Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wish to report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Tabled Document 115-17(5), Northwest Territories Capital Estimates 2015-2016.

Thanks to the Minister. I think it’s really an important topic and I think it’s probably a much bigger issue in Nunavut than it is here in the NWT, but we definitely have our problems here.

Another recommendation that was from this report talked about food programs for breakfast, school breakfast programs. My brain is still dead from yesterday, I guess. Breakfast programs in schools is something which the GNWT has put some emphasis on. I believe it is one of the things that is being considered by the Anti-Poverty Strategy Working Group.

I’d like to know from the Minister if that is indeed...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister responsible for the Anti-Poverty Strategy. I mentioned in my statement that I would be asking him for an update. That’s my first question.

Can the Minister advise where we’re at in terms of our Anti-Poverty Strategy and Action Plan, what we are doing, what we have done and what we are doing? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Premier. I would like to ask the Premier a few questions following up on the acceptance of all the devolution legislation that we passed, I guess that we had to accept in the spring. I’d like to, first of all, ask the Premier, in the previous session, and certainly when we were discussing devolution, there was commitment from the Premier that there would be consultation on the devolution legislation that we inherited from the federal government and the three bills that we put forward on our own.

I’d like to ask the Minister...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Like my colleague Mr. Bouchard, today is an opportunity for me to say thank you to all the firefighters who kept us safe this summer, those who kept us safe during one of the worst fire seasons in over 30 years. I join many, many other NWT residents in thanking firefighters, firefighters from the NWT, from across Canada, and from our northern neighbours, Yukon and Alaska, who battled the hundreds of fires that burned in our territory this past summer, especially in the North and South Slave.

Firefighters are on call for us 24/7, ready and willing to do dangerous work if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t agree with the Premier that no response means that everybody’s happy. I think there’s been a huge lack of publicity about this. I think there also has been an ignoring of the fact that Regular Members and Cabinet wanted to work together on this and that hasn’t happened.

So again I would like to ask the Premier – he’s saying that maybe something will happen – if he will commit to working with the Standing Committee on Priorities and Planning to develop a consultation plan so that residents will have a reasonable and concrete input into devolution legislation...

Thanks to the Premier for that information. Five hundred hits could simply indicate that somebody’s wondering what’s behind that. I’m a little dismayed that there hasn’t been much response, but then responding to complex legislation on a website is not something that’s easily done.

At one point, several times, I think, in our discussions there was a commitment from the government and from the Premier that Regular Members would be involved in consultations with residents around this devolution legislation. I’d like to ask the Premier, what are the future plans for consultation with residents on...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too would like to welcome the executive of the Union of Northern Workers who are here for their convention, and I wish them well in their convention in the next couple of days.

I specifically want to recognize two constituents of Frame Lake, Mr. Ivan Landry, who is the regional vice-president Kimberlite; and Ms. Miriam Gordon, who is equity vice-president for the UNW. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wish to report progress.

---Carried