Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are addressed to the Minister for Health and Social Services, and I have some further questions about the supplementary health benefit consultations programs. I discovered just within the last hour that it’s a bit of a moving target, this consultation paper that they have out there. I printed the document shortly before I came down to the House and went back up to check it again and discovered that the document had changed in the half an hour since I’d been down here. So I hope that it’s now finalized.

On page 14 or 15, depending upon...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. A question here. I guess I’m just a little bit surprised that we didn’t anticipate these increased costs. We’re almost $1.4 million in increased costs for benefit payments basically on behalf of our employees. Could I get an explanation from the Minister as to why we couldn’t foresee these increased costs? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to use my Member’s statement today to comment on a recent experience: the opportunity I had to travel to Vancouver to represent the NWT last Friday, NWT Day at the Olympics, and to take in the marvellous Olympic atmosphere in that city over the weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I stated that the money expended by our government for participation in the Olympics has been money well spent. Now, more than ever, I believe that to be correct. Friday morning, attending MLAs were given a tour of our Northern House and, as Members have heard before, it’s an impressive venue...

That seems like an awful lot of money, $2 million to implement the plan. Are we adding staff or is this contracted services that we’re using to put this plan in place? Can I have a bit of an explanation as to where this money is being spent? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is all I have.

Thanks to the Minister. I just wanted to comment on Mr. Ramsay’s comment. I do agree with him that things seem to be improved and the number of complaints coming forward to us as Members with regards to the HR department have been less, so I do think that the department is doing good work, I just wanted to echo Mr. Ramsay’s comment. Thanks, Mr. Chairman, I am done.

I guess I’m still not quite understanding the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who already has a disability and is employed. So are these people taking the training? Are they there as a resource to the people who are giving the training? Again, I don’t quite understand the value of providing sensitivity training to somebody who is already identified as a person with a disability. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think this is the proper place to talk about this; somebody can direct me to where the correct place is if this one is not the right place. So in the Minister’s opening remarks there’s a couple of comments, one on page 2 about an Advisory Committee on Employability, the next page then talks about a sensitivity training project and then about tracking and reporting on employees, and all of these have to do with employees with disabilities or in and around employees with disabilities and accommodating them and encouraging employment of them and so on. I think it’s well...

Thanks to the Minister. That information is all good. If for any reason all of that funding falls through, what are the plans for the department in terms of putting detachments in communities where there are none? Is there an outline or a timeline of a schedule that the Minister can advise us of? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Oh, look, I have 10 minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to provide a couple of comments on this supp. In general, I’ve mentioned this before, I am always amazed at the amount of money that Finance comes back for after we pass an initial budget and asks for more money, and the amount of money that is asked for kind of blows me away. In looking at the items that are in this particular supp, there certainly are some which I can agree with. I think the $1.8 million, no, sorry, it’s one point whatever, but the money that’s required for the Mackenzie Valley Highway project...