Jane Groenewegen

Good afternoon, colleagues. I will call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Question is being called. The motion is carried.

---Carried

Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last night there was a public meeting held in Hay River. It was sponsored by the local district education authority, our DEA, which is elected members of our community who are mandated with overseeing education issues.

A number of months back, my colleague Mr. Bouchard and I were brought into a briefing with the Department of Education to talk about how the Government of the Northwest Territories was going to solve the issue of there not being a gymnasium at the Ecole Boreale French school.

Ecole Boreale is a French first language school that was built in Hay River, and...

Thank you. Might I take this moment to remind Members that we are having a group photo taken in the Great Hall at the break and then we’ll have a very brief break after that since we kind of already had a break. We’ll resume shortly. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order today. What is the wish of the committee? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River North, that Motion 13-17(5) be amended by deleting the sixth paragraph of the motion. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along the same lines as Mr. Menicoche’s comments, in a small community there may be a teacher who is not working who does not have early childhood education credentials, but could potentially work in the Junior Kindergarten Program. I think it is restrictive to say that they must have those credentials. There could be other people who have… Working on a program on-line I know is available through the college. I think it is restrictive and I think it does create the possibility, as Mr. Miltenberger says, of being a detriment to those small communities who have the same...

I do realize that they need to hear from the French school board, but the MOU proposed to the DEA, we’ve been officially notified by the chair that this has been rejected.

I’d like to ask the Minister, just for the benefit of people in Hay River to know, by what date would this Cabinet be making a decision on what avenue they are going to take to proceed? I know that the court deadline is March 24th. By what date does this Cabinet need to make a decision to expend the $13 million to build the gymnasium for Hay River?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are also for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I have a lot of questions, but let me start in my little preamble, my short preamble to say that we talk, as a government, about regional capacity and building capacity. Part of that capacity building in Hay River is our schools, and right now I realize that the occupancy levels in our schools are not as high as they could be, and I think that’s what left the door open for this idea of this swap, but I do want to say that with this government’s commitment to decentralization and some of the...

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?