Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you. In favour.

Yes, no, thanks, Madam Chair. I guess lastly, I will have a number of comments that I'm going to make about the adequacy of the evacuation transport financial assistance program, whatever it's called, and the fairness and adequacy of that as well as some other supports that I think are needed as some of the other Members alluded to, but I thought that it was best to make those sorts of comments at second reading of the supplementary appropriation bill that should happen later today.

But I do want to thank my Cabinet colleagues for the work because I know that they are working very hard on all...

Thanks, Madam Chair. Can we anticipate seeing another supplementary appropriation, then, for the last sitting of this Assembly, scheduled for late September, that would perhaps deal with the firefighting issue but also support financial support for evacuation, you know, other costs associated with the emergency that's, you know, presently throughout the Northwest Territories. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Sorry, Mr. Speaker, I'm not finished yet. So I again owe to my constituents and the public to explain how I'm going to vote on this one. I'm very concerned that the supplementary reserve will be exceeded on this very first sup for 20232024 on the operations side, and I believe that there's going to be lots more spending required as a result of the fires and floods. So I don't think that this is good financial management, especially in relation to the climate emergency and that we have to have a much larger supplementary reserve in the future like we did two years ago where it was $65 million.

S...

Merci, Madame la Presidente. I move that the chair rise and report progress. Mahsi.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister again for that. It's helpful to get this information out there. It's not clear, though, how colleges and universities that still base their entry requirements on percentage grades will treat NWT students applying for admission when we start to switch to a proficiency scale. So it's also not clear how this proficiency scale grading will impact scholarships and it's not clear how parents are going to be informed about the new assessment scale either.

So can the Minister tell us what implementation measures ECE has developed to make sure...

Merci, Monsieur le President. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Teachers need time and training to roll out the new and adjusted BC curriculum here in the Northwest Territories. Teachers may be expected to complete five 2hour courses over the summer. Apparently, these courses aren't ready yet. This information was found on social media, not in formal announcement from the department or their education authorities. So can the Minister tell us when the training materials will be ready and delivered to teachers? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I know I'm the only thing that stands between the Members and their lunch but I do owe it to my constituents and the public to explain how I'm going to vote on this bill.

This bill, what it does or what happened, of course, is that about 50 percent of the capital spending for 20222023 was not spent. The authorized capital was not spent. So what this does would increase capital spending by about $125 million pushing it to levels higher than five of the last six years and so the over budgeting that's happening here for capital, I can't support this. What it does is...

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thanks the Minister again for that. It's really helpful to get this information out there because clearly there's different views out there or whatever. So professional teachers, though, on the frontline are telling me that they're not ready for this rollout and they're not prepared.

So how is the Minister going to act now to address these concerns and determine whether an implementation delay on the new BC curriculum is needed? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the Minister for that. It's very helpful to get this information on the record and out there.

Another issue is that the department says transition must happen before the contract with Alberta Education ends for the administration of diploma exams. But, Mr. Speaker, this really shouldn't matter. Students did not write diploma exams while learning remotely during the pandemic. So will the Minister look at revising the timeline for this exam's requirement or eliminate it? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.