Bob Bromley

Thank you to the Minister for that. I’ll look forward to those. I’d like to just move to Aurora College now. That’s a big figure there, adult and post-secondary education, $37 million. I know $33 million or $34 million is for Aurora College.

I’m trying to understand how it is that Aurora College has now developed an ongoing and running surplus of $9 million. I’m trying to read the annual reports. It looks like they’ve overspent in a number of years. As an arm’s length they get granted more money and then go and spend all of that and it builds up as surplus and now it’s running at about $9...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister for Health and Social Services, in recognition of the Social Workers Month here. I would like to ask, recognizing the importance of the work that these workers do, what supports are in place? Frequently our workers, I know, deal with sad and sometimes traumatic situations, and that can take quite a toll on people and families, and people might even take it home and the consequences can disperse out. So, what supports do we have in place for this particular group of workers who have their own unique issues and require our support...

Thanks, Madam Chair. I guess the significant thing to me is that the starting place, the amount per student doesn’t change each year. So they start over again with a clean slate. So I appreciate that explanation. I think I’m getting there. I’m starting to get there, I think, according to the Minister’s staff.

I just had a question on the education renewal. I heard in a response yesterday that the education renewal includes a number of initiatives, which are one or two-year pilots, and I heard that many education renewal initiatives are one or two-year pilots. Can I get an idea of what those...

Just moving on to education operations and development, let’s see if I can get through this smoke and mirrors here too. Just on student achievement, obviously, the slight rise. I think the deputy minister had it right. One data point does not make a trend. What other monitoring do we do on student achievement and do we have other sources of information other than the EDI?

Thank you for those details. Of course, I’m horrified to see more iPads out there. I know that’s going to hurt us more than it helps us. I still haven’t had an explanation. Was this reallocated from inside the early development and learning program? Have they taken the early development and learning program dollars and reallocated them to early development and learning programs?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that response. It’s good to learn a little bit about that. I guess I would just ask, are they physically in the museum and is that taking up space and is there a budget allocation to the museum to help support that, or is it more a virtual administration by the museum staff?

I can confirm that I’ve heard the same thing from Dechinta. They really appreciate the Minister’s support. I think it’s been critical for their work to date. They’re very anxious to move onwards and work with the Minister for that extra support.

In fact, I’d say Dechinta has proven itself to be cost effective. The students love it and First Nations support it. It can support local economies, and of course, Dechinta supports the communities it works out of. Everyone associated with the Dechinta model wins.

But GNWT recognition of them as an accredited educational institution and financial...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that commitment. In fact, it’s because jurisdictions are not doing the testing that the industry now does it because they’re liable, of course.

Let me see if I can get this right. There is a portable, high quality X-ray florescence, XRF, high count rate DELTA Premium heavy metal analyzer available that can answer the Minister’s needs. It provides a response on what the contaminant load is within a few minutes at 95 percent accuracy. It’s available from Vancouver for $40,000 U.S., and it takes four to six weeks to be on site. Now, we would need this in the...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to ask the Minister, first of all, I know he’s been a great supporter of the Dechinta teaching and learning institution. Does that show up on this page under grants and contributions? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. It sounds like he heard my Member’s statement. I appreciate that. We have a challenge here and I’m just wondering what the Minister’s early thinking is on handling it, given that these things need to be in place in the communities, available in the communities and so on. Thank goodness it’s an electronic age, I guess. By May 1st, that’s about seven weeks from now. Is this doable, and if it isn’t, how will the Minister handle that situation? Will there be a phase-in period or something? Thank you.