Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you’ve already heard, today is the beginning of Education Week so I’m going to tell an education story. For two years in a row now I’ve been privileged to be a judge at the Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair. Two Fridays ago I was at Mildred Hall School hard at work doing just that. The Yellowknife Regional Learning Fair was a gathering of students ranging from grade 4 to grade 8. Each of the students at the regional fair was a winner in their own right from the learning fair competition held at their own school, and now they were competing for the regional title in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here. First of all, I mentioned last year that we seem to have an awful lot of youth contributions. I have suggested that the department needed to look at them and see whether or not they can be combined. I have great difficulty in looking at these and seeing how some of them are different from others. The youth centre is one, that is pretty self-explanatory, but I fail to see the difference between the youth contributions and the youth corps.

The other thing that concerns me is we also have contributions to youth corps and youth...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am totally in support of this motion. I haven’t had many dealings with the Mine Training Society and I haven’t had dealings with any of the other organizations receiving ASEP funding, but the dealings that I have had with the Mine Training Society have been very positive. My experiences have shown that they are a highly successful organization and, as has been mentioned, they’ve used the federal dollars they have received to leverage matching funding for their partners over the years.

The partners have matched $16.5 million or so with $18.7 million since the inception...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to be short. Maybe I should sit down. No.

I would like to thank the Minister for that summary of all the wonderful things that we are doing, but it did not go to my question. If it is a priority for this government to make sure that shelters are funded, then why is the Minister not making sure that the Centre for Northern Families is financially sustainable? They are funded differently and that is the problem.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I talked a bit about family violence and particularly violence against women and girls in my statement. I would like to follow up with some questions to the Minister of Health and Social Services about the Family Violence Action Plan. The first phase of the Family Violence Action Plan is done. We are now into phase two. I would like to ask the Minister some questions on the progress of this plan. One of the goals and a component of a goal is to increase funding to two shelters with their own buildings to compensate for O and M costs that are not experienced by other...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Domestic violence is all too prevalent, Mr. Speaker, but domestic violence involving women and girls is an area that is especially concerning. The NWT is not immune to domestic violence, unfortunately. We are reminded on a daily basis of incidents that have occurred in one or more of our communities. Most of them report violence against women. Not only does the violence have an impact on the victim, but the offender’s actions affect everyone around the victim, children most often, but other family members and friends are also impacted by the trauma. They all must...

Thanks for that information. I’m really glad to hear that it’s going to be a broad review. I just would like to also point out that I would hope that the Housing Corporation is going to keep in their sites that their review can have a large impact on those who are struggling with poverty and that it can be tied into our Anti-Poverty Strategy which we’re also working on.

I do want to comment on the need for seniors to have funding to assist them with their homes. It’s been mentioned by a couple of Members already. I think the Housing Corporation ought to seriously consider targeted funding for...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here with regard to reviews. The first one has to do with the rent scale review which I understand is happening. I thought that we had been advised that it’s about... It seems like it’s been in the works for a year and I’d appreciate hearing from the Minister where that review of the rent scale is at. According to the business plan, it’s supposed to be ready for implementation on April 1st. I’d like to know if that’s still the case. Is the review done yet, I guess is where I’ll start.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My last question has to do with a part of the action plan which talks about a community consultation in Inuvik to develop a strategy for the implementation of changes that are required, and the timeline on that was February 2009. Can I ask if that is done?

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the Minister for that summary. I appreciate that the department is providing funds and that they are doing what they can to develop shelter services in other communities beyond where they actually have bricks and mortar. It is something that we absolutely have to do. If it is a priority for this department to make sure that shelters are running and are actually operational, I have to go to Mr. Bromley’s comments about the Centre for Northern Families. This centre is struggling. If it is a priority for this government to provide shelters and make sure they work, why is it...