David Krutko

I, too, will be coming forward with a similar motion in regard to the community of Tsiigehtchic, because I believe that the community should have a high school teacher in the community. I think that if you’re going to deliver grades kindergarten to grade 9 and then also high school, you should have more than two teachers in a community. I think you can’t expect people to carry that large workload and, more importantly, expect to have quality education being provided in those communities. So, again, I will be bringing forward a similar motion dealing with the community of Tsiigehtchic. I think...

Thank you Mr. Minister. Welcome witnesses, General comments, Mr. Jacobson.

Do we agree that the Minister brings in his witnesses?

Does the Minister have any opening comments? Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

I’ll call Committee of the Whole to order. We have Bills 2, 4, 7, Tabled Document 62-14(6) and Minister’s Statement 47-16(4). What is the wish of the committee? Mrs. Groenewegen.

Mr. Speaker, I believe the organization that he should be talking to is Sport North. They are the ones that are basically responsible for the trials for the Arctic Winter Games. I would like to ask the Minister if he can try to resolve this problem as soon as possible, because a lot of the parents are concerned that their children are going to be missing a lot of school and that they don’t want to see them pulled out of schools because of the amount of time that they are going to be away. Again, I ask the Minister to sit down with Sport North to find a solution to this problem so that the...

Mr. Speaker, I understand if you miss four days of school you are basically not allowed back into the school. I think this government has to, if someone is missing three weeks of school and is a high school student, basically it will affect their grades and possibly have them rejected from that class. As a Minister who is responsible for ensuring that attendance there and working with other government agencies to ensure that we do not see students out of the classroom for more than a couple of days and to find out it is three weeks, I would be concerned too. Would the Minister consider talking...

Mr. Speaker, your committee has been considering Tabled Document 62-16(4), NWT Main Estimates, 2010-2011, and would like to report progress. I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with.

I’d like to recognize a former sparring partner of mine during the Dene-Metis claims days, Dan Murphy, who was the federal negotiator. Also I’d like to recognize former Chief Fred Sangris. Also someone from Fort McPherson, Maria Itsi from Fort McPherson. With that I would like to thank and recognize former Speaker of the House Sam Gargan.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next on the list I have Mr. Beaulieu.