Daryl Dolynny

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A number of months ago this House took a stance on bullying. We wore the colours, we each spoke passionately on why we needed to make a stand against bullying, and the department listened. Shortly thereafter, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment joined Regular Members in a promise to come forward with legislation to address this issue for the latter part of 2013.

So why am I bringing this up again? Well, it seems that a young BC teenager’s life has been taken away and the world has gone viral once again. The question of why this happened is swirling around...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I appreciate the fact that the Stats Bureau plays a key role in this, but I guess further to that it looks like there’s a fixed amount of money which is involved. I’m assuming that that fixed amount of money is…(inaudible)…shared accordingly to formula funding changes. Now, has the percentage of formula, have they changed in the last year and are the forecasts factoring and the so-called stats differential? Can we get a bit of an idea of the breakdown?

Let’s pick the Sahtu area for example. Again, are we seeing those fundamentals being affected by funding...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome to the finance delegation here today in the committee. I do commend the department for a prudent fiscal strategy in terms of tightening the belt for the upcoming year. I do have some concerns in areas such as health. Those are areas in which we’ve got to be a little bit more careful in terms of the term “tightening.”

I think health is one of those areas where you have to make investments ongoing, otherwise you fall behind, I guess, the total plan of healing people. Making the proper investments in the community in terms of all types of infrastructure, I think...

The Minister indicated a safe schools plan. I guess the question we should ask is: When will this be implemented? Are we seeing this early on in 2013 or in the latter part of 2013?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today, in my Member’s statement, I talked about anti-bullying legislation. It’s unfortunate that tragedies usually put a lens on subjects such as this. I think the public and also Members need to be reassured that we’re working towards good legislation.

My question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: Maybe giving us an update, what’s happening in the department as we’re preparing for this anti-bullying legislation for the Northwest Territories?

Thank you. I do appreciate the Minister for clarification here. I’ll leave it at that, Madam Chair, and let other colleagues dial in. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome again here to the witness table. As I indicated in my opening comments or general comments, and I know that has been discussed in committee format, the demographics and the population changes that we’re seeing in the territory are shifting. As resources or work occurs, people move to those areas. We know the Sahtu is going to be greatly influenced by many oil projects here in the coming year and we see that the funding formula for communities is not changing with what we think is population change. This has also been spoken to, I believe, as well, with the NWT...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is all very good information, and I think many parents, many students out there are looking forward to seeing this come forward. As the department is preparing the final steps, the final journey, so to speak, and the consulting piece and where amendments are going to be taking place, who is going to be invited to the table to be doing this in the consulting phase, and will Members have an opportunity to be a participant?

I do appreciate the Minister’s offering. In fact, we’ve already had the offer within the backrooms of our offices. I’m trying to get this information out into the public, and the only way I can do that is when I’m asking forthright questions, and I’m asking the Minister to be forthright back.

I understand what the amount is today. But I think it’s because we’ve brought some light onto the subject a couple months ago and now we’re getting current, and I can’t say that number out loud, because that number’s not public yet, and that’s a hard thing for me to ask. I’m asking the question what that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I should reiterate my question a bit better here, I guess. That was the amount in June that was owed to us that was over six months old; not the total amount but what was six months or older in June of this calendar year. When this issue is brought forward in terms of high debts of finance cost to this government.