Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We tried to encourage the people who had signed up for the Social Work Program this year to consider going to the Yukon College and taking the course there. We actually had somebody go and talk to the prospective students and encourage them. We only had an uptake of a couple, I think, that actually went. We are, again this year, going to work with Health and Social Services to try and put a renewed emphasis on recruiting people to enrol in the program. So we haven’t given up on it, but we couldn’t proceed with the course with that level of uptake. We will continue to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I suspect that the Member is referring to the seasonal clothing allowance, which is a bigger chunk of money on an occasional basis to reflect the need for warmer clothing, for instance, to get through the winter. That is only given out at certain times during the year, and typically only to people who have been on income support for a period of time. As I said in an earlier response, people tend to cycle on and off the system. So if they come in just needing support for a month, the expectation isn't that right off the bat they're going to get that funding right...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I believe I was going to do a Minister's statement on this issue on Monday, but the answer is we will be launching the consultation process very soon, with advertisements in the newspapers and we will have a web site available for people. As well, we will go out and do focus group consultations and there will also be some direct mail-out, to people that we know are stakeholders, to solicit their input. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The fire marshal has issued an order that will see the building closed fairly soon, within the next year. So the Member is right; we have to look at new space. There is going to be a meeting on Monday with Public Works and territorial ECE staff to take a look at planning the consultation process to figure out what to do. The issue that we are going to have is going to be that there are some non-government agencies in that space now that wouldn’t normally be in government space and that we can’t plan to provide government space for in the future. So that is going to...

Thank you. First, Madam Chair, yes, we will get the information Mr. Ramsay has requested that I couldn’t give today. In terms of the graduation rate, I can’t disagree that we need a better graduation rate. I can’t disagree that the Member early on in his comments, talked about how the changes in the mid-90s to the funding for schools has impacted on courses like industrial arts. There’s no question that’s absolutely true. We have, over the past few years, put money back into funding the schools, but back in the early to mid-90s the pupil/teacher ratio in the Territories was, I believe, just...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We raised the rates in 2004. There is a survey done every two years, in conjunction with the Audit Bureau, and we typically try to raise the rates or change the rates as they need to reflect the cost of living in different communities.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, we don’t have with us the detail for the year 2003-04, so I can’t answer right now the Member’s question. I can promise that we will get the information for the Member by tomorrow, but I can’t tell him right now.

Madam Chair, I don’t have a clue. Sorry. I can’t answer that question. I can try to get the information for the Member, but it’s not a statistic that we would keep.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just today I got an e-mail message from an MLA who said a constituent of theirs who is disabled and has lived in another jurisdiction commented to them that ours is probably the best system in Canada for disabled people, in terms of supports.

I think we need to be careful not to say that people with challenges, whether they are physical or intellectual, all want to be treated differently. I think a lot of people feel that they are able to participate and want to be treated like others, so each person is an individual. We have people who you might call severely disabled...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps I will just deal with the Member's last question first, where he is talking about the $700,000. Just so that he doesn’t think that I manage to keep any of it between my front and my back pocket, that money is all going to Alberta. That is what they are charging us to use their Alberta achievement tests, which is the test that we are using in grades 3, 6 and 9. They have started charging us now for using their Grade 12 tests. Not one penny of those dollars is sticking in my pockets, with this Assembly passing it on to Alberta. Just so you know.

In terms of...