Kevin A. Menicoche

If the Minister has got the detail of which communities are being focused for increasing their library service, I would certainly like to hear that, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. There’s certainly lots of activity under this description here, but I think where I’ll begin first is in the opening comments. I didn’t have a chance to raise with the Minister that the access to a public library is still high on the agenda for residents of Fort Simpson, and I will continue to pursue it and find a resolution about how to house the one in Fort Simpson to make it more than a resource centre and re-establish it as a full library. I do see an increase in the public library service line item by about $500,000. Maybe if I can get the Minister to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just with the regional area offices positions, I know that legislatively the Minister did have to increase some positions, but I don’t know if I heard an adequate response why the positions went down in the regions though.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. For sure the parents have been raising money. I’m going to use $10,000 as an estimate. They’ve been working very hard, the parents, the children, the teachers. I’d like to ask the Minister to acknowledge that, that they have been working hard and they will be looking for matching funds.

That’s exactly what the parents are looking for, that the Minister is willing to work with the community, because now it’s a community-based organization; the work with the DEA, the Dehcho Divisional Education Council as well. Once the collaboration continues, will the Education, Culture and Employment Minister be contributing to the Bompas Elementary School playground initiative?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Last October at a public meeting in Fort Simpson with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment in attendance, parents raised concerns about Bompas Elementary School playground. The old playground was pressure-treated wood and had to be removed for safety reasons. The play area designated for kindergarten and grade 1 children is equipped, but the area designated for grade 2 and 3 is empty. The area designated for grade 4, 5 and 6 has only a few structures that are in rough shape. This is a bad situation.

As we all know, the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to reflect on some of the issues I’ve been working on and have been raising with the Minister over time and I think the most recent was in my Member’s statement today where I was talking about the Bompus Elementary playground and the efforts of the parents group to raise funds for it. I think the department really went out of their way when they assisted Fort Liard enough to extend that over to Fort Simpson and do what they can there to replace that playground, because it is pretty sad when I think this is almost the second year for those children...

I think the Minister made a soft commitment here and the parents group are looking for something stronger. They thought that he had said something stronger back in the October meeting. That’s the type of commitment that I’m looking for here today, and the parents group is really looking forward to the Minister helping out with this very important issue for the children in Fort Simpson.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment follow-up questions from my Member’s statement on the lack of playground equipment over at the Bompas Elementary School in Fort Simpson. The parents group has been fundraising. The Minister was in Fort Simpson. We spoke to the group. I believe there was a commitment at that time by the Minister to the parents group to say that he would assist in purchasing the playground equipment. Will the Minister be considering that?

I think the Minister is on the right track. He does have to get out to the communities, get to the colleges, get to the community education programs and speak to the students and parents. I believe that there should be a strong communication plan when that work begins, so I’d like to ask the Minister what kind of communication strategy will they have in place before they begin their consultations and review of the SFA. Thank you.