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.
The answer will be yes. We are gathering all of the information. We will provide those to the board chairs as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
