Tom Beaulieu

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. We will be the only jurisdiction in Canada that cannot train our own teachers. If we do this, we will lose connection to the land, the culture, the history and the Indigenous people, all the northern learning so special to our Teacher Education Program.

Mr. Speaker, we must be forward-thinking. Our predecessors built this program investing in the North and our people. The 17 Assemblies before us stayed true to that fundamental principle. There have been many temporary difficult financial times, but Members of those Assemblies were strongly committed to training Northern...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Chair rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I'm wondering if the review is going to include the community portion of BIP? Right now there's certainly an advantage for NWT BIP companies over southern companies; I should say, it sort of evens the playing field between North and South, but I'm wondering if the Minister is also looking at the difference between North and local? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I wanted to ask the Minister if the recent agreement with the federal government is reflected in work performed on behalf of others or is it reflected somewhere else in this budget? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement I talked about the funding for junior kindergarten. I'd like to ask the Minister questions along those lines. The Minister said that junior kindergarten is fully funded, but we keep hearing from the boards and that that there is no inclusion of inclusive schooling or Aboriginal instruction with the four-year-olds who are going into junior kindergarten. So I'd just like to ask the Minister what "fully funded" means? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, can the Minister provide that information on whether or not they can go in, considering the occupational standards that the Housing Corporation uses to house their people and also if there is any impact on that on rents?

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [English translation not provided]. Mr. Speaker, Members, school boards, education authorities, and parents are seeking clarity when it comes to junior kindergarten.

We discussed these matters at length in the House last week. I don't want to tread over the same ground again but, Mr. Speaker, with so much information -- sometimes contradictory information is circulating -- I must briefly highlight three points.

First, the school boards and the education authorities face ongoing funding issues. NWT classrooms deal with higher pupil-teacher ratios than most of...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I have recently encountered a situation like this, and the individual was not able to get support for him and his wife taking three children, so I would like to maybe find out  I will do this separately. I don't think we need to talk about that here. If there is an expedited approval process, I will go to the Minister privately to get that so that these individuals can get hold of the proper officials. Thank you.

No, thank you, Mr. Chairman. That is fine for this section. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to talk a bit about Child and Family Services. I had an opportunity to listen to some of the presentations, of course, delivered by the Minister and staff and wanted to get something on the record. I am trying to determine how the system by "system" I mean the department  sees a correlation between child apprehension, foster care, and poverty. Thank you, Mr. Chair.