Jane Groenewegen

Question is being called.

---Carried

Agreed. Thank you. We will commence with that agenda after a brief break.

---SHORT RECESS

Good afternoon, committee. I would like to call Committee of the Whole to order. We have a number of items before us on the agenda this afternoon. What is the wish of the committee today? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues.

“Jacob Ryan was born on October 2, 2008, at 3:45 a.m. The doctors said he was perfect but would never take his first breath. I was only 22 weeks into the pregnancy. His lungs were too underdeveloped, so it was a stillbirth. The hardest thing that I ever had to go through was to pass this little body to the nurse, knowing we would not leave the hospital with our son.”

I read this account that was written by a constituent and which precipitated the bringing forward of this motion today.

“I did my best to make it appear to others that everything was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Hay River has a wonderful high school, which is not utilized to its maximum capacity, with very experienced teachers and a very wide variety of course options, so I would like to ask the Minister if he could report back to us what a survey of parents might indicate who, in the South Slave, in small communities, might be interested in accessing an education in Hay River.

In my Member’s statement I was very clear to suggest that this would not be feasible, doable or even desirable if there were not home boarding or residential options available to these students that were sober, supervised, supported and in every way healthy for the children.

The Minister says that parents don’t want their high school students to go to regional centres for the reasons that the Minister stated, and he said that he will speak to the superintendents of education. Could we not perhaps find a way to ask the parents how they feel about that? Because I have run across many parents who...

By the time young people reach the age of high school, maybe it is an opportunity and it is time for them to spread their wings and experience some new things and perhaps living in a new community as long as – and I have to really stress this – there is safe, supervised and supported living accommodations for them in those regional centres.

So I for one would be in favour of having this dialogue on revisiting the idea of regional high schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Is committee agreed?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, colleagues on both sides of the House for this gesture of support to parents who have lost a child. It means a lot to them, I know, and I would also like to thank my constituent who had the courage to raise this issue and asked me to bring this matter forward to this House. I’d like to thank her for sharing her story about her loss and hopefully we can be supportive of those around us in a more meaningful way. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

WHEREAS Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories wish to acknowledge the profound grief experienced by families who suffer the death of a small child, infant or preterm baby;

AND WHEREAS this devastating tragedy often occurs suddenly, without warning, as a result of miscarriage, stillbirth, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), accident, or other causes or complications;

AND WHEREAS SIDS is the number one cause of death in Canada for healthy infants under the age of one;

AND WHEREAS the tragedy of pregnancy and infant loss, which exacts a terrible emotional toll, may be...