Wendy Bisaro

Some months ago, the Minister promised the department would do a review of the inclusive schooling funding formula, but there is no evidence to date that that has been done. It’s time to revisit and redefine the funding formula for inclusive schooling. The entire inclusive schooling directive must also be revisited, revised and redefined. Both of these must be done in consultation with education stakeholders, developed with them, not designed by the department and then presented to stakeholders for comment.

We spend a lot of money on inclusive schooling. We must evaluate how we are spending it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My comments are brief. I just want to say that I’m very pleased to see that this bill has reached this stage, and I would like to give credit to a constituent of Frame Lake, Mr. Jeff Corradetti, whose idea it was to push this forward. He pushed me, I pushed the Board of Management, and here we are. I’m really pleased that we have this bill here and that we will be putting in place an NWT award. I’ve forgotten the term, an Order of the NWT. Thank you very much, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Education Act, then Bill 22, Bill 26 and Bill 27, if we have time. Sorry, and Committee Report 8-17(4).

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to say to the Minister I heard the same words from the Minister about, well, we need to do this and we’re going to do this. I heard that many months ago. So I’m not very pleased that we are going to be “starting over again from zero.”

I’d like to ask the Minister how he is going to ensure that the money that is required for specific students gets to those students that need it most? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister and I absolutely agree with the Minister that this needs to be looked at, but we were told that this was going to be looked at some months ago. The fact that it’s rolled into the Education Renewal Initiative confuses me and makes me somewhat apprehensive. The Minister is tabling that Education Renewal Initiative document this afternoon. So I don’t understand how we can roll the inclusive schooling evaluation into a document that’s about to tabled. Can the Minister explain that? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I also would like to welcome the chairs of the two Yellowknife school districts who are here, Simon Taylor from Yellowknife Catholic Schools and John Stephenson from YK Education District No. 1. I want to say it was a pleasure to see Mr. Ootes and Ms. Baile here in the House earlier. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you, Mr. Hawkins, I think. I stand again today to once more voice my concerns about the way the Department of Education, Culture and Employment funds inclusive schooling in our schools. The department directive on inclusive schooling states, “Inclusive schooling is intended to ensure equal access for all students to educational programs offered in regular classroom settings.”

As I pointed out in March of this year, this very preamble highlights what is wrong with how inclusive schooling in the NWT is currently being funded and addressed at the departmental...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thank you, Madam Chair. At the outset, I want to thank the Legislative Assembly for giving me the opportunity on this committee to travel and to look into this particular bill and this issue. It was certainly an issue that provided us with a lot of input and a created a lot of thinking amongst committee, both individual and us as a group. I want to thank the Ledge staff for the work that they did setting up our travel, setting up our meetings and so on, and looking after us as we travelled. And I would like to thank all the presenters that we heard from. They were many. I particularly want to...

To the Minister, I guess I’m feeling very puzzled. I’m sure my face looks puzzled. I don’t think that this is a difficult thing to tell us exactly what you are doing. There are 67 recommendations in this report. The Minister says they’re following the plan. Well, I want to know how you’re following the plan. There is any number of things in there that could be done sooner than other things in there.

Can the Minister give me some indication of two or three things they are trying to do first before they do the other 63 or 64?