Bob Bromley

Thanks to the deputy minister for that. My understanding was the latest was $12 million and came in at $30 million, but either way obviously a substantial increase, but on the other hand there is a significant demand for both heat and power in that community to which we subsidize probably over $1 million per year, and there’s also a mine being proposed not far from the community, the NICO Mine, Fortune Minerals. I think I’m just not convinced that we are doing the strategic thinking we need to do to enable these projects to actually go forward beyond feasibility studies. Partly I understand...

I appreciate that. I suspect the next question might be the same response. How many millions of dollars have we now spent on Whati project feasibility studies without ever having actually done a project there? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. That’s good to hear.

The next item there, the biomass boiler in the Deninu School in Fort Resolution, I’m very happy to see that going to that community. I think it will help establish a bit of a biomass market there and it’s also very much in line with their forest management agreements and some of the jobs they are contemplating and activities they are contemplating. So I am supportive of that.

I am wondering what the source of the $300,000 is for that project.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear the positive response I’m looking for there. I heard a repetition there. The funding formula at ECE has what the Yellowknife school boards state, that the budgets for their operation will be funded at 80 percent of the GNWT estimates and 20 percent by the local taxpayers. The Minister subscribes to this. He has said this in letters. The teachers of Yellowknife deserve the same pensions as all other teachers in the NWT. If not, please explain that.

Why is the Minister not willing to apply the government’s own funding formula to the pensions of teachers in...

Thanks for the response from the Minister. It sounds like there’s some progress being made there and I appreciate that. His choice of the word “commitment,” I might use the word “edict,” and I appreciate the fact that he’s backing off on edicts and starting to listen here and respond.

In the Yellowknife school boards, I hear from a teacher, for example, that with the cuts that are planned – and there has been no backing off from those that I’ve heard about – his class sizes will go from 28 to 33, to 33 to 40. That’s off the chart. People want to know how this government can reduce the funding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I’d like to recognize, of course, Tony Whitford, resident of Weledeh. Welcome, Tony. I recognize other residents up there. I know Sheila Bassi-Kellett, I think I saw her up there with our special guests; Lydia; and I’d also like to recognize our distinguished visitors from Britain and also I’d like to offer a wee welcome to our Irish visitors, Pat and Jim Thom. I know Pat has a strong affiliation with Giant, which is, of course, in the Weledeh riding. Welcome.

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that. I think there has been some confusion here and I believe the first point of order was taken care of. That’s my understanding.

I’m speaking to the point that Mrs. Groenewegen has raised. I do believe that all Members of the House have a role in bringing accountability and for every Member to show up to the best of their ability and so on. If that requires asking questions respectfully, there should be an opportunity to do that.

So I just wanted to make sure that there is agreement that accountability is part of our role, as long as we do it...

That is a significant commitment that the Minister has made here, and I appreciate learning about that today. I think it’s good that the two entities get together and explain their numbers and come up on agreement with what the numbers are. I will expect that will reduce class sizes. If it doesn’t, we’ve still got some work to do.

As a rule of thumb, though, demand for implementing new programs should be backed by new ECE funding. Yet, Yellowknife school boards are laying off teachers and staff because ECE is taking money away right now to provide junior kindergarten in the smaller communities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to start by noting that board budgets are being cut while boards are being asked to deliver even more services to students. A recent study by the NWT Teachers’ Association, entitled “Understanding Teacher Workloads, A Pan-Northern Teacher’s Time Diary Study” underscores how teachers are becoming so overloaded with new duties that their opportunity to educate is reduced.

Can the Minister ensure the House that the findings of this study are being considered and that school boards will have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yellowknife Education Districts 1 and 2 are not receiving the funding or support they need to deliver the education that the students of Yellowknife deserve. The edict requiring that pre-kindergarten be delivered by Yellowknife authorities without being funded by ECE places an unfair burden on the budgets of these two districts. It lessens the quality of the education they can provide to the students of Yellowknife. Already teachers are being laid off and student-to-teacher ratios are increasing.

A service previously provided by local daycares and schools on a user pay...