Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would hope that the Minister would take advantage of any funding that we have available that would increase the employment of persons with disabilities within our workforce. I would hope that he would look into this program.

The Yukon has a program called the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy. What are we doing that is similar to that kind of a strategy? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I would appreciate anything he can discover as to why we did not take advantage of this. I believe that there were other jurisdictions that were not provinces that did. I could be corrected on that.

Another program which is not yet expired is a labour market agreement. The Yukon last year negotiated some $218,000 worth of funding. Some of it, not all of it, because labour market agreement in this case was for sort of all employment, but some of it was specifically earmarked for the Yukon Council on Disability. I know that the Minister of HR has been talking...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we have just heard, today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. This year to celebrate the 100 year anniversary, the Status of Women Council of the NWT has gathered women from all over the NWT for their conference called Celebrating Northern Women – A Century of Achievement.

Since 1911, every March 8th women and men throughout the world celebrate progress towards equality for women and their full participation. They reflect on the challenges and barriers that remain and consider future steps to achieving equality for all women in all aspects of their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, March 10, 2011, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Nunakput, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment reinstate the sunsetting funding for healthy eating and nutrition programs.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if I’m right in order. I wanted to revert to item 5 on the Order Paper but I believe Mr. Krutko has a written question.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister. I look forward to getting that information. I found another opportunity for free money. Well, it is matching dollars, but it is half free anyway. This is a federal program called Opportunities Fund for Persons with Disabilities. It offers some $30 million to provinces and territories. I know it is a federal program, but I would like to know whether the Department of HR has ever taken any action to assist employers, individuals or organizations who have persons with disabilities to assist them to access this funding to increase PWD employment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

1.

Provide a list of all the nutrition or healthy eating or healthy foods programs run by the GNWT across all departments.

2.

Provide the amount of funding on an annual basis attached to each of these programs.

3.

Provide the anticipated sunset or termination date for each of these programs.

4.

Provide the criteria which determines who is eligible for funding under each of these programs.

Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that they provide as much as they can, but it’s certainly not enough and I think we’ll find with cancellation of this program it’s going to have a huge impact. There are two comments from teachers again: “the school nutrition program has positively impacted attendance” and “student attendance is higher on days when breakfast is being served.” The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is focussed on attendance, the Healthy Foods Initiative or the Healthy Foods Program is focussed on attendance. I’d like to ask the Minister how much of the money that -- I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my statement I focussed on the cancellation, the sunsetting of the nutrition program that was run by the Food First Foundation. I mentioned that there were a lot of comments. There are six pages of comments from educators across the NWT and none of them are negative, Mr. Speaker. They all point to the positive aspect of this program and the need for children in schools to be fed in order to learn adequately. I believe the Minister of Education, Cultural and Employment would probably agree that students with full stomachs have improved learning. My first question...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to admit I’m a little confused now. When we reviewed the budget for education, the Minister suggested that the Aboriginal Student Achievement funding could be used as a replacement for the $400,000 funding that Food First Foundation was using to provide nutrition in schools. I thought I heard the Minister say they don’t really know how this money is going to be used. My question to the Minister is: can a school apply to the Education, Culture and Employment department to get funding to provide breakfasts and lunches and the foods that our kids need to learn...