Robert Hawkins

I look forward to any movement we can make on this particular file. When we often hear that board chairs make between $130,000 and even over $200,000 per year to sit on those boards and we hear that the honoraria for those boards could range anywhere from $150,000 or more, the public wants answers. When we are paying our board folks more than we are paying our teachers, our nurses and even plumbers and policemen, something is wrong.

The next obvious question to the Minister is: What can we do to bring some transparency to some of these board appointment honoraria that need a level of scrutiny...

I would have thought that the Commission scolaire would have been counted in the Hay River area or South Slave area as well. I would think that there would be two. In Yellowknife I would think we’d almost count four, considering we have paired off the Ndilo district, individually of course, and, of course, maybe five if you count Detah as well. That said, if the Minister and the department are willing to provide a detailed briefing note, I’ll start with that and I’ll be prepared to move on today.

But I do want to highlight one area, which is I’d like to see what taxation revenue is seen as a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On 10-35, I have a quick question, and I’m not sure it’s an easy answer. That’s what I have certain fears over. When I consider the funding of the Beau-Del at $28.5 million versus the South Slave Divisional Education Council at $24.7 million, and then Yellowknife Education District No. 1 at $23.4 million, I’m just trying to understand the spread of what’s the funding model based on and is there a short or simple answer that we can provide to that. Because I know that other municipalities don’t necessarily collect municipal taxes and forward them on to the schools, so...

Mr. Chairman, what I’ll do is finish off by asking this and certainly hoping I can get some type of positive response from the department, are there some informal websites? I’ll tell you, a lot of people surf some of these common, everyday… I highlighted YK Trader as an example that a lot of people go on out of curiosity, and I would encourage the department to seize upon those types of opportunities to encourage these type of service areas that we have within our departments about we’re here, to know more about labour development, click here and you end up being right where you need to be –...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find myself from time to time forwarding people to this particular office. I’m just curious on what type of outreach is provided to the everyday citizen. It’s not so much the employers I’m concerned about, it’s more about the employees that I find that they come to me and say, I think something is wrong, I don’t know who to complain to about what’s happening at our office, and I try to put them in this particular direction. I’m just wondering: are we doing enough to explain employer/employee rights? Are we giving people any awareness that they need to know where to...

Is the Minister able to put on the record how many students have been diagnosed through using telehealth so, again, we can appropriately spend the right inclusive money on the students that need it most? Rather than just targeting based on estimates, I’m really a believer that the money should follow the student, and regardless of where that student is going to, so whatever institution, to me, matters little. Quite frankly, it’s a matter about ensuring that appropriate funding is there for that student and the institution being able to facilitate regular instruction in a proper instructional...

Is it fair to assume that the money is broken out on best guess based on, I’ll say, the experience and situation of these types of schools, that there is need but it hasn’t been technically diagnosed? In other words, we have students we know that are there but they haven’t been formally diagnosed under some type of, we’ll call it, structure or professional basis. Is that a fair observation or understanding of what, in a small form, the deputy minister is trying to say? They’re providing money based on that best assessment?

Mr. Chair, I am going to cut myself off because I don’t have a motion to move it in this one. In all fairness, we can’t be talking about the 2015-16 budget because it’s not fair or relevant, so I will leave it at that. Thank you.

So would the Minister be correct by saying that it’s based on a pupil ratio? Is that what he’s saying? It’s calculated down to for every student you have you get $10, so if you have more students, you get more money, less students, you get less. What type of figure do they use for their calculation? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate that detail. Is there money in this particular budget to do a planning study for the longer term of the government of the stand-alone Aurora College campus in Yellowknife? If there is, how much? Thank you.