Kevin O'Reilly

For some of the construction of the school, the federal government provided up to 80 per cent of the funding. Has the Minister of Education been in contact with Heritage Canada officials about any potential contributions to fund the expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the answers from the Minister. Once again, though, I am very concerned that this happened under our watch, part of it, and my objective in asking these questions here today is to show the importance of that division, the work that they do, and I know that they have started this work to get some sort of guidelines, policy framework, in place. They even changed legislation so that there are mandatory requirements for financial security, looking at the forms of the security, and even mandatory requirements for closure plans.

As a smaller government, we just can't...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Everyone in this House, especially me, will be relieved to know that my questions are in English.

---Laughter

In my Member’s statement earlier today I talked about the court-mandated expansion of Ecole Allain St-Cyr. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment confirm whether he has begun discussions with the Commission scolaire francophone Territoires du Nord-Ouest and the [English translation not provided] for the expansion of the school?

Thanks very much, Mr. Chair. I am just wondering, when the GNWT took over the jurisdiction post-devolution, did we make any efforts to get the water licence security for Cantung increased? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[Translation] Thank you. Transportation by buses or by taxis to have access to other areas is a waste of time which could be better spent in the classroom. Three classrooms are currently used at William McDonald School, but students don't want to go into that school as the culture and climate is very, very different. School enrolment at the primary level continues to grow, but the school is losing students in its high school program, which is in crisis. In 2015-16, nine of the 42 students left for other Yellowknife high schools. This is a vicious circle. At Ecole Allain St-Cyr students are...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to move on. It's my understanding the GNWT may still hold the surface lease for the Cantung Mine. Can the Minister confirm that?

Thanks, Mr. Chair. My next question is: after we took over the jurisdiction for securities with devolution April 1, 2014, did the GNWT take any actions to transform that promissory note into a more secure form of financial assurance? If I could just talk a little bit about that. A promissory note is just a letter saying that somebody is going to promise to pay somebody some money. A much more secure form would be something called an irrevocable letter of credit, which is issued by a chartered bank. You give that to a bank and the bank pushes the cash across the counter. That's a much more...

I understand that a good part of the claims work is on the Yukon side, the mineral claims, but can the Minister send somebody out to the site to have a look at the Northwest Territories side to confirm that there are no liabilities and could he report that back to the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Environment? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Sure. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Chair I did send a set of questions to the Minister on the special warrant, so, if I may, I'd like to proceed with some questions to the Minister and his witnesses. I'm wondering if the Minister can explain how the GNWT ended up owning the Mactung mineral property. Thank you, Mr. Chair.