Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I referenced that the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 is deciding its fate this Thursday on the findings of a commissioned in-house facilities report cleverly orchestrated by the GNWT.

Fact 1: The department has clearly passed on its legal obligation to deal with a constitutional obligation on the back of YK1 board trustees to modify their school programs and/or decommission one of their schools.

Fact 2: Some say GNWT’s actions border on exploitation. Bureaucracy defends this is merely good housekeeping.

My questions today are for the Minister of...

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The motion is on the floor and it just being distributed. The motion is in order. To the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The GNWT is a whale amongst its minnows. That’s right, that is exactly how I would describe the current relationship the Department of Education has with its school boards, its DECs and DEAs in the NWT.

If the recent botched funding model for Junior Kindergarten doesn’t have you spinning your head by now, then brace for impact as things are going to get a whole lot worse. I am about to add another layer of bureaucratic bullying on how this department is cunningly avoiding its legal obligation to the court-ordered expansion of one of its francophone schools.

While we...

To the motion.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. General comments. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Continuing on with general comments, I have Mr. Nadli.

Thank you. I can provide that to the Minister if he’d like. The Minister, on October 27th, indicated that contractors that work with the GNWT have a safety program when on site, yet we do not have a contractor management system to support this. In fact, when I asked around, it appears that the main contractor questionnaire we most often use refers that if one is in good standing with WSCC. To be honest, this really only means that you don’t owe any money to the WSCC.

So again, can the Minister inform the House, is being in good standing with WSCC the default safety requirement to work for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. A key component in evaluating our Ledge Safety Policy is the Safe Advantage program administered by WSCC. The GNWT is no different than any other organization or company in the Northwest Territories. That is it must abide by the same rules and laws. On October 27, 2014, I spoke about this government lacking a safety culture. So I’d like to pick up where I left off to the Minister of Human Resources for some follow-up questions.

As we are aware, this government in the last couple of years faced some very stiff fines in failing a WSCC Safe Advantage...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Range Lake North School has been a neighbourhood K to 8 school of utilization well over 80 percent for many years, and the options before the school and the parents are now significant, changes that I know are flat out not acceptable.

Can the Minister assure the people of Range Lake and the parents that send their kids to Range Lake North School that he will see that status quo remains?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Committee Report 7-17(5), Report on the Development of the Economic Opportunities and Mineral Development Strategies, and I would like to report progress with two motions being adopted and that Committee Report 7-17(5) is concluded. Mr. Speaker, I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.