Tom Beaulieu

I now rise to report progress. Thank you.

I recognize that this Teacher Education Program could be a little bit of a departure from the standard teacher education programs that may be offered in the South because many of the students are from the North. They're individuals who can be housed at Fort Smith. They have opportunities there that they may not see in the South. I recognize that there is a good SFA program. I'm wondering if the Minister could tell us how we would be able to get teachers to teach in the schools in a small community, which has proven to be very valuable, if this program gets cut?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have questions for the Minister of Education on the cuts to the Teacher Education Program, although it is not recent and I know that the cuts were determined last year. However, it is now that the students are getting word that the cuts are there, that the program will be shut down in the future. What needs to happen in order for the department to reconsider cutting that program out at this point? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I move that we report progress. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

---Carried

Another interesting dynamic about the PeopleSoft report, as I said, essentially it's generated from the main estimates. There is something that is not in report that I would like to also request the Minister to provide, and that is the amount of casuals who we have in the GNWT, long-term casuals. Perhaps any casuals who have been on longer than six months. I'm not referring to casuals where they work for a very short period of time and don’t come back, but I am referring to casuals who meet the requirements to a certain degree and then get some break and then get back on, and I believe that...

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to ask the Minister of Human Resources a couple of questions on the PeopleSoft report. I'd like to ask the Minister if the Minister can provide the latest full PeopleSoft report to committee? Thank you.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not really changing directions here. I'm trying to more or less talk about PeopleSoft, but at this point on April 1st there's going to be some changes to PeopleSoft as a result of any reductions that may be in the budget. I'd like to ask the Minister when there's reductions that the Minister refers to, and the number was given in here and I don’t want to get into the numbers things, but there was an interesting dynamic in there where indicated that many of those positions were not filled. I'd like to know if those positions were actually filled with...

I'm not expecting the Minister to maybe give me a definite answer in this, but if I recall the PeopleSoft reports did not identify unfunded positions, so the PeopleSoft report was essentially generated from the main estimates. I'd like to ask the Minister, while providing the PeopleSoft report, if the Minister could also provide a quick one-pager, or whatever it takes, to identify any positions that are not funded in the main estimates.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I want to talk about a program that is a very good program for the community, called the Community Access Program.

Mr. Speaker, that program at this point has about $1 million in it, and that's distributed to the communities. It seems like a small program, which it is a small program, but I found benefits to that program to be very big, actually. The benefits of being able to access gravel, as an example, is just one benefit that the Community Access Program, I found was something that was very positive for the community.

Some of the communities right...

Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this has become convention for me today. I'm going to do another tribute today. [Translation] There is one man from the end of the island. I want to talk about that. [Translation ends] I would like to pay tribute to the late Steven Tsetta. He passed away [Translation] October 15 [Translation ends] at the age of 25.

Mr. Speaker, Steven was born in Edmonton on April 26, 1991. Steven lived in Ndilo and Yellowknife. He comes from a huge family, which includes Tsettas, Bowles, Crapeaus, Laffertys, and Abels. He was a talented artist, computer graphics, math, and...