Wendy Bisaro

I don’t believe I heard a timeline in there. I wonder if I could get an approximation of... I understand that the review is being done for next year’s business planning process, but when might committee, for instance, see the results of the review and the recommendations in it?

Okay, thank you. That was clear. So I understand that the numbers of students have gone down; that’s fine, that’s cool. But my information from education authorities is that although the total number of students is going down, the number of special needs or students who require inclusive schooling are going up and, as well, they’re not only seeing an increase in inclusive schooling students, but the ones that they are seeing are the ones who require a very large amount of assistance. They’re very heavily...children who need a great deal of assistance whereas someone who has got a slight...

Thank you. Eight thousand two hundred and seventy-five, was that the first number?

Another question on the next line talks about schools and I note that schools funding is going down about $2 million. It’s been said that that is due to enrolments. Could I get an indication of how much our enrolments have reduced? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will be short. I want to thank the Premier for his commitment. Again, my tendency is to go towards a definite time. I look forward to the Premier coming to us and then asking for the advice of Members, but when would that be?

Thank you to the Premier for his answer. He mentioned that the government will start a dialogue with these parties. It’s imperative that we have the involvement of parties outside the GNWT. We’re not going to get anywhere without their participation. I know it’s really early within this process, but I wonder if he could give us some idea of how he’s going to involve NGOs and the other organizations that are part of the group that want to develop an anti-poverty strategy.

We need to take a serious look at how poverty impacts our Territory, our government and our people. It’s time for us to take some real action. Minister Dent was correct in one thing in 2007: our governments, agencies and communities need to work together. And as my colleague Mr. Jacobson likes to say, let’s get ‘er done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that Members on this side of the House have said that they don’t want to lose this money and I, at the risk of offending anybody, and this is not my intention, but there’s certainly schools in Yellowknife that have the same difficulties that the schools in the communities do and have students who need the breakfast money or whatever.

My concern with this particular pot of money, our understanding was that it was going to be used for a study and I appreciate the department’s reaction to the Social Programs committee’s advice and comments and that it has now...

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks to both these gentlemen for the answer. I appreciate that this is the way that it is, but I think it’s probably creating stresses and strains on education authorities if they’re getting less funding, even though it may not be a huge amount of money, but they’re getting less funding, but at the same time they’re getting more and more students who require individual education assistance and one-on-one situations with particular students. So I’d like to ask the Minister whether or not this problem has been identified for him by the chairs of the education...

Thank you very much for that, and my apologies, my brain seems to be slowing right down here or maybe it’s slower than it was before. I wanted to ask one more question with regard to inclusive schooling funding just to see if I can try and understand the situation here.

Yesterday, I believe, I was advised that the amount for inclusive schooling is changing to reflect changes in enrolment, if Hansard is correct. So if I’m to understand the answer from Mr. Devitt we are now tying inclusive schooling funding to enrolments. So maybe I could get a clarification as to whether or not that...