Wendy Bisaro

I find it hard to believe that after three years in Cabinet the Minister didn’t realize that policies could be publicized. But there we are. It is what it is. I did note that the Minister mentioned fair and equitable two or three times in her response. I’d like to mention to the Minister that on March 24th of this year the Minister stated in a statement that the existing program is exclusive, unfair and inequitable. I’d like to know from the Minister how she considers that the proposed changes, which will put financial hardship on only some of our NWT residents, is going to make the new...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don’t get constituents all that often, but I’d like to recognize constituent Larry Adamson up there behind me. I, too, would like to recognize Mr. Ed Jeske, a former colleague of mine. Welcome.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Members of this House and the general public know that the Standing Committee on Social Programs is currently conducting a review of the Child and Family Services Act. I want to provide some of my comments on a very successful round of community consultations which committee undertook last month.

Over a period of three weeks, we visited 10 communities: Ndilo, Lutselk’e, Hay River, Fort Liard, Fort Simpson, Inuvik, Fort McPherson, Ulukhaktok, Tulita and Yellowknife. We held 10 town hall meetings. We had the opportunity to meet community leaders and discuss their...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As Members have heard, this Legislature played host last week to the first ever NWT Elders’ Parliament, and elders from across the Territory debated issues of great importance to them and also us. One of which was supplementary health benefits. I wish to table a motion that was adopted unanimously by the elders, a motion that recommends that existing supplementary health benefits coverage to seniors be continued. The motion also states that further consultation, study and revision is required before changes to seniors’ supplementary health benefits are implemented...

I’d like to thank the Minister for a lesson on information that I already know. I’d like to also state that we’re not in other parts of the country. We’re in the NWT and we have a policy which currently works in most cases. I agree totally that we need to cover the people who are not currently covered, but what we are doing is solving one problem and creating another. I need to discuss with the Minister some of the examples that my constituents have given to me of how they are going to be in financial hardship based on the information that we currently have. I don’t gather that it’s changing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this bill asks us to approve spending $165 million on the Deh Cho Bridge. It’s a yes or a no decision so it should be seen as a simple one, but as we heard through our discussions on Tuesday afternoon, it’s anything but simple. There are many, many questions from Regular Members which remain as yet unanswered, not because Ministers don’t want to provide the answers but because they can’t. They don’t have the information to pass on to us. Negotiations aren’t finalized so the status of the Bridge Corp is unknown. Deficiency tests aren’t completed so the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek unanimous consent to deal with the motion I gave notice of earlier today.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister for that. I already knew that number. She is referencing the number of people who are currently accessing the system. There are others who are not. I think it is incumbent upon the government to estimate those people who are not currently covered, who are not currently accessing the system so that we can then know what kind of costs we are incurring.

I would like to know from the Minister... We are going to have consultation. We are going to consider input, presumably. We are going to make a decision and draft a new program. I would like to ask the...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t think there was any reference to my question in there, but I will just kind of carry on.

To the Minister’s comment that I know where things are going, I know where the department wants us to think we are going. I know where the paper wants us to think we are going. I would like to say to the Minister we got some financial information the other day, some income threshold information, and I’d like to thank the Minister for that information that we got the other morning, but it presented almost more questions than it answered.

I would like to know from the Minister, because we...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize a couple of hardworking Pages today from the constituency of Frame Lake: brother and sister Stuart Hamre and Martha Hamre have been working very hard for us this week.