Wendy Bisaro

I appreciate the breakdown. I’m struggling to understand. We’ve got, I don’t know, one review for sure which was itemized and then at the end it was a number of reviews. I know that this funding is sunsetting at the end of March of 2012 and I appreciate that federal funding has to end sometime, but I am sort of struggling with what some of this funding is being used for and I wondered two things: what is the territorial support network, and which reviews. Mr. Elkin mentioned a number of reviews. I wonder if he could tell me what those reviews are. Thank you.

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

What amount is identified in the 2010-11 budget for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

What amount is identified in the 2011-12 budget for the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative?

Provide a breakdown of these funds showing

the activities this funding has been / is being / will be used for;

the amount for each activity;

the community(ies) where it will be spent.

How are the activities in question 3 being evaluated?

Provide a copy of the evaluation framework for this initiative.

Thank you...

Good information to hear and I’m glad to hear that. I would hope that in any meeting, that the government would be open at a community meeting to hearing from both sides, and that if an Aboriginal leader, a regional leader or a community leader wishes to be there to speak to the issue, that they would be able to have the opportunity to do that.

One of the other things that the Premier mentioned is that he is sending a letter to regional leaders to invite them to come back to the process, so to speak. I have to ask myself why would they do that. What can we say to leaders at this point that is...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the Premier. I would like to say to the Premier, having been deluged, I guess, with questions a couple of days ago, many differing opinions on the AIP and people telling him what to do and so on, I’d like to know whether or not the Premier is open to making changes to the communications plan that we heard about the other day. Has he considered making any changes, and if he has not to this date, will he consider making changes to be a little more personal in his approach to our residents? Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for his statement, I guess. I appreciate the information. I certainly had no intention to inflame. It’s simply a query that has entered into my head and I’m glad to hear the Premier say that there are phone calls going on so there is some personal touch that’s happening with regional leaders. The more of that that happens, the better, in my mind.

One last question, Mr. Speaker, and it has to do with the scheduled meeting for the Northern Leaders’ Forum in March. I wonder if the Premier could advise what the purpose of that meeting is. Thank you.

I would like to thank the Premier for the response. I am gratified to hear that Members are being heard, that residents are being heard and that there is going to be a change to the approach to getting information out there and educating our residents.

I’d like to ask the Premier, if we are going into communities, and I’d like to state again we need to go to every community. We can’t just hold these meetings in regional centres; every community deserves the right to have a meeting and to hear these explanations. When the Premier and/or his team or a portion of a team goes to a community, what...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week I was lucky enough to witness a little bit of history, a big piece of history for the NWT. Of course, I refer to the signing of the devolution agreement-in-principle last Wednesday. I fully support the principle of devolution and I believe that it was right to sign the agreement, but I am deeply troubled by the deep divide between the GNWT and the Aboriginal governments that has resulted from this event.

This relationship break has been building for some time, Mr. Speaker, and hindsight is 20/20, but we can now see that the Premier has failed with the Regional...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that commitment. I look forward to receiving that in short order.

I’ve mentioned that I’m a little concerned about the amount of work that the office has done. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could, maybe not today, but if he could commit to provide for the Members the efficiency of the office as a percentage of the savings that the office has determined from their reviews and from the work that they’ve done so that their savings as a percentage of the cost of the office. Thank you.

So it is, as the budget address indicates, that apart from the review of the office building space within Yellowknife and the decision made to go based on that review, everything else that the Program Review Office has done will be for the next Assembly. That wasn’t my understanding when this office was established three years ago, that some of that work, more of that work would have an impact on the work of this Assembly. So the Minister has indicated that there was no political appetite. It was his understanding that people didn’t want to proceed; people on this side of the House, I guess...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague has taken away my recognition of Barb Wyness, a constituent from Frame Lake. Barb is the public relations and communications officer for the Union of Northern Workers.