Daryl Dolynny

Mr. Speaker, thank you to the Minister for giving us a broad overview but it sounds like there is some work that wants to be done but is not being done. Until such time as we need to raise awareness of bullying in school in our system, can the Minister describe, because we are still working on such actions at this point, what exactly are the legal recourses for the school administration to deal with bullying as it stands today? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most recently the Government of Quebec has announced new measures to counter cyber-bullying and bullying in schools, and I have to commend that government and other governments across Canada who have gone down that path.

This made me reflect that not that many weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a town hall meeting with the YK1 trustees and parents. One of the topics discussed that night was on bullying and I was concerned that although the schools are doing their part to curb this type of behaviour, we as legislators are sitting on the sidelines with our mouths...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Just to let the Members know here, we are in health services programs for the $4.79 million. We’re just in that category, so I’ll turn the response over to Minister Beaulieu.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m just going to pick up a little bit where our Member for Sahtu was talking about the blood products from Canadian Blood Services and the projected shortfall. I know there’s confidentiality issues here that I want to make sure that we maintain as a high priority here in the questions and answers. Is there some predictability in these numbers moving forward? Or maybe if the Minister could maybe shed a little light on it. Because of the nature of the dollar amount, is there any predictability that we can use in terms of our planned budgeting versus having to go to...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m not going to question the math on the base rate but again this number hasn’t been negotiated previous to coming down to the House today. I would have appreciated having that in previous discussion on this, if possible. That said, have these numbers for base rates been published that are accessible for Members and the general public?

No further questions. Thank you.

I’m appreciative that we’re not drunken sailors and it’s a sobering thought that we’re not.

Again, I don’t want to get into a statistical rampage with the Minister here. Again, I mean, stats-wise they say 42 cents of every tax dollar in Canada is being spent in health, and it’s clear that the NWT is spending well under that. The Minister says 34 cents. I believe that number is relatively lower. If we factor some of the pertinence of real health care, I think the number is probably closer to 27 percent. That said, I’ll have more questions with respect to details in the Health area.

One of the...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Minister’s response on policy. I am talking about legislation. These are two different things. They need to protect our students, and policy obviously is not doing what it is meant to do. In fact, I want to take this one step further. If the Minister’s response is such that we are still researching a subject which is being dealt with on a provincial basis today and we have to wait for such means, it may suggest that maybe the Members on this side of the House might have to come forward with a private member’s bill. I know the Members here are going to be very...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today in my Member’s statement I spoke about something that affects many of our youth across our territory and that subject is bullying and cyber-bullying. It is clear that many jurisdictions across Canada have been realizing the need for proper legislation to allow schools and authorities the ability to deal with the burden of bullies and their victims.

Admittedly, at this time I have to give congratulatory remarks to the province of Quebec for their most recent introduction of measures that deal with bullying in schools. I am hoping the GNWT will follow suit...

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Ms. Bisaro.