, we can’t do it, but I am referring to students who leave high school, who are not ready yet to go on to a post-secondary institution, no matter what it might be, whether it be a technical institution or whether it might be a college or a university. They require some upgrading of the courses that they have...

Thanks to Mr. Heide. I appreciate that there’s an appetite. I appreciate that some stuff is being looked at. But apart from conflicting policies, there still needs, in my mind, to be a review of how we provide our income security programs, all of them, whether they are in step with the rest of the country, whether they are serving our clients to the best that we can do. I think there are certainly areas where they are not. Some of them are contradictory polices, but some of them are policies which don’t conflict with anybody else but they’re just probably not up to date, and they’re probably...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I move we report progress.

---Carried

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. I’ve been asking the Minister questions about income assistance and trying to highlight some of the inconsistencies that exist with the income assistance/income security division. In his response, as the Minister has talked about possibly making some changes, it’s not been clear to me what sort of changes the Minister is talking about.

I’m advocating for a comprehensive review of all of our income support or income security programs. The Minister has advised that there have been some changes in 2015 already, and I’m not clear on what those...

That’s good. Thanks.