Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m really glad to hear that the formula is under review. I think the Minister has mentioned that a number of times last week.

Some NWT communities, especially Yellowknife, tend to attract special needs students, families with kids with special needs, and they seem to come here because we have facilities and services here that aren’t available in smaller communities. I’d like to know from the Minister how the department’s inclusive schooling funding formula recognizes the extra financial burden that is borne by magnet community schools.

That’s good.

Mr. Chair, I have another question with regard to these heritage funds and the culture funds. They are on pages 19 and 20. I would like to know from the Minister how these funds are administered. Are they called cultural funds? If they are just cultural funds, are they administered through the department or is there a group somewhat like the Arts Council that administers the funds and doles them out? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate that commitment and I look forward to seeing the information.

My last question here has to do with a statement in the Minister’s remarks. It had to do with the Aurora College housing. We are closing down the unit. There are savings realized by PWS from closing the existing units. It then says that the savings from PWS will be used to fund a portion of the department’s main estimates. I found that very confusing. Could I get an explanation of what is going on here? Are we transferring money from PWS to Education or what? Thank you.

Thanks. So can I get some kind of a timeline? I know you’re talking with the French school board, but does the department have a sense of whether or not there’s going to be an expansion in the next five years, the next 10 years, in the next one year? Thank you.

CHAIRMAN (Mr. Dolynny): Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that response we’ll go to Ms.

Thanks to the Minister, but that isn’t what I was intending. I think the Minister probably knows that particularly the Members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs but all Members have an opinion on how the college should work, whether it is working or isn’t working. My question to the Minister was whether or not the contractor would be consulting with Regular Members. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the information. I note the Minister, in his remarks, said to improve student performance, the department has initiated a broad-based review of the NWT education system toward developing a territory-wide action plan. That was in his opening remarks. Just now the Minister mentioned talking to people on the front lines, and I absolutely agree that needs to be done. But if this is a broad-based review, if this is a review which is going to look at the total education system, I would caution that we don’t want to put too much weight on what the people on the front lines...

I appreciate that everything has to come through to the government capital plan process; however, within the department, what does the department use? Okay, the need to identify. So once the needs are identified, does the department have a list where they have a priority list of schools, which schools will be sent through the GNWT capital planning process first before another one, for instance? So there must be some way that the department determines that school X will be put ahead of school Y. So what exists at the department to determine the priority of schools that either need renovations...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m conflicted about this motion. I appreciate the intent of the motion and I thank Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Menicoche for bringing it forward, but I’m not so sure that regulating our gas prices is what is required. I accept that it’s asking for an investigation, but I am particularly disturbed by the fact that Yellowknife has a gas price that is, give or take, 20 cents more than what it is in Hay River, which is 300, 500 miles away, but that does not, in my mind, explain why we have such a large difference in gas prices. So it’s very perplexing to me and I think that it’s...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I’ll start with a simple one. I’d like to ask the Minister, what schools are on any plan at Education, Culture and Employment for renovations or replacement in the fiscal year 2014-15?