Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and just a quick thanks to the staff for drafting this on the fly. Mr. Chair, I move that Committee Motion 91-18(2) as contained in Committee Report 7-18(2): Report on the Review of the Members' Conduct Guidelines and the proposed amendment thereto be referred to the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures for further consideration in accordance with Rule 58(e). Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I am not sure about how the procedure would work here. I wonder if we could amend the amendment to refer this motion back to the Rules and Procedures Committee to take on the task of defining exceptional circumstances and to bring that recommendation back after that work is considered. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to present a petition dealing with the matter of funding for junior kindergarten and other options for families.

Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 184 electronic signatures of Northwest Territories residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment provide flexible, real choices for parents of four-year-olds by ensuring that all options for children are properly funded and that the money follows the child in whatever option is chosen. The petitioners also ask the Minister to fully fund junior...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item number 5 on the order paper. Thank you.

---Unanimous consent granted

It is my understanding that ECE increased its subsidy for the first time in eight years last fall, but that no further increases are being planned, and yet these programs are going to lose their four-year-olds, or some of them, come this fall. How is the Minister going to offset the loss of those children in the fee-based programs?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I spoke about parents who want to maintain the current range of choices for early childhood development and I asked the Minister in writing to provide an analysis of how the implementation of JK will accommodate the existing programs. Unfortunately, I didn't get an answer. My question is: can the Minister say whether this analysis has ever been done, and if not, will he undertake it? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On Tuesday I spoke about the work the Standing Committee on Social Development will be doing during the break. We will be reviewing Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act. In addition to reducing instruction hours, the amendments to the act will establish junior kindergarten as a territory-wide program.

Mr. Speaker in his response to my written questions earlier this week, the Minister failed to answer two questions. They concerned the viability of other, non-school-based programs that serve four-year-olds.

Mr. Speaker, the larger communities like Yellowknife, Hay River...

I would like to thank my friend and my colleague Mr. Nadli for his words. I know that they are spoken in truth and from the heart. I also know that the voters of the Deh Cho made the right choice in returning him to this Assembly as their MLA because he is a very good MLA. I very much appreciate the wisdom that he brings to our debates, as he has done here today. That said, we are not on the same page.

I want to talk about a couple of things. The reason that we are talking about family violence and not drunk driving or theft or a number of other crimes is because of the prevalence of family...

Mr. Chair, I have heard some justifiable concerns from my colleagues about the need for greater definition around the phrase "exceptional circumstances" and some clarity about how this is going to work in the context of eligibility for being a candidate in the territorial election. I think that that is a worthy question, and I believe it is worth the committee's time to examine it, and to provide some clarification to it, and bring it back to this House for further consideration. Thank you.

I could make one. I move that recommendation number 2 of the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures report entitled "You Are Standing for Your People" be referred back to the Rules and Procedures Committee for further clarification. Thank you.