Kevin A. Menicoche

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement I spoke about treaties and Aboriginal rights. We are responsible for Aboriginal education and if that student moves to whatever community, I feel that home boarding should be covered. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on my Member’s statement and ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment why parents in small communities are, essentially, not allowed to decide where their students will go when they have to complete high school away from home. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Just an opportunity for some general comments and some issues that affect my constituents.

I think, most notably, I had done a Member’s statement and looked for some assurance from the Minister for the Fort Liard residents and about them using Fort Nelson and Northern BC Health Authority services given the advent of our new medical records initiative. I believe that the medical records can be transferred faster. There was a concern for the health centre in Fort Liard of residents getting medication in northern BC, then if they’re sick or ill the nurses and/or...

Mr. Speaker, thank you for your leeway in continuing debate with the Minister of Education. The parents know the value of good education and that’s why they are choosing other districts based on their own selection and guidelines that they would like for their children.

Once again, can the Minister explore home boarding not only in the district that the student is from but other communities? Also, I want to point out once again, the mitigating factor here is that there are Aboriginal rights and the federal government pays for that, and our government, therefore, is responsible as well. Thank...

I understand a bit about that, how schools are funded by each education authority. I guess my question was more related to home boarding. When students from small communities go to Fort Simpson, the education authority takes care of the home boarding and provides them a place to stay. But when the parent makes the choice to send them to another district – in this case to Yellowknife – why are we not supporting costs for home boarding in relatives’ homes or other areas? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are certainly times when our education system doesn’t support our students or support the good decisions made by their parents.

In many of our small communities, students have to go away to a larger centre to complete high school. That can be really on both the student and the parents. For example, Mr. Speaker, a parent I know in Trout Lake wants to send their child to Yellowknife for high school instead of Fort Simpson. This parent has considered the various factors and made a decision. However, the education authority does not agree with this choice and will not...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the department summary for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment main estimates 2013-2014 on page 12-7 at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much. Just on a different topic altogether with the disaster compensation, I see that we’ve got grants at $15,000. How would that disaster grant have applied to the community of Nahanni Butte for this year or last year?

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just with regard to the Canadian Zinc Socio-economic Agreement under grants and contributions of $30,000, how is that money going to be used?

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I just want to say that I will be supporting this motion and I believe that we can do definitely more. I’ve read through the NWT Tourism Marketing Plan, and even though we’ve identified an extra $600,000 in this year’s budget, I truly believe that we can capitalize and further show the world how spectacular NWT we are, once we’ve got the appropriate budget to do it.