Wendy Bisaro

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

---Carried

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister’s commitment to give me the information on resources, but again, I am hearing that schools will not get funding in 2014-15 when they start the program and I didn’t hear an answer from the Minister on that.

The Minister talks about the pupil-teacher ratio and, yes, we are still under the 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio in most cases.

I would like to know from the Minister: What is our current pupil-teacher ratio and once we have implemented junior kindergarten and after all three years, what will our PTR become following the budget cuts and the...

To the Minister, thank you. I thought I heard the Minister say the funding will flow when the program first starts. I would appreciate him reconfirming that in his next answer. If that’s the case, that’s great, that’s what it should do, but I have been hearing from more than just the Yellowknife boards that they will not be getting any new dollars, and this is coming from their schools as well. They will not be getting any new dollars for junior kindergarten when it starts, for instance, in this next school year, September 2014-15.

So, Mr. Minister, why am I hearing from schools that there will...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. You’ll notice we have a group of young people in the gallery today. I’m very pleased to welcome the Grade 6 social studies class from William McDonald School. Ecole William McDonald School, pardon me. I’m going to ask them to stand when I read their names so you can be recognized. Your name will go into our Hansard, which is a recording of our proceedings for the day, so you’re going to be forever marked in our register. My apologies if I get your name wrong, but I’m trying very hard to follow the rules in front of me. Chasity Atigikyoak, Kameron Burt, Dustin Caisse...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Not too long ago the Premier made a public proposal presented to the NWT Status of Women Council to establish a mock women’s parliament, similar to the Elders and Youth Parliaments that we currently have every second year.

The Premier’s intent was to provide an event that would create interest in and motivate women for territorial politics, and heaven knows we need more women to be elected to this Assembly.

The idea has generated a lot of opinion and discussion since. Many people, both men and women, have expressed their disappointment and, yes, disgust at the idea of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I spoke these words some time ago, but they bear repeating, and I’m going to quote.

“Mr. Speaker, we’ve heard a lot about fracking in the last two weeks. I haven’t said much about it, but now feel the time has come and I must add my views. I’ve been following the statements and exchanges in the House, the media reports and so on. The Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee has been at the forefront of the fracking issue, doing the research, considering the pros and cons, monitoring Sahtu exploration and development. I’ve tried to stay abreast of the info...

Thanks to the Minister for telling me the information I already know. That’s not my question. My question was I’m hearing that schools will not be getting any new funding when they start junior kindergarten in 2014-15. Why is that, if it’s supposed to be coming?

On another page titled, “How Will We Pay for Junior Kindergarten,” the statement is, “All education authorities are being asked to implement junior kindergarten with existing funding.” That seems to, again, contradict that they will get funding when the program rolls out.

One of the things that are required is resources for new programs...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have some questions. I don’t really have comments, but in going over the bill at committee, there were a number of things that I wondered about. Maybe I can just, sort of, wonder those out loud and then the Minister can respond.

We haven’t seen a bill like this every year and I wondered if I could get a sense of the trend over the last, say, 10 years or even five years of how much we are writing off annually. Is it an amount that’s going up or going down?

I also wondered about the policies and the guidelines that we use to write off debts. I know these are, as they...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to, first of all, as did Mr. Moses, recognize the actions of Mr. Leef to bring his private member’s bill to the Parliament of Canada. It’s a bill that will assist Northerners right across the whole of the North.

I’d like to thank my colleagues who have spoken in favour of the bill and I’d like to thank the seconder of the motion, Mr. Moses, for doing that job for me. I’m pleased to hear that there’s recognition of the need to address the problem of FASD by Members and by Cabinet alike. I really appreciate that.

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and thanks to the Minister and staff for that. So this was only a portion of the operation of the lab. So the private sector was offset totally by revenue, if I heard that. So then we have a corresponding… I think it’s 50 percent of the costs of the lab that we are paying for, or is there revenue to offset our portion of costs as well? Thank you.