Robert Bouchard

Again, the same question is the difficulty in the fact that when you have an authority, such as the South Slave District Authority, where there are small communities, large communities and medium-sized communities, those ratios are thrown off by some of the ratios in the smaller communities where there is maybe only three or four students to one teacher, whereas in the bigger centres you have 25 or 30 students. That 16 to 1, in theory, should be held accountable to every school, let’s say every local district education authority at least.

Is the Minister willing to look at that opportunity for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will continue the conversation and questions about junior kindergarten that my colleagues have been asking for the last couple of weeks. There’s a lot of frustration and it’s almost to the point where, you know, we’re very frustrated with the process. My questions for the Minister today are the pupil-teacher ratio that he indicates 16 to 1, is this a ratio that each school will be looked at independently or is he looking at the complete authority at a 16 to 1 ratio, because there’s a big discrepancy between the smaller centres and the larger centres in what the ratios...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I seek consent to waive Rule 34(1) and proceed with the third reading of Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act.

---Consent granted

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my left I have Chief Electoral Officer Mr. David Brock and to my right I have Ken Chutskoff, legislative counsel.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of the Board of Management of the Legislative Assembly, I am pleased to present Bill 26, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act.

This bill includes a number of changes to our elections legislation that were recommended by the Chief Electoral Officer and the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures following their respective reports on the 2011 General Election.

These changes will result in:

more accurate voters lists;

better access to mobile polls and absentee ballots;

changes to the vouching rules, so that a voter can vouch for another elector in the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is a very big topic we are discussing today. I thank the mover and the seconder for this motion to come forward and discuss some of the hydraulic fracturing in the Northwest Territories.

In November 2012 the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure did a report to this House and indicated there were some recommendations we wanted done. We wanted some baseline studies to be accomplished. We wanted to adopt standards throughout the whole phase of the implementation, the monitoring of the land and waters, the monitoring of greenhouse gases. Public...

Mr. Speaker, the question about the short-term leave for firefighters has come up over the last couple of weeks when we’ve had two major fires in the community. I’m just wondering: in that review, will there be something that once you have a firefighter on staff, that basically there is no requirement; he or she can be called on demand for the firefighter services once they’ve agreed that they’re allowed to be in the GNWT and be a firefighter at the same time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I talked about the hundreds of volunteers that are working in Hay River, and some of those volunteers are GNWT employees, so I have questions for the Minister of Human Resources about what leave is available to GNWT employees for volunteering for community events.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of the other volunteer groups that have come to me recently is the Canadian Rangers, obviously a great volunteer organization, as you all know.

I guess the question is: What are the leave requirements for GNWT staff that are members of the Rangers?

Mr. Speaker, the next question I have is I understand this leave is something you probably have to apply for, but I’m wondering if we have any agreements or any leave in place for short-term demand or quick demands on volunteers, such as firefighters in the Northwest Territories. My colleague from Inuvik talked about his firefighters and department. In Hay River we have a strong firefighters group as well.

I’m just wondering: what agreement does a firefighter have to have with the GNWT to take immediate action when there’s a fire?