Alfred Moses

With the gay-straight alliances in the two communities that the Member has brought up, we have to do a school visit with those two schools. I will make it a point that when I do go to those schools for a school visit, that we will sit down with the group and see what we can do as a territorial initiative and have them on board to initiate that and be territory-wide leaders, not just in the communities but for the whole Northwest Territories. I look forward to working with them on that. I will get the department to look into that, and once we get a chance, we will do a school visit and look at...

Yes. As the Member does know, the Safe and Caring Schools Act is new. It is something that was brought forth in the 17th Assembly, and I had the honour to sign off on it earlier in this term. We also have a territorial school code of conduct within this act. The territorial school code of conduct states that it is the responsibility and the right of the school communities to promote equity and fair treatment of one’s self and others. It also states that the school community is to refrain from discriminating against others on the basis of race, colour, ancestry, nationality, ethnic origin...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s always good to recognize good friends and success stories in the Northwest Territories. With that said, I would like to recognize Jozef and Lesa Carnogursky, have been good friends and have been very successful in their lives and what they do for residents of Inuvik and the region and throughout the North as well. I’d also like to recognize James and Maureen. I went to school with their kids, and they’re all doing really well as well. Of course as mentioned here, the delegates for the United States Riding States Leaders. This is the first time they’ve been to...

In earlier questions about the gay-straight alliances that are happening in Mackenzie Mountain School and St. Pat’s, I think that is a great avenue to get attention on this area to the communities. I said they could actually be the leads right throughout the Northwest Territories. I do look forward to meeting the two groups and, be they willing, look at how we can try to develop something territorially. Outside of the school, that is very hard to regulate. We are looking at ways that we can do it on the school grounds. Outside, inside the communities, is always something tough. When we did the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Under the Safe and Caring Schools Act, we have also made sure that, in the definition, we are getting community support as well. In terms of supporting, I don’t have any financial resources being put forth. That is something we can definitely look at. I did make a commitment to my department to look at the two groups here, the groups here in Yellowknife, and work with them in terms of developing these policies or getting input into the safe and caring schools regulations when the plans come out as well. We will definitely reach out and see what kind of work we can do...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize two of our Pages here today from the Inuvik Boot Lake riding, Ms. Katelynn Crocker as well as Ms. Nicole Verbonac. I appreciate all the hard work that you did over this past week, and I hope you enjoyed your experience paging for Members of the 18th Legislative Assembly. As always, it’s a pleasure to recognize Mr. Tony Whitford. Every time you come to the House, it’s great to see you and your family. Everyone else in the gallery, welcome. Thank you.

The department, along with Public Works and Services, will develop safe work plans and safety plans with accordance to the WSCC guidelines and approval. As I mentioned, we want to try to do this in the proper way. It’ll be a phased-in approach and we’ll try to do it with the least disruption to the students and the staff and try to adjust the noise issues as we are developing these safe plans on the building of the school.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker and yes, some of the 12 are doing in Moose Kerr School and in our other communities and we’re looking at the capital planning studies for providing facilities and safe facilities for students. We want to make sure that we’re doing it in the right way in terms of safety and environmental protections, so yes, the same commitment. We’ll work with the school and the community and with Public Works and Services to ensure that we’re doing this in the proper way it’s supposed to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes and unfortunately, we are in session nearing the end of the school year, but I’ve made a commitment to try to get out to all the schools, all the communities over the course of my term and I will commit to going into Trout Lake, working with the community, see how we can get this school built in the best possible way and you will bring staff in there.

I thought the Member had asked if I was going to be willing to work with PWS and I did answer that one, and of course, our staff will go into the community and work with the community and the school board. We’ll get our superintendent in there. I’m also willing to make a commitment to go into the community and see for myself and work with Public Works and Services moving forward. Unfortunately, as the Member had stated in his preamble to the questions, space is an issue. We will be doing a phased-in approach when we’re working, making the renovations and the work that needs to be done while...