Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I bring this motion forward because I believe it is a very serious matter of public safety and I believe it’s a situation that needs to be corrected. Distracted driving is said to be an unreported traffic safety problem and I believe that statement as well.

I made a statement two weeks ago and I said that distracting driving can be many things: eating, drinking, changing a CD, using portable video games or DVD players, fiddling with radio dials, talking to a passenger, experiencing emotional distress, minding children, personal grooming, looking at...

The Minister’s answer points out two things for me; one is that this Assembly, this government has little input, can provide little direction to the NTPC board and the Minister referenced that he’s not really aware of what the board has done in this particular instance. I’ve totally lost the other one out of my head, so I will go on to my next question and that is, to the Minister: how will the replacement of the Bluefish hydro dam be funded? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for that answer. I guess I was referring and I needed to be a little more explicit, but for extraordinary expenditures where you have an unforeseen capital cost or an unforeseen expenditure of a fairly large nature, what kind of planning goes in place for those sorts of things? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s my pleasure to recognize a hardworking member of the Water Strategy group, a constituent, Judy McLinton who’s up behind me somewhere. I’d also like to recognize two of the Pages who have been working so hard on our behalf over the last three weeks, Aimee Yurris and Michael Callahan, who are constituents as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement.

---Unanimous consent granted.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, November 5, 2009, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, November 5, 2009, it shall be adjourned until Wednesday, January 27, 2010; and further, that any time prior to January 27, 2010, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and the Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the commitment from the Minister to look into this. It’s my understanding that clients very often have to leave the office without ever having talked to a CSO when their own is away, so there’s something wrong with the system.

Lastly, it suggests to me, from the experiences that I’ve heard about, that there are a few basic office procedures which aren’t being followed or aren’t evident from within the office. I come from a service background myself, so I find it hard to understand why there’s no things like an e-mail out of office reply which is...

I thank the Minister for the answer. I guess if that is the policy that the receptionist or the secretary is there to provide assistance, perhaps the Minister ought to check in to see what actually happens and send in a few secret shoppers, so to speak. Because my information is that income support clients are not necessarily being assisted.

I mentioned in my statement that many clients have difficulty getting in touch with their client service officer, or their CSO, when they happen to be away. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of file backup or whatever. When a client’s officer is away...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you to my colleagues. There needs to be a major shift in the approach used by CSOs with YK income support clients, a focus on service to the client, not the CSO. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like today to discuss difficulties encountered by Yellowknife residents who happen to be clients of the Income Assistance Program.

Every MLA in here has heard from constituents regarding how hard it is to get decent customer service from Education, Culture and Employment’s Income Support Program. But in Yellowknife, because the office is located in the Greenstone Building, a very secure federal building, it presents special difficulties for clients who have to visit the office to meet with their client service officer, or CSO. The CSOs work in an...