Wendy Bisaro

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 today are addressed to the Minister of Human Resources. The federal government, through HRSDC, the names of which I can never remember, but Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, I think, offers funding through a program called Labour Market Agreement for Persons with Disabilities. In 2008 -- that is the latest date for which I found figures -- the program offered over $218 million to the 13 Canadian jurisdictions. Of that money, which is now currently expired, the NWT didn’t get any. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not he is aware of...

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 Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, March 10, 2011, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, May 11, 2011;

And further, that any time prior to May 11, 2011, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize a fellow female legislator from the Province of Manitoba. Ms. Myrna Driedger is here. She’s the MLA for Charleswood in Manitoba. She’s also vice-chair of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians – Canadian Region.

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. 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...

I didn’t really hear a focus on foods and nutrition within the Minister’s answer, but I’d like to read one comment from an educator in a school that is unnamed, but the statement goes: “As soon as the students arrive at school, the breakfast teacher asks the students if they’ve eaten breakfast. They cannot go to their classroom without eating breakfast. That is how important breakfast is to our students’ learning.” I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not there is any appetite on the part of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to reinstate the $400,000 that is sunsetting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. March is Nutrition Month and according to the statement made by the Health and Social Services Minister last week, this government believes it’s adequately addressing healthy eating programs by providing support, as she put it. The Minister named a few programs which provide that support. Programs which are fine in and of themselves, but they hardly represent a coordinated targeted approach to improving healthy eating amongst our youngest children or to the significant issue of the need for prevention and early intervention amongst the same group of children.

In this...

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.