Kevin O'Reilly

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the response from the Minister. Can the Minister tell me: does the department have projections right now of the number of junior kindergarten students that they expect across the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. I know the Minister is anxious to get on, but I had a closer look at this bill last night, and I do have some concerns.

First off, the department, and I want to commend them for this, they did go through an extensive public consultation around what was called the Northwest Territories Air Regulatory Framework last summer. I submitted comments as an individual. One of those sets of comments was around whether the issuing of air permits is something that might be handled by the land and water boards, who already have a well-established system of doing so that allows...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just so I am clear on the process here, are we allowed to ask questions about the subject matter of these clauses? Is this the appropriate time? I see the clerk shaking their head. Okay.

This is the part of the bill that deals with junior kindergarten. Late yesterday, the Minister sent this document to the Standing Committee on Social Development, which I have got a copy of as well. It is the 2017-2018 school funding framework. In this, there are sort of different formulas for different aspects of school funding. There is administration, inclusive schooling, Aboriginal...

Thank you again to the Minister. It sounds like all of this information is going to get pulled together, and that is a good start. Of course, we have to also think about how this information is going to be shared with the public. Will the results on any health implications be simply posted on a website somewhere? What is the plan to make this information available to the public?

Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I do appreciate the time. Can the Minister's staff let us know whether the John Howard Society has ever delivered a program like this in the past? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Merci, Monsieur le President. Yesterday, the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources made a statement about arsenic monitoring in the Yellowknife area and how our government would improve coordination of its responses. This is good news and is a helpful response to concerns I raised earlier in this sitting. While it is good to hear that ENR staff have begun monitoring Kam Lake and Grace Lake, look around. Yellowknife is surrounded by small lakes. What plans does his department have for a systematic approach to sampling most if not all the lakes around Yellowknife, and would this include...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Again, I will express some concern here that the Regular MLAs, we actually asked for the program to be reinstated for a full year, and the most the Minister would commit to was six months; and then, all of a sudden, it jumps from a one-year RFP to a four-year contract. That's a very significant change in course, so I will just leave it at that for now. The reason why I am going to ask this next question is, I understand, I have worked for NGOs. All of them sort of go through ups and downs over the years, but there have been some recent changes at the John Howard Society in...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I will be supporting this amendment to the bill. If you look at the memorandum of understanding, this change in instructional hours was clearly characterized as a pilot project, which means that it is going to be evaluated at the end of it. This was not meant to be a permanent change necessarily, but the way the bill was drafted, this was going to be a permanent change in instructional hours. We had this drawn to our attention by some parents. I noticed it when I first read the bill. This is a permanent change. Where is the review of this?

I believe that this amendment to...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes I guess I will go on record as having expressing some concern about this. As I understand, the RFP was for a one-year term, and now this is, I guess for four years. That is a significant departure from what the RFP had called for. Does anybody have any explanation of how we went from a one-year to a four-year arrangement? Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Clearly the Minister is not going to answer this the way that I want him to. He is not going to do the work. I will have to find another avenue. Perhaps a written question will be the proper way to do this because he is just not cooperating, and it is quite disappointing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.