Jane Groenewegen

The Minister has indicated he didn’t hear of this before, and perhaps I should have drawn this to his attention in a less public way, but I understand this has been a situation that has been ongoing for volunteers and coaches who are teachers for some time now, so I thought perhaps there would have been other incidents like this raised.

I want to reiterate that I’m not finding any fault. Teachers don’t like to complain, and this teacher is not finding any fault with the people who are his superiors. What he is saying, and what I’m saying, is that we need a more flexible policy. I’d like to ask...

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister McLeod.

The only games that are covered by the Human Resource Manual for approved leave are that associated with Arctic Winter Games, Canada Winter Games or national level championships. There is no leave for work as a teacher in our community with a group of youth outside the school setting. This is further compounded by the messages in the media that you hear about the importance of volunteering and giving back to the youth in our community.

Youth are a very high priority of this government, and I don’t think we should distinguish between school sports and community sports. I don’t think that money...

Mr. Williams.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I will take that as a comment. Next on the list I have Mr. Dolynny.

Agreed. Thank you. I’ll ask the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses to the table.

For the record, Mr. Ramsay, could you please introduce your witnesses.

I would just like to remind Members that we’re dealing with the operations and maintenance budget here. We’re not dealing with the capital budget. There isn’t actually anything on this page with respect to what Mr. Dolynny is asking. However, Mr. Ramsay did bring up the issue of the Inuvik-Tuk highway in his opening comments, which I suppose does give Members a reference point. I just want to caution Members to stick to the matters before us on this page and on this department. Mr. Ramsay.

Page 11-9, Transportation, information item, revenue summary.

I’d like to call Committee of the Whole back to order. When we left off yesterday we were dealing with the Department of Transportation main estimates. I would like to ask Minister Ramsay if he would like to bring witnesses into the Chamber.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Neudorf.