Jackie Jacobson

Mr. Speaker, people in Sachs Harbour, all we want is our children educated. Right now, the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority is going to say yes, Mr. Jacobson, we have no money. We have to go see the Minister. Mr. Speaker, all I’m asking from the Minister is to get me three months’ rent for this house in Inuvik to try to get these kids back into school, if they’re not there already trying with an unsafe place to stay.

Mr. Speaker, we have to help these kids. We have to help these families to get the education to our children. Mr. Speaker, this Minister can do that by telling the staff. Thank...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today my Member’s statement was regarding the students in Sachs Harbour. Mr. Speaker, you know we’ve been working on this for the last two and a half years in regard to getting a residence either in Inuvik or getting a teacher into the community so we can start providing grade 12 services in the community of Sachs. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister make sure the students of Sachs Harbour have a suitable and safe place to stay while they live and attend school in Inuvik? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Will the Minister commit to me today that we’d work for the upcoming school year, either having a teacher in the community for grade 10, 11, 12, or a boarding house in Inuvik before the new school year? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, well, I did some groundwork for the Minister’s office. Mr. Speaker, we’re looking at renting a house in Inuvik that, I suggested in my Member’s statement, would be used by Sachs Harbour students. Mr. Speaker, I’m not asking the Minister to ask Beaufort-Delta education for the extra money. Is there any money left in the department for having this house opened for the last three months of the school year? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My Member’s statement is on a school in Sachs Harbour for students. We found a solution. We found a unit in Inuvik that we could rent for the last three months of this last semester for $1,400 a month. It’s a four-bedroom house that we could probably put bunk beds in every room, we could have 16 kids in that house in Inuvik from Sachs Harbour for high school. So I think it beats the market rent for housing for tenants and it certainly beats having students having to leave school in Inuvik and even quit school due to inadequate housing. Basically these students have...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that the committee recommends that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs consult with the community governments to ensure they have adequate resources, including staff training, to implement the Act to Amend the Dog Act.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I wish to speak on a huge activity that is taking place in Inuvik starting today. It is running through the weekend. It is the 10th Annual Gwich’in Cup.

This event over the years has grown into the largest minor hockey tournament in the NWT, with participants coming from the majority of the communities in the Inuvik region, including communities in my riding of Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk and Tuk.

Mr. Speaker, over 350 kids will be participating this weekend in the tournament. It is always a thrill for all of the youth to participate in this fun-filled weekend with their...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that the committee recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a comprehensive response to this report within 120 days. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again, my colleagues, I’d like to thank our chair, Mr. Ramsay, with regard to all the meetings that we had attended. There’s been a lot of heated debate in some of our meetings in regard to wording in the legislation from our Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal members. We worked together. We got through this with the amendments. With the hamlet bylaws in the communities that I know, we never hit all the communities with the act, but all of the hamlet bylaws are still in effect with the communities as well. This is just something that’s going to support it.

We have the public...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do myself, too, want to thank all the Housing people in Tuk that are working so hard to get these units back up and running for the people. There are a few lessons following that incident with the wind that we could learn from across the Territory. We should be, through the Minister’s office, through community preparedness, going through tabletop exercises and stuff like that. Is the Minister willing to speak with the Minister of MACA if we could do that this summer so we could be more prepared for the next go around of the weather? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.