Yellowknife Centre

Statements in Debates

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am unclear what the barrier is to the Minister advocating for indexing this benefit to inflation. Could he please elaborate on that? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Mr. Chair, thank you. What I am most concerned about is that, because this program is being starved of students, the staff will soon find other jobs, because they are not going to be able to wait for all of the wheels of government to turn ever so slowly to decide their fate. My concern is that these decisions will not be made in a way that is timely enough for the staff to stay in their positions. Does the Minister share this concern? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are about page 46. The department increased the Senior Citizens Supplementary Benefit for the first time in many years last September. I am wondering if the Minister will consider indexing this benefit so that it retains its value to seniors according to the cost of living.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Minister makes it sound like this program woke up one day and decided to phase it out. The Minister told us in this House that he made the final decision on phasing this program and the Teacher Education Program out. It was not the choice of the program to phase it out or the choice of the instructors or of the students. It is my understanding that he has the final say here. At what point will he be making a decision about the future of this program and the staff who currently are employed by it? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see I'm not going to get a specific answer at this point. I will register that we shouldn't be the last to know. It makes absolutely no sense that we're not going to know about this until after the deadline for getting a capital funding project application in. Related to this and still an outstanding issue is the actual plan for early childhood development with money provided by Canada. We know that action plan is complete. There is some to-ing and fro-ing around when it's going to sign off. Are we looking at the same kind of a delay in making this information available...

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me talk about the Social Work Program. It is the one of those two programs I am more familiar with. The people who are teaching the Social Work Program have expertise in social work. They cannot be redeployed to, say, heavy equipment or personal care worker. What I don't understand is when these people are going to be told whether they have a future at the college or not. I am sure there are some collective agreement considerations there. When will these people know whether they have a job with the college or not? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, there are some reports that are important to schools and educational authorities which we have not yet seen and which were promised to us prior to this time in the business planning process. I'll start with, first of all, the Yellowknife School Space Study. A draft of that report was completed in the fall and we were told to expect to see that study in January. We're now told we won't see it until April. I'm wondering what the delay is in sharing this information even on a confidential basis with committee. Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions have to do with Aurora College. As we all know, there's the foundational review going on of Aurora College, and it is scheduled to wrap up at the end of March. I have some questions about timing around other things that relate to it. For example, at what point will the staff in the teacher education program and the Social Work Program be given layout notices visavis the completion of this study? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through you, thank you to the Finance Minister for that. Just to complete the record in Hansard, I see the letter isn't long. Could the Finance Minister just read it into the record so that we can put this issue to bed? Thank you.

Debates of , 18th Assembly, 3rd Session (day 13)

I would appreciate any detail the Minister could give us at this time about how those thresholds are going to change. Thank you.