Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Minister for his commitment there. I look forward to that.

I guess I'm still trying to understand how the family violence shelters work. We don’t have any in our region right now. How is the department willing to work with the authority, I would assume, the wellness committee, on trying to establish one in the region? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to go back to medical travel in regard to it being opened up, or it is going to be opening up, I guess, for competition again for it to be contracted out. Is the department looking at local businesses as well, local airlines, or are they just focused on the main ones like Canadian North, First Air, and Air Tindi? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to table a document from Grand Chief Herb Norwegian with regard to post-secondary cuts to the Education and Social Work programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for her answer. It wasn't your hearing; it was me on a different track there, so I apologize for that.

So my next question is medical travel. I notice it's an increase of $379,000. Is this a forced growth or is this what we're expecting, unexpected costs coming up that we're not aware of? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his answer. We have heard in this House the Minister talk about inclusive schooling, that we are above the national average at 17 per cent. However, in this budget, on schedule 2, page 3 of 12, we see a reduction of $1.8 million. Can the Minister please advise this House what this reduction does to the percentage as per our legislation?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 182, extended health care, there's a reduction of $350,000. Could the Minister explain the rationale for the reduction in this area? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I apologize to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment because I am going to ask him some follow-up questions on inclusive schooling and junior kindergarten. Mr. Speaker, we have heard the Minister talk about this $2 million. Where did this money come from, from the very beginning, when it was developed? Was it from the government or was it from the school boards, so the school boards had to take the money that we gave them and come up with $2 million? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On page 179, they have an increase of $162 for longterm nursing care and then a reduction of $162 for medical and surgical nursing. Could the Minister explain the rationale for the reduction and increase in these two areas? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we are looking at this budget, I am looking at the stuff we are missing right now and why the rationale. We need this in there. I guess our first initiative we talked about was youth-in-crisis. Unfortunately, we have seen a lot of crisis and a lot of deaths in our ridings lately. I think we need to be spending more time on the prevention, intervention, that is needed. I am not just talking about youth, but I am talking about the whole generation. People are passing life through crisis and that. I am looking at the department to put in initiatives and put...

I thank the Minister for his answer. Mr. Speaker, some of the things and some of the challenges we are hearing about this change is the diploma. Will this have an impact over the NWT diploma once it is done? Since we are going to be implementing it, will it have an impact on our students and our youth?