Oh, thank you. I think it’s a fine example of government looking for a way to get things done. I think the school board did a lot in that regard, as well, but I do want to thank the department and department officials for making that happen.
I think it’s a step in the right direction, looking at the PTR again, and we’re lowering that from 16 to 15. That’s a good thing.
The Arts Strategy: I remember the first Arts Strategy, and this one seems to be coming with a little bit of money attached to it, so that’s a good thing. Again, I think what needs to happen with funding that’s going into the arts…. Where it’s at all possible, I’d like to see the department include Regular Members in discussions regarding where the best use of funds would be and how to slice that pie up. It’s not a tremendous number of dollars, but I think if it’s spent in the right areas, it could have a huge impact.
I’m concerned over a few things, and I guess the first one that concerns me is the cuts to the wage subsidy programs, and that’s $1.3 million. Instead of just doing away with the wage subsidy program, I think what should happen is we should look at targeting that money into segments of our economy that need some help. That’s something I think that should have been given some thought. I’m thinking specifically about child care workers, tourism, service industry, businesses and folks who are having a tough time keeping employees. I think we could do a better job of targeting that money instead of just cutting it altogether and saying the economy is red hot. It might be, in some cases. Big business might be doing okay, but small businesses are suffering; they’re having a tough time finding employees. If they could pay their employees a little bit more and get some people in the door and train them and have a wage subsidy
program to fall back on, I think that might be a good thing, Mr. Chairman.
Also, the Housing Corporation, in transferring the administration of social housing back to the Housing Corporation, I think that is something…. The last I heard, you were going out and doing some work, trying to identify what the issues were and were going to come back to Members. But it’s been a long time, and I think you’ve heard it a number of times from Members that we want it back at the Housing Corporation. I’m not sure what you could tell me that could make me change my mind. But again, I’m not sure where that is and why we’re taking so long to try to figure out that it was the wrong decision to make in the first place. I’m not quite sure why we’re taking so long.
I’m also concerned about the student child care subsidy as well. I know there might not have been as big an uptake on that program as the department would have wanted, but if it’s designed specifically for people who are attending post-secondary studies in the Northwest Territories, I think it loses a bit. I could see us using that daycare subsidy for students, even if they’re going back to high school, because sometimes young people will get pregnant in high school and have children in high school. In order for them to go back to high school, I think we should make that program available to those individuals as well. So instead of cutting the program, I think we probably should look at the parameters and open it up a bit and then maybe see if there’s a need to cut it. I do have constituents that access that pot of funding, and I’d hate to see it go. I think it’s something we should have there.
I spoke about this before, Mr. Chairman: the need for more physical education in our schools and the need to get children more physically active. There are schools here in Yellowknife where I’m concerned that they’re not getting enough time in the gymnasium. There’s a school without a gymnasium, and that’s problematic for me. We should be ensuring every school built in the Northwest Territories has a gymnasium — that should be a policy that we live by — and we should be getting more than an hour or an hour and a half a week in the gym if you’re in elementary school. I know there could be more funding becoming available to schools, with the lowering of the PTR, and there might be some opportunities for hiring additional staff at the school level. I just think there’s not enough time spent in the gym.
That was about it for my general comments, and I’ll have a number of questions as we go through the details. Mahsi.