Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the eligibility is those individuals have to claim household income, who are all living in the house, and sometimes there is a denial in subsidy due to the fact that some individuals are working within the household. They are making fair enough money that can go towards the fuel, as well, to heat the residence. Those are some of the examples, but it is all based on household income of the elders who are living in the residence.

Each individual would have to claim what they are making. It is not only our program. There is Housing and other programs that are based on...

Mr. Speaker, part of the plan is to introduce the safe schools plan completed and implemented at the beginning of the 2013 school year. That is the overall plan, so we are moving forward on that.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since the motion was brought forward to this House, my department has been working on various other jurisdictions to identify, or do a complete review of the anti-bullying legislation in other jurisdictions, as well, and developing a safe school proposal, which will be developed, and implementation of a safe school plan as well. Those are the areas that my department has taken on the initiative.

There are two major projects or pieces of proposals that will be introduced in the spring session. In the spring 2013 session we want to introduce the bill and also, at the same time...

Mr. Speaker, I need to confirm with my department on the specific policy on donations. If it’s part of the clawback, I will need to get back to the Members on that specifically. I do not want to give an answer now. It may be a question down the road. I want to verify that with my department first, prior to giving the answer.

I’ll definitely provide the detailed information of the committee that’s been established. To date we do have three communities that are working towards implementing the ASA. I’ll provide that detailed information to the Members.

Again, this money is flowed through the Beaufort-Delta Board of Education, and the funding that flows through would consist of various activities that the committee can access, as well, through the Beaufort-Delta Board of Education. Also, working closely with my staff that deal with ASA, we are currently discussing that. At the current stage we’re establishing an ASA steering committee to deal with these matters because we want to support the local ASA committees, such as Inuvik. They are part of the school system and others that take on the responsibility on a volunteer basis. So we need to...

Part of the changes that we make from time to time are reflecting on high cost of fuel or high cost of, let’s say, food in the community. With respect to this seniors home heating subsidy, there is an increase in the cost of heating, the fuel. That will reflect on the zoning which we did a couple of years back. We increased the $10,000 on each zoning. From time to time we will be making those changes. I appreciate the Member referring to this important piece of work that we will continue to monitor. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we did add the zoning, I believe, a couple of years back, by $10,000. We are always exploring areas that we need to improve our programming. I did instruct my department to look at some options to deal with those individuals, children or grandchildren that are living with their grandparents, how we can remedy the situation so they can be eligible for home heating subsidy. We are exploring those areas. I believe we are at the final stages of going through those options. I will be presenting that to the Members once that is available.

There will be various consultations that will take place with the stakeholders, prior to putting forward the legislation to addressing the bullying. From December 2012 until January 2013, the consultation will take place, and they will consist of, of course, Regular Members, their input, and also those involved within the education field. The NWTTA, divisional education councils, district education authorities, superintendents, principals, teachers, the parents, and also those parents, students and Members of the Legislative Assembly, Corrections Division, Justice, RCMP. A variety of...

The legislation can set a clear definition on this particular anti-bullying legislation and mandate the need for policies and training. Also, ground involvement of effective resources is required to address the complex issue of generating safe schools in the NWT to meet the challenge of both legislation and comprehensive territorial-wide to prevent bullying in the NWT schools are needed. Both pieces are needed as we move forward on a comprehensive plan that we are currently working on. We are moving forward on those two initiatives.