Robert Bouchard

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously, with this year’s firefighting season, I am definitely supporting the second part of this training of firefighters at the regional levels and including more and more of that for future years. We know over the next couple of years we are probably going to need more crews on the ground, and even the department mentioned it yesterday that we have these large craft that spread retardant but the actual fires are put out by the crews, by the staff, and I think that we need to make sure that we have a well-trained staff in the Northwest Territories. If we have an...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

Thank you, Minister Miltenberger. Next on my list is Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a few statements concerning the biggest project on this budget, which is the purchase of the 802 air tanker fleet replacement. I guess coming into this Assembly, I know they talked about these replacements for a while, so it’s kind of a process of us new MLAs starting and looking into the process of replacing these units. It’s replacing an older fleet that I think we got for minimal dollars. I guess the high cost associated to the purchase of these newer planes, and I know the department’s been looking at this for years because I know the department did some...

Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that Cabinet is proud of this program and I understand that Junior Kindergarten is going to be a good thing for some of the small communities that don’t have anything. The question that I have is, it’s being rolled out now, it’s being implemented. Some of these organizations, some of these small communities already know those concerns.

Will the Premier commit to doing some sort of general meeting on Junior Kindergarten with all those people that are being affected, a Junior Kindergarten charrette let’s call it, will the Premier commit to that?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Miltenberger.

I’m just wondering about the concern, and I see the concern is not Junior Kindergarten and the fact of whether it’s needed or not.

How do we deal with this consensus when we’re talking about how it’s being rolled out? The concern is from different communities, from different leaders throughout the Territories saying that this program is not being rolled out properly when there’s other organizations and other programs, such as the Head Start program, that are being overrun by this Junior Kindergarten program. How do we deal with that in consensus government?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Mawdsley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is not a theme day, but I will speak about Junior Kindergarten as well.

It is frustrating on this side. We have talked about this; we have all talked about this from this side of the House. We’ve made motions. We’ve talked in committee rooms about Junior Kindergarten and how it’s being rolled out and how we’ve heard concerns from our education leaders, from our constituents on how this Junior Kindergarten program is being laid out. Still, we get the same responses, and I know we’re getting frustration from this side. Some Members don’t even want to ask questions...