Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize a constituent and a representative from the Union of Northern Workers, Barb Wyness, who is the public relations and research officer, up there in the gallery behind me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Assembly embarks on budget debate and discussion following the Minister’s address, I want to use my statement today to address constituents’ concerns. I fervently hope that the 2010-2011 budget addresses these concerns.

Firstly, the Deh Cho Bridge is still a concern. It’s front and centre to us in the Assembly, but surprisingly many of the public are unaware that construction is steaming ahead. My constituents want to know how the change in general contractor will impact this project. They want to know if their tax dollars will be needed to get the project to...

I want to thank the Minister for the answer, but I think the Minister also knows that the Standing Committee on Social Programs has been intimately involved in this particular issue over the last year and remains involved and wants to be involved. I think it wouldn’t have been a disservice to the committee if... It was a disservice that we didn’t get the information, but I think the Minister should have given the information to committee who would have taken that information and studied it on their own.

I look forward to the response from the working group, but I would have rather had the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Health and Social Services and I’d like to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask some questions with regards to the Supplementary Health Benefits Program potential changes.

As I mentioned in my statement, there’s been an obvious lack of information from the Minister or from the department regarding this very controversial issue, which we dealt with about a year ago. So at this point I’d like to ask the Minister when we can expect some information from her department in regard to the Proposals for Change and what...

Thank you. I accept that answer from the Minister, but my concern is not with a problem where the client has not provided all the information that’s required for the officer to make a decision or to approve the payment. My concern is when it’s a system problem or when it happens to be a staff error, which, heaven knows, unfortunately occurs. At no fault of the client, some of them have had to wait until well past the 15th of the month in order to get their monthly income support payment. In my mind, that’s not acceptable. So I’d like to ask the Minister what date, when during a month should a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in his capacity as the Minister responsible for income support programs.

I think everybody in this room is aware that we’ve recently implemented a new financial system and I think we’re probably all aware that implementation of software generally causes problems, as does any programming change; there are bugs to be worked out and so on. My constituents have, unfortunately, experienced the effect of some of those bugs from the system. So I’d like to ask the Minister what has been the...

Twice now I’ve heard the Minister say that we issue cheques. I understand that cheques are mailed out, that people can’t go and pick up their cheques. I have a bit of a difficulty with two things: one, that somebody has to wait for a cheque to be mailed -- goodness knows Canada Post is not the most efficient organization in the world -- and the other is that we have to issue cheques. So one way to speed up payments to clients, in my estimate, is to allow for electronic direct deposit to a client’s bank account. I know that doesn’t work in all communities, but is this something, can the...

Thanks to the Minister for that answer and I appreciate that the department is working their way through the problems. But when a problem does occur, when an income support payment to a client is delayed, I’d like to know whether or not the department has protocols or policies in place to help the staff work their way through a particular delayed payment. To me the most important thing is to ensure that the clients get their monthly income support payment as soon as possible. So does there exist something within the department protocols or policies that the staff can use to ensure that clients...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s nice to be welcomed back to the House and it’s nice to see all Members here ready and eager to get back to work.

Today, January 27th, is Family Literacy Day. Today, and all this week all over the Territory, communities, schools and families are engaged in activities to celebrate and highlight literacy.

One of this Assembly’s goals is healthy, educated people. But our priorities, unfortunately, do not mention literacy; the value of which is well documented and irrefutable. Literacy, which includes numeracy skills, is necessary for work, for learning and for life in...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The ink has barely dried on the capital budget for 2010-2011. It was just yesterday we passed Bill 6, but I am thinking ahead to the next capital budget and where we should place our emphasis and dollars in the 2011-12 infrastructure budget.

It has been mentioned several times by Members during this sitting and it has been mentioned in previous sessions as well, but it bears repeating. This government, this Assembly, must make it a priority to establish cell phone service in all of our NWT communities.

---Applause

Mr. Menicoche has spoken of the Deh Cho Trail as a possible...