Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask my questions to the Minister of Education today. Over my time as MLA I get lots of inquiries over the Student Financial Assistance program. There’s always been a call to increase it and I understand the department is reviewing it. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education exactly where we are with this process. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The single students, the single-family students, the couple’s students with children all are waiting for this review. The most important question: will it be completed enough to impact students who are going to return to school this coming fall? Thank you.

It’s not only for those that travel to other communities, even though their needs are just as great, but even in their home communities, those rates, they feel it’s still a little bit low. What is the scope of the review of the Student Financial Assistance program, Mr. Speaker? How encompassing is it? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Communities all across our North strive towards self-reliance and self-sufficiency. I’m pleased to speak about Nahanni Butte today, the community in my riding that took a big step towards this.

Last month the community of Nahanni Butte and Canadian Zinc signed an impact benefit agreement for the development and operation of the Prairie Creek mine. There was a commitment for jobs, training and community contributions. This impact benefits agreement is an example of how First Nation communities and industry can work together to advance interest on both sides.

The...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, during my recent constituency visit to Wrigley in January, I was contacted by the Wrigley DEA members and parents who are concerned that students who went to Fort Simpson for high school were having a lot of problems. If these students are to complete secondary school, their only alternative is to live in Fort Simpson and attend the Fort Simpson high school, and they cannot. Those that do attend are at the expense of the parents.

I am proud that in the past three years there have been a total of 14 children who travelled to...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be glad to go through the Minister’s budget for her. It’s the line item on prevention and promotion services. The budget item is up a million dollars from the previous year, from the revised estimate. That was my comment there, Mr. Chairman.

I’m glad to hear that we’re expanding respite services and I’d certainly get the confirmation if it will be done in Fort Simpson. Most particularly for families of special needs is what I was asking for there, Mr. Chair.

As well, I think, if anything, one additional item that I’ve raised with the Minister already...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Just with regard to the delivering of community health programs. As I travel to the communities in my riding, the communities have been requesting, I think the communities get a $5,000 allotment for developing their own community-based community health programming. One of the communities, I think it was Trout Lake, found out that for the amount of in-house programming that they wish to deliver, $5,000 they feel doesn’t really cover their needs. They’ve often asked me to forward that concern on to the Health Minister. I think I have on a couple of occasions in...

I’m pleased that the Minister and I are of the same mind. I think if we take it one step further, of course the Dehcho Divisional Education Council must meet with the parents in Wrigley, sit them all down in the same place and find out some of the issues. I think the next step is to also get an independent evaluation of the residence system that’s there to see how it can better fit for the smaller communities and students in the post-secondary education from the smaller communities. I’d like to ask the Minister if we could work towards that for the time being.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education some questions on the Member’s statement I provided earlier today on the students of Wrigley on the concerns of their parents about not accessing proper education for their children in Fort Simpson.

The issue is, Mr. Speaker, there is a residence in Fort Simpson that is exactly designed for out-of-town students but, for whatever reason, they’re not able to attend there. There’s no option to provide education to our small, remote communities if we do not access that residence. There must be alternate solutions. So I’d...

I’d like to thank the Minister for that response. I’ll be glad to follow up on it.

I know that the Minister of Health and Social Services is looking at expanding the respite care programming and piloting a couple of programs. I see that even the budget for that line item went up by almost a million dollars. I’d like to know if that is the case and are they looking at communities such as Fort Simpson for something like that. I do have some constituents that could benefit from respite care services. In fact, I had thought that we were using it at one point for some constituents in Fort Simpson...