Rocky Simpson

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, I appreciate the work that's being done. And I understand that, you know, the projections you came up with was actually based on  on, you know, the number of beds required and also the decrease was partly due to providing more support to home care. Is that still the case? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to raise the issue of student busing. As you may be aware, student busing was suspended in Hay River for the first month of this year, school year.

Mr. Speaker, it was unfortunate how the cancellation of busing materialized. What it did was create a possibility that some students would have no means of transportation to get to school. This forced the Minister of Education to conduct an investigation as to whether or not the decision by the Hay River DEA to suspend busing was a sound one.

Mr. Speaker, the decision by the Hay River District Education...

Thank you, Madam Chair. No further questions, thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And can you give me an idea I guess of a range of cost for those, because I know that they're probably in, you know, from Liard all the way up north so, just some kind of idea. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, that's all the questions I have.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just looking at the MediPharm replacement, and I guess I don't know too much about that. So I'd just like to  an explanation of exactly what that is and does that tie into, say, pharmacies as well, private organizations like that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister, in order to resolve the issue of whether there would be busing in Hay River, had to take the unordinary step of conducting an investigation where it was stated that the Hay River DEA made a difficult decision on student transportation on the premise that it had no other option. And the report went on to say in doing so, the Hay River DEA failed to meet its legal and procedural obligations in making policy under the transportation of students regulations and delivered a decision that fails to meet the standard of reasonableness.

Mr. Speaker, I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I have questions for the Minister of Education. Mr. Speaker, Hay River was fortunate to have busing restored this school year. We can go back and forth pointing fingers but it's best to learn from what went wrong and how to avoid those mistakes in the future. Our decisions must not take away from what works but to make what works better.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if the $400,000 the DEA received from the DEC can be used for busing in future years or does that $400,000 have to be spent this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I guess with respect to the  old clinic and the storage of files there and, you know, I know it's problematic, you know, where to store these, and knowing that the government is looking  the department is looking at ways to digitize or another way to store, you know, to keep them, I feel that I guess that's going to be quite a few years down the road, whereas that building could be repurposed, in my mind, probably for a permanent day/night shelter, and what would have to be looked at is another facility or to store these files, which I understand is a combination...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, barging is very important to the economy and wellbeing of the NWT. Particularly in Hay River, the community that I, along with the Member for Hay River North, represent. Can the Minister tell this Assembly how the crews working on the tugs and barges will be impacted by federal and territorial COVID vaccination policies. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.