Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister and I must have missed something in that translation. I didn’t realize that we weren’t meeting industry standards. I thought it was a matter of reflection and so on. I have a hard time when the Minister says that the people aren’t being forced to, if you need a new plate. I don’t need a new one, I need a sticker, I don’t need the plate, but we’ll leave it at that.

I’d like to ask the Minister what is the cost to the government. What was the cost? What is the cost going to be for us to find a new manufacturer and to produce these new plates? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am going to wade into the debate on our redesigned licence plates today. I cannot express strongly enough how glad I am that we kept the polar bear shape. Judging by what I heard from my constituents, I suspect that there might have been a revolt amongst our residents if the shape had been changed.

I can accept that there was a need to modernize and update the slogan, so that change is spectacular. But I am having difficulty with the new design, the added colour and the silhouette. I have to wonder if in the dead of winter in the dark and the snow, the plate won’t look...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have one quick question. I recognize that the changes to this act don’t apply to veterinarians who are currently licensed in the NWT, but we do have, certainly, small communities where we don’t have a licensed veterinarian in residence and there are people within the communities who do do some semi-veterinarian work. I’m just wondering whether or not any of these changes to the act are going to infringe on the work that some of these people do in the absence of a licensed veterinarian onsite or anybody who comes in from time to time. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I request unanimous consent to return to item 5 on the Order Paper, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

---Unanimous consent granted

Gee, $10 for 30,000 plates. That is pretty cheap. What I was looking for was the cost to the government. I know the Minister, yesterday I think, said that this is going to be cost neutral, but I was looking for a total cost. I mentioned as well in my statement that we pay a vehicle registration fee, some $82.60 if you’re registering a vehicle. So I estimate that amount for 30,000 plates or vehicles to be about $2.5 million or more annually. I’d like to ask the Minister what that money is used for. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke about the new redesigned licence plate in my statement and I have a few questions for the Minister of Transportation this morning. In answer to Mr. Menicoche the other day, he spoke about the intent of this program, this implementation program for the new plates, and I understand the intent that they want to get people using the new plate, but I’m having difficulty with the fact that we are being forced to buy the new plate. So I’d like to ask the Minister why the Department of Transportation is forcing residents to buy this new plate. Why can’t we keep the old...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to mention that I believe later on today we’re going to receive a number of petitions protesting the changes to the Supplementary Health Benefit Program. My understanding is that the names on these petitions total about 3,000 people. That’s some 7 or 8 percent of our population and that’s a significant number.

So I’d like to ask the Minister: in hearing that there are 3,000 people who have concerns about this program, what does that say to the Minister? And I would ask her to comment on this information and will that have any impact on her...

I think I heard the Minister commit that she’s going to work with Members and that’s the first positive thing I may have heard. I would hope that the next thing that she’s going to do in committing to work with Members is to take some of the suggestions from Members and change the policy and change the proposed plan. The Minister has stated as well across the country that we have the best plan of any across the country and these changes are going to make us equal to other plans across the country. I guess I have to ask the Minister, why are we aiming low? Why are we not aiming to keep the plan...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to put my request in words that perhaps the Minister can understand. When one has a number of options, six or 10, one lists them on a page and you then go across the page on the top and you put this is a positive, this is a negative, this is a positive, this is a negative. You then look at each option and you evaluate. You could even give them a number and assign a number to them so that you come out of each option with a plus or a minus 500, minus 600, et cetera. That then allows you to take the options to six or 10 options that you have and rank them from...

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Minister for her comments. She indicated that she has heard the concern that has been expressed by a number of Members about people who are going to endure excessively high medical costs. My question, I guess then is: is she going to respond to that in terms of this particular program? Is there going to be a change to the program? She states that there is no other program in Canada that deals with residents the way that we do, but I would say to her, as well, there is no other program in Canada that leaves people with excessive medical costs out to dry. I would like to...