Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have an excellent education system here in the North but it’s not quite working as it should. One only has to look at the 2010 student assessment results released by the Department of Education in January to know that. For the 2009-2010 school year, the highest percentage of students working at or above grade level in English Language Arts was 81 percent. That was for grade 1. The numbers, unfortunately, go downhill as the grades go higher. Interestingly enough, the numbers for students functioning at or above grade level in Mathematics is higher than for English.

Edu...

Thanks very much for that update. Good to hear. I’m just wondering, in terms of distance education, my understanding is now that it’s well nigh impossible in some places, certainly the smaller communities, for the students to try to do distance, it takes literally up to hours to download the materials that they need for distance learning. With this new system, is that going to be improved? I suspect it probably won’t go away, but will it make it that much easier for particularly high school students to do distance education? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I wanted to ask a couple of questions here. First of all, with regard to the new data centre that’s just been completed, could I get an update on where things are at in terms of occupation of the building? I believe the building itself is finished, but have we moved totally into there or is there still some moving to come? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of questions here about demolitions. In this current budget year, the school in Tulita and the Deh Cho Hall in Fort Simpson were supposed to be demolished. I just wondered if there were any difficulties with those demolitions. Are they done and complete? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question here with regards to document management, records management. If I read it rightly from the business plan information, there was a Government of the Northwest Territories-wide initiative which was put into place in 2010-2011 and I believe is carrying over into the 2011-2012 business year. I just wondered if I could get a bit of a statement from the Minister as to whether or not this initiative is working the way they had hoped it would work. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am totally in support of this motion. I think for me there are two main reasons why I believe that this motion ought to be passed and taken action on. The first one is, I think, respect for our elders and our seniors. I think the fact that we at the moment lump them all together for home maintenance and repair is not a sign of disrespect, but we are not respecting them as we should.

The second issue for me is that I believe, and I believe I’ve heard the government say, that we want to keep our seniors in their homes as much as possible. We want to keep everybody in...

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, February 28, 2011, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that the GNWT develop a reliable, trustworthy and confidential measuring tool to verify the percentage of persons with a disability within the GNWT workforce;

And further, that the Government of the Northwest Territories reassess and, if necessary, revise the staffing priorities assigned to the affirmative action groups identified in Section 101 of the GNWT Human Resources Manual to ensure the priority assigned to persons with disabilities...

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that information that the general public does have the opportunity to go to the Department of Justice for assistance. Several other provinces in Canada and the Canadian government itself have implemented, over the last five to six years, legislation which deals with workplace harassment and bullying. I’d like to ask the Minister whether that is something that this government might consider to either change an existing act or to bring in a new act that would deal with harassment and bullying in the workplace.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a couple of comments here I have to follow up since Mr. Bromley is not here, and express, as he would, his dismay that this budget has increased by 5.3 percent instead of the 3 percent cap that we had presumably agreed on. That said, I am really pleased to hear about the single-window service centres and that they are working, that the GSO, government service officers seem to be a successful move and I look forward to hearing further updates as we get a little further into this project.

I am disappointed, however, there is nothing in the Premier’s remarks, I will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Justice. I’ll give him a little bit of a break from the education venue. Workplace harassment and workplace bullying are something which I think we are becoming more and more aware of. I think it’s existed for a very long time and is all too common. I think we are becoming more aware that employers do not necessarily treat their employees fairly.

I’d like to ask the Minister of Justice what legislation or regulations currently exist in the NWT to deal with workplace harassment or workplace bullying.