Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I rise to acknowledge Mary Rose Sundberg and Rose Mackenzie. At a fall community feast at the Chief Drygeese Centre in Detah, in celebration of the Literacy Council’s Peter Gzowski Literacy Invitational, two Weledeh constituents and Yellowknives Dene members were recognized for their achievements.

Rose Mackenzie, who is a second-year Aurora College Ndilo Community Learning Centre student, was honoured with the Literacy Learner Award for her determined and successful efforts towards self-improvement as an adult learner. Particularly, Rose has excelled in mathematics...

Finally, we need to be prepared for solutions that move away from a single provider like NTPC or Imperial or whomever. We must address the issue of stranded infrastructure, efficient fossil fuel backup systems, locally derived forms of energy that provide local jobs, and the energy education and training to help us move into the 21st century.

As we hear from every quarter, scientists and our dwindling population, time is running out. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a comment. I don’t have any questions on this. I think we’ve come a long way and it’s been an interesting discussion. I think we’ve come to the right conclusions on this. Of course, we could change legislation at the federal and territorial level to extend our mandate up to a year, but I think we’ve listened to the public who expressed some concern about that.

This is an extension, but it’s a modest extension and, I think, theoretically at this time, depending on when the federal election is actually finally decided to be, I think this is a very reasonable...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of Occupational Health and Safety Regulations.

The petition contains 123 signatures of Northwest Territories residents, and the petitioners request that the Government of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut adopt the proposed Occupational Health and Safety Regulations as drafted in 2011 by the Safety Advisory Committee of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thanks for that response. I think that sums up my understanding in the area that I needed it.

The second thing I’d like to ask about is I note in the summary of the bill, if I can just quote that starting in the middle: “to permit employees identified for layoff to be placed in vacant positions without disrupting their continuous employment status.” I know the intent here of the Minister – and he must, I’m sure, be in line with that – is to make the appointments into vacant positions. That is what the summary of the bill says. But in fact it does not say that in the...

No.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Premier for that. The addition of a school year to the existing staff who are not trained in the specialty of early care and education is unfair to both teachers and young children.

Will the Premier commit to ensuring a plan and implementation to develop a team of dedicated early care and education personnel with the specialized skills required to properly deliver the early childhood programs they need? Mahsi.

Thanks to the Premier. I have become aware of several complaints from teachers and parents regarding areas of concern, as have other Members: one teacher in a classroom with 23 pre-Grade 1 students, tension between existing programs, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, and some of these are actually three-year-olds until Christmas. These are happening now and these concerns have been brought to the attention of headquarters in ECE; however, the response has been to pass the issue on to the local school, yet this is a territorial program. JK is a territorial program delivered...

Mr. Speaker, today I rise to acknowledge several Weledeh constituents who received Medals of Bravery from the Governor General of Canada on October 21st of this year.

On September 22, 2011, my constituents Kent David Bissell, Matthew Lewin Grogono, Mike Joseph Murphy and Allan Randal Shortt played a vital role in the evacuation of several passengers from a Twin Otter that tragically crashed in the Old Town, here in Yellowknife, claiming two lives.

Despite heavy smoke coming from the engine, leaking fuel and the risk of explosion, these brave citizens managed to bring several survivors to safety...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate ECE’s plan to slow down the revised rollout of the Junior Kindergarten program. This will give all of the stakeholders, education authorities, early childhood workers, families and other early childhood care providers a chance to take stock, learn from experience and adjust the program as needed going forward.

Examples of areas needing adjustment that I hear include one-teacher classrooms overburdened by 11 four-year-olds and 12 five-year-olds, tension between existing local programs and ECE’s, lack of appropriate supervision for four-year-olds, loss of...