R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the Emerging Wisely document, I believe it is phase 3 that the colleges can open. What the college has been planning for is for distance learning, come September. However, we don't know exactly where we're going to be, and we would like to be able to provide some in-person instruction for people who absolutely need it. The work is ongoing to try to figure out if we can do that, but the plan right now is distance learning for the most part. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Like I said, it is still pretty early here, but if students make the decision to come home and complete their courses online, I would imagine they would be expected to complete their courses online; but, like I said, it is an evolving situation and perhaps there are going to be situations where the online delivery doesn't quite work as well as it was expected, considering that some schools are throwing this together over the weekend. A mass of universities are trying to pull this off over the weekend. I am open to doing what we can to ensure people aren't adversely affected by this pandemic...

The communication about self-isolating and about the precautions that need to be taken has been happening, I believe, since January, was the first time that the department reached out, and I will ensure that those continue to happen. Similar to the schools, I don't have the authority to close day homes, as it is being done in other jurisdictions, but if there is a serious health concern, the Chief Public Health Officer likely has the ability to close that. If people do have concerns about what is going on, they should be bringing those forward.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is an ever-evolving situation. When I was looking at the news on Friday, it was changing right before my eyes. A few schools were closing their doors, but most were moving online, as the Member said, so classes aren't necessarily cancelled. Courses have moved online.

A lot of universities are also keeping their facilities, their resources open, like libraries, and so students might make the choice to stay down and finish their semester there because they need access to those types of resources. That being said, some who have the ability to complete their entire...

What the Premier said was that I consulted with the Chief Public Health Officer and received advice to close NWT schools until after Easter. That is advice. I don't have the authority to close those schools.

I have a meeting today with the chairs of the DEAs and the DECs, and they are the ones with that authority. Our recommendation will be to follow the advice of the chief medical officer, which is to close schools until after Easter. What that means, we are not sure yet. We will see where we are at that point and then re-evaluate, but there are a number of options on what can happen.

In the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There is a meeting today, I believe at 1:30. The deputy minister and the departmental staff are going to be having a meeting with all of the superintendents, including those from the Beaufort-Delta. There has been contact over the past few days, as well. Those conversations are happening. I'm making sure they're happening.

It doesn't matter if I support them or not. They have the right to do that. I just want to let everyone know that this is a very serious concern. I take this very seriously, as do all the Cabinet Ministers. This has been our lives for the last little while, now. This is what we're focused on, is making preparations for this. There are a lot of concerns about blanket closures of schools. It can't be overstated, the types of socioeconomic impacts that closing a school can have on a community. There are childcare concerns. It would mean people would have to stay home from work. Some of those...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to reiterate some of the comments that were made by my Cabinet colleagues here, and I will be voting against this motion. Part of my responsibilities as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is the Income Assistance program. There has been a lot of discussion in this House recently about the Income Assistance program, and particularly about how we can better help those who are Income Assistance clients, how we can help them become self-sufficient. To that end, I've been looking at how we can reform those programs to help make people more self...

Monsieur le President, I am proud to celebrate the francophone community of the Northwest Territories during the 22nd Annual Rendez-vous de la Francophonie. This nationwide

initiative, held every March, is an opportunity for Canada's 9.5 million French speakers to promote the French language and celebrate the many ways it is expressed throughout the country.

The Rendez-vous encourages us to celebrate the strength in our diversity and cooperatively address the challenges we face as a territory. This year's theme of "Au centre d'un changement" is especially relevant as we begin the work to achieve...

There is a plan. There is an action plan. I can get the Member more information. Just to let you know, the department is very supportive of this. In the 2019-2020 fiscal year, the GNWT provided $20.4 million for Indigenous language education initiatives, and 5.9 of that was federally funded. The vast majority of that comes from the territorial government. A quarter of the funding was distributed directly to regional Indigenous governments for language revitalization initiatives; $9 million was committed to implementing NWT action plan that I spoke of earlier; and $11.6 million was allocated to...