Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Charlie Furlong, who is with us in the gallery, who has served as a community leader for many years in Aklavik.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a great pleasure to welcome the Grade 5 class from N.J. Macpherson located in the great riding of Kam Lake. I’d like to welcome all our young visitors to the Assembly today.
In particular I’ve got a few constituents I wanted to recognize. Sade Blondin, Brady Harbin, and Julia Bikbaeva. I also believe Aidan Drew is my constituent, as well, so I’ll recognize Aidan as well. I once again thank them for wearing pink on Anti-Bullying Day and welcome to the House.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to welcome the students here from N.J. Macpherson and thank you. You, too, look awesome in your pink today.
I’ve got some residents here from Range Lake I’d like to recognize here in the gallery. I’ve got Aidan Drew… No? How about Zach Smith? My good swimming buddy Mr. Liam Philipp. Mackenzie Pariseau, Destiny Hobbs-Stewart, Kealan Harper and Meadow Munroe. Thank you, students, for coming out today.
I have one more resident here from Range Lake who is no stranger to this House, Ms. Sandy Lee.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to take this opportunity to also recognize Mr. Charlie Furlong from Aklavik, and a former colleague and good friend to Judy and I, Ms. Sandy Lee.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s quite a pleasure to recognize the Grade 5 N.J. class who walked all the way here from their school. Very impressive to them getting some active living. Although recognized already, I would like to recognize Aurora Nind. She is also a resident of Yellowknife Centre. If she could stand. And Kelsey Robson. Thank you both. Thank you to your class on your great effort. You guys look fabulous today as well.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’d like to welcome all our visitors in the public gallery here today, that you’re taking an interest in the proceedings here today. Thank you and welcome. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to today recognize two Pages from Hay River South, Angela Roy and Kateryna Staszuk, Grade 8 students from the Ecole Boreale school in Hay River, and also the chaperone, Kateryna’s mom, Michelle Staszuk.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the Christmas holidays the community of Tulita celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of a truly respected couple, George and Celine Campbell. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell made their vows to each other on December 29, 1961, in Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I’m proud to say that our community was part of that history when the celebration took place to honour George and Celine. I want to recognize them today for their commitment to their vows and for keeping each other in their hearts. Spending half a century in love with one person is a wonderful testament to the gift of marriage. Celebrating a golden anniversary certainly deserves recognition. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Campbell.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the bullying and how it is not part of the culture that I grew up in. It was more respect for the people and the culture. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment if the Education department is looking at how to include more Aboriginal teaching or mentoring programs that can be introduced into our education system that would look at more of respecting each other, respecting the environment and to prevent bullying.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We definitely don’t accept bullying in schools. Part of the going forward basis, I guess, there are certainly individuals that we heavily depend on. There are elders in the schools that we’re going to be introducing and, as the Member alluded to, Aboriginal-speaking teachers. Most of the students look up to their teachers, look up to their siblings, as well, older siblings. That is part of the plan with the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, to introduce those individuals who are highly respected at the community level that can teach our children. That is the overall plan, long-term goals and objectives. We are exploring those areas as well.
I certainly look forward to the day when we can have elders into our schools. We worked on it long enough. I think the Minister is going to make an announcement, hopefully soon, that we’re going to have elders in our schools.
Getting back to how do we work with bullying, I know there are many other areas that we need to work on as a society as a whole. However, our children now spend most of their time in the schools Monday through Friday throughout the year. Can the Minister look at a program where possibly it could be a pilot project where the Aboriginal culture could be taught more forcefully, maybe introduced strongly to have this issue looked at from the Aboriginal perspective on bullying?
We do have certain programs in the school system that promote on-the-land programming and cultural orientation. We could do more in that respect. We do provide funding to the school boards to promote even more culture-based and community-based programming even at the school level. I can definitely share that with the board chairs with whom I have quarterly meetings and I can promote more of these types of important programs that should be delivered in the schools as well.
I was in Tulita when the students went out to do an on-the-land program, and the instructor said these students were just having fun and they were respecting each other because they depended on each other. But he said once they got back into the school system, they started to get a little more out of that respectable behaviour. I want to ask the Minister would he again look, with his colleagues, the boards, at whether we can put more of these types of programs more than just once or twice or three times a year, have these types of on-the-land programs that would be introduced into the education system?
As the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, I gave a directive to the school boards, because we provide funding for culture-based programs and we noticed some of the money wasn’t being expended thoroughly into the culture-based programming. There’s been a directive given, so the school boards are fully aware that we need to do more in those areas and utilizing the elders, utilizing the community members as expertise. We will continue to push that forward with the school boards as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister look at programs within the school, like I mentioned to my spouse, that maybe some type of organized program could be there to help the students develop into some wonderful athletes and look at their own self-esteem such as sport and recreation programs that could be used throughout the year?
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the overall plans. We noticed there was an article in the South Slave Journal highlighting various programming, which highlighted me, as the Minister responsible, to work closely with the principals and the school boards, which we’ve done in the past and will continue to do, as well as working with Municipal and Community Affairs, working with Health and Justice. This is a collaborative approach when it comes to the wellness of all children of the Northwest Territories. That is our overall mandate. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for the Power Corporation. I’d like to ask him what the current negotiations are with some of the potentials that affect the Hay River area such as companies as Avalon and Tamerlane, a couple of mining companies.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Power Corporation, Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This issue has been discussed around the Cabinet table. As well, the Power Corp has had discussions about what may be possible among its board members and within the corporation. As well, there have been some discussions with the proponents of these various projects about the need for affordable energy and power, how critical that could be and what’s possible, especially looking at the area by the Buffalo Junction where some of the proposed sites are. Thank you.
My next question is concerning some of the potential high demand for some of that power and is there any potential for the expansion of the Taltson hydro system.
There is significant potential. We’ve spent, over the last Assembly and before, about $13 million doing all the technical work, getting all the permitting and environmental work done when we initially contemplated going up to the diamond mines. That has not proven feasible, so now we are looking at options both north and south with grid connections with putting the power into the communities, a possible hookup to Yellowknife. The Member has mentioned two potential mine projects that could put that power to use. We know that the Taltson has up to about 200 megawatts of power if fully put to use. Thank you.
I think the Minister kind of indicated a little bit about this, but my question is: Is there still consideration to build a transmission line south to Alberta or Saskatchewan to allow us to sell some of our power during peak demands in their areas and actually buy cheaper power when the demands are lower at different times of the day?
That is an option that is currently under consideration. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Your final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My final question is about the potential of biomass and the generation of power through biomass, both buying power from maybe a provider or supplementing some of the high costs up north, generating power maybe through biomass. Has the Power Corporation investigated this potential and where are they currently at with that?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has done a significant amount of work on the whole area of biomass and released a Biomass Strategy. We have invested significantly as a government in converting buildings. We are talking to a proponent now, currently, who has some very ambitious plans to look at a pellet plant in the North that would bring value-added industries into the North for the provision of biomass. NTPC itself is going to be looking at the possibilities in some of the smaller communities to try to look at replacement of diesel. As well, as we consider the circumstances in Inuvik, that is as well one of the options being considered. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment. In my Member’s statement today I talked about bullying, but I also, at the end of my statement, called for legislation that this government needs to put in place, legislation to counteract bullying and to create awareness and so on against that particular activity.
There are many statistics that are out there. Members have mentioned many of them in their statements. I think the importance is recognized, and I think it’s been recognized by the department and by the Minister. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not there is any possibility, whether or not it is on the radar of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment any time in the near future to develop a piece of legislation that addresses bullying. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the areas that is of great interest to us, as well, since we’ve heard in the news the bullying has increased. We do currently have policies in place that deal with the local school boards, the regional school boards, but we talk about the legislation for the overall Northwest Territories. That is an area that we are exploring.
I wish to come back to the Members within six months or within a year to highlight what we found, and we are comparing with other jurisdictions as Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. We have an ongoing dialogue with them. We will provide that information to the Members. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we have a great, very long line-up of legislation that is waiting to be done. I really appreciate the fact that it is on the radar for the Department of Education. I look forward to getting something back in the near future.
The Minister mentioned that there is a policy. I would like to know from the Minister, is this a policy that directly addresses bullying or is it a different kind of policy. If I can get a bit of an elaboration on what policy does exist within the department that schools are asked to implement. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, there are various school boards that have policies addressing bullying. I don’t have the specifics of those policies before me, but each school board has their own jurisdictional policy that deals with their students in that region in the communities. I can provide that information once I get my hands on them. Thank you.
I thank the Minister for his response. I thought he had referenced a policy that would be an NWT-wide policy. I understand now he is referencing policies that each school board or education authority has. I think there is a need within the territory for a policy that is territory-wide. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not his department will lead a coordinated action to bring the education authorities together so that we have a coordinated and a common approach to bullying across all of our schools. Thank you.
Most definitely this will be one of the topics of discussion when I meet with the board chairs.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate that it is going to be on the list of things to discuss with board chairs, but my question to the Minister was whether or not the department would take the lead and would initiate some action to coordinate bullying. I would like to ask him if he is willing to do that. Thank you.
