Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s not often that I get really angry about a response from this government. Today I am riled.

Last fall I tried to get some information from the Minister of Education’s office about planned renovations or upgrades to two Yellowknife schools. It took some doing, but I did get some information. It didn’t suggest much capital planning on the part of the department, though, so six weeks ago I submitted a written question to Minister Lafferty in the House. I asked for the plans that Education, Culture and Employment has for renovations or new construction for our 47 NWT...

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?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one question here, and I think it was in the Minister’s opening remarks. He talked about settlement maintainers and apprentices that, I think, sort of continuing to use them and employ them. I hear the same thing from the NWT Housing Corporation, so I just wondered, in terms of hiring settlement maintainers and in terms of hiring apprentices, is there any kind of coordination between the Housing Corporation and PWS to make the best use of people within the communities to provide the greatest service to our buildings and to the Housing Corp buildings in a...

Thanks to the Minister and Mr. Guy. One last comment. There’s not really a question here. In the absence of shared procurement, my experience is that usually problems arise when you have people who have a lack of experience in letting of contracts and managing of contracts. My experience also suggests that most of the problems occur within not necessarily departments but arm’s-length organizations like health authorities and education authorities and so on.

I guess I do have a question. My question is whether or not PWS will be taking procurement for arm’s-length organizations like education...

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. We are on page 10-7. Mr. Hawkins.