Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of comments. I’ll start with the Minister’s statement that we’ve changed how we plan and acquire public infrastructure and made changes to the capital planning process. I think I said last year, and possibly the year before, that I’m really pleased that we’ve made these changes. I look forward to hearing from the Minister in this second year of the new capital planning process whether or not he thinks that it was a beneficial move. I know that was his opinion last year, but we had a hugely busy construction season in 2010-2011 so I’d be interested to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Deh Cho, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, February 24, 2011, it shall be adjourned until Monday, February 28, 2011;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to February 28, 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 thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I guess I’m just not quite clear. I’d like to ask again, he mentions a national initiative. Is the Minister saying that nationally across the board all provinces and territories are working on something and that we are part of that? Because there are Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec who currently have their own legislation.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I’d like to ask some questions regarding the Homelessness Assistance Fund.

From what I know of this fund, it is a fund that is used as a program of last resort when people have lost their home or are in between homes and need some assistance to make sure that they don’t go homeless. I’d like to ask the Minister at this point if she could explain to me what, in her mind, is a definition of a program of last resort in terms of the time frame that she expects people to be able to have to apply for...

Thanks for that explanation. I did note, I think it was in the Minister’s opening remarks, he said that bookings at parks are up. Could I get an estimation of by what percentage and does it... Even though our bookings are up, we still are not obviously, from the sounds of things, covering the costs of contractors. Can I get that confirmed, please? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, the establishment and expansion of French first language schooling in the NWT is a success story. It shows what people can accomplish if they have passion and tenacity.

I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question with regard to parks and parks revenue. I noticed on the revenue page that our revenue was down considerably and I believe I heard the Minister say that it had to do with, or I think the explanation is that it has to do with interest. I didn’t see any indication in the revenue page of revenue from parks. Is there revenue and, if so, how much is there? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. This is just a comment but I didn’t hear the Minister say that an evaluation is planned for and I would encourage strongly the department to in 18 months, perhaps even two years, do an evaluation of this new program to determine whether or not it’s actually working. To me, as I said before, monitoring is not evaluating.

I have another question with regard to the project at Fort Simpson, the in-river hydro system. I may have missed it, I’m sorry if I have, but I know that there was some difficulty with that turbine and I just wondered where that project is at. Is it dead...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’ve got a couple of questions here. First of all, the Minister has spoken about, and I think, certainly, Members are aware, and I think the general public also is aware, that we conducted an electricity review. We made some changes and we have reduced our power rates considerably. I know that it is recently put into place but I’d like to know from the Minister, since this is a new program and it’s some fairly major changes, some of which are still to be put into place, but what are the plans for the department to evaluate this particular system and the set up that we...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thought we got rid of these last year, but apparently not. On this page we have $2.9 million-plus in other. It seems to be unidentified. I wonder if the Minister could explain if this is a mistake or if they intended to leave us in the dark about $3 million worth of expenses. Thank you.