Kevin O'Reilly

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Everyone in this House, especially me, will be relieved to know that my questions are in English.

---Laughter

In my Member’s statement earlier today I talked about the court-mandated expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment confirm whether he has begun discussions with the Commission scolaire francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest and the [English translation not provided] for the expansion of the school?

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. I am just wondering, when the GNWT took over the jurisdiction post-devolution, did we make any efforts to get the water licence security for Cantung increased? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[Translation] Thank you. Transportation by buses or by taxis to have access to other areas is a waste of time which could be better spent in the classroom. Three classrooms are currently used at William McDonald School, but students don't want to go into that school as the culture and climate is very, very different. School enrolment at the primary level continues to grow, but the school is losing students in its high school program, which is in crisis. In 2015-16, nine of the 42 students left for other Yellowknife high schools. This is a vicious circle. At Ecole Allain St-Cyr students are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to move on. It's my understanding the GNWT may still hold the surface lease for the Cantung Mine. Can the Minister confirm that?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. My next question is: after we took over the jurisdiction for securities with devolution April 1, 2014, did the GNWT take any actions to transform that promissory note into a more secure form of financial assurance? If I could just talk a little bit about that. A promissory note is just a letter saying that somebody is going to promise to pay somebody some money. A much more secure form would be something called an irrevocable letter of credit, which is issued by a chartered bank. You give that to a bank and the bank pushes the cash across the counter. That's a much more...

I understand that a good part of the claims work is on the Yukon side, the mineral claims, but can the Minister send somebody out to the site to have a look at the Northwest Territories side to confirm that there are no liabilities and could he report that back to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sure. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair I did send a set of questions to the Minister on the special warrant, so, if I may, I'd like to proceed with some questions to the Minister and his witnesses. I'm wondering if the Minister can explain how the GNWT ended up owning the Mactung mineral property. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and once again I'd like to thank the Minister for his response. I look forward to working with him on this issue. With new leadership within the francophone community and within the department, I believe we're working hard towards a better working relationship in resolution of a number of these issues, including the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr. Can the Minister of Education commit to regularly reporting progress on the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr at each sitting of this House?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not really sure I have much else to say. I was trying to get it all within my time frame there. But once again, I do thank the Minister for his responses. I look forward to the information he has committed to provide. I'm glad he has agreed to have an inspector go out and check out the site, Mactung, for liabilities and I look forward to working with the Minister and this particular division to make sure that we have our devolution house in order to prevent this sort of thing from happening again. But I’m worried about what is going to happen with Prairie Creek as well...