Wendy Bisaro

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. I was remiss earlier as I didn’t have the names of two Pages from the riding of Frame Lake who have been working here this week. I’d like to thank them for their service and welcome Mikaela Tuccaro and Branden Horn.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to welcome a constituent, Larry Adamson who is here today listening to the Members’ statements and up behind me is Jackie Walsh, assistant to the president of Union of Northern Workers, and Barb Wyness who is the public relations officer with UNW, both constituents of Frame Lake. Welcome to the Assembly.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I expressed my concerns about the implementation of the Supplementary Health Benefit Policy and suggested that it will create a new class of working poor: the medically bankrupted. It’s eminently clear that Cabinet must be provided with a few real life examples of the effect this policy will have on our residents in order for them to understand the magnitude of the problems that this policy will cause.

So the first example: An MLA who, of course, has third-party insurance, similar to all GNWT employees, and who needs a drug to treat a specific...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Health and Social Services.

The items listed below are suggestions gathered from Members and NWT residents for efficiencies or alternate funding of the proposed changes to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program

Will the Minister provide me with a list which shows the pros and cons of each suggestion and that provides the ranking given to each option by the Department of Health and Social Services or the Cabinet?

increase income tax;

devise a form of government-assisted, third-party insurance for low income families;

use graduating...

I guess I don’t really have a response to that and I’ll just leave it at that. I think we could argue the philosophy in that article, on the comparisons in the article, for quite some time.

I need to ask the Minister, again, I think I’ve asked this before but there are any number of different ways that this coverage of people who are not currently covered could get funded. I want to know from the Minister why that hard work and that analysis was not done. There was hard work required to find the different way to do it that didn’t marginalize certain people and I don’t believe that’s been done...