Robert Hawkins

When can Members see a copy of that particular policy and initiative that I’ve referred to, which is the gender-based analysis? When can the public get a chance to have a look at it and see it implemented into government policy?

Thank you. I am pleased to hear the Minister’s comment there. I’m just trying to get a sense to if your power increases by 20 percent, so you’ve now added 100 additional kilowatts onto your monthly bill, and if you’re paying six cents per kilowatt as a tenant, you’re paying $6 extra that month, now what’s to motivate them and what does the Housing Corp do? I hear what the Minister is saying, that if they’re paying outrageous prices for power, they would be motivated to use less power, but if somebody increased their power consumption by 20 percent, it would only be $6. How would that be an...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to talk about gender-based analysis. Promoting the equality of men and women in our society and government is a good thing. Our current Premier has promised policy action on this particular matter. A number of my constituents were initially very excited about the news that this government was going to do something, but yet actions seem to have fizzled.

We all know that the GNWT policy Equality of Men and Women in the NWT is 23 years old, Mr. Speaker. Recommendations to update it were promised by this Premier back in 2009 and 2010 budget fiscal years...

I guess as a general policy do the tenants pay the electrical power, the heating fuel or the water and sanitation bills? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, specific to page 5-58, I was looking at the numbers here. I was just trying to get a sense as to programming value and make sense of it. If I look at electrical power, we go in the actuals of 2009-10 budget year of $6.5 million but it drops. We will call it relatively stable for the 2010-11 to the 2011-12 year. I am just trying to get a sense of how power has gone up, everything has gone up, but I am just trying to follow why the numbers haven’t really changed much. It just seems as if they don’t fluctuate the way everyone else’s house is going up. My power bill has skyrocketed...

Mr. Chairman, is there a departmental break-even point where statistical average bank on that... By way of example, 90 percent of rent recovery is where it provides enough money for operations and maintenance of that LHO, or is there another number targeted? More specifically, what is the target for break-even point? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, on these particular LHOs -- and I wish to, of course, thank the Minister for willing to provide that information -- does it come with an accompanying deficit elimination plan of any sort to address that 24 percent shortfall? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister is correct that school boards can divert funding to specific education programs that they feel that obviously fall under the Education Act or a good stewardship of the money, et cetera, under their board guidance, but, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be prepared to work towards developing a pilot program that can help develop or foster these junior kindergarten programs to ensure that early education is enshrined in our childhood development very early on and demonstrates the commitment of the government to ensuring kids have a great start in education...

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have to educate the Minister on the facts that kindergarten wasn’t once funded and then it was only funded half time, and as we all know now, it is funded full time, Mr. Speaker, thanks to past Education Ministers.

Mr. Speaker, is it the intent of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to work towards supporting junior kindergarten? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That’s not quite correct because the Education Act says that students aren’t funded unless they’re age five by the end of the school year. They are not counted under funding per basis. The issue is drawing in early children who can use the literacy and numeracy development over the long haul on those early years. Would the Minister look at and consider the position and proposal that I’m putting forward, which is redefining the act or redefining the mandate of the department that can provide junior kindergarten by accepting those students as students and funding them?