Daniel McNeely

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In recognizing the statements made by the Minister here on the opening comments, and attending some of the previous meetings back home, is there a budget allowance here for, say, a multi-partnership workshop with the land corporations and the renewable resource councils to cover on a shared cost basis for various subjects, including caribou range planning conservation and the protected area in the Ramparts, and also taking into account traditional knowledge, progress, and other related issues? Country foods security, for example. Just a multi-subject, multi-organization...

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Mr. Simpson.

Thank you, Minister McLeod. Mr. Thompson.

As the Minister knows, there is an interested party, an interested company pursuing exploration. When I checked with the agency, the Sahtu Land and Water Board, they are pursuing permits accordingly. My third question is: what kinds of things has the government done as part of the mineral development strategy to increase exploration in the Sahtu and/or the NWT as a whole?

Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister McLeod.

Yes, Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think, in this case, we do have some children in there, looking back at some of the numbers here. Take Fort Good Hope, for example: there were zero graduates. The year before that, in 2017, there were four; in 2016, there were three; in 2015, there were two; and in 2014, there were six, so there are students out there. We just need to include that as part of the review and seeing why our students aren't graduating. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for the reply here. I didn't hear an answer to my question of whether there are going to be resources available to do a review on why the declining numbers are for graduates. Are there resources available in this budget to do an operational review, and looking at the Education Act, as well? I'm under the impression that there's supposed to be an operational educational plan for each school, and I'm not too sure if that is done, so that could make up a part of the review to see if there's an operational plan. The question is: are there resources available...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm glad to hear that the Minister is willing to look at it and work with the regional council. If the Minister could work with me as well, to include me as part of the deliberation toward the reviews? As I mentioned, I'm quite concerned about the graduation rates being zero in a couple of communities, and I'm not too sure this fiscal year, or this curricular year, what we're going to have. If we're trying to deliver a high rate of education, the numbers of zero should raise a red flag, and step back, and we should look at the review. I look forward to working with the...