Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I talked about the issue of barrier-free schools as well as their playgrounds. The issue at hand is simply that we have one particular school, and I have no doubt in my mind that there are many others throughout the Territory, that could use some support to make sure that the school and the playgrounds are barrier-free. Mr. Speaker, my hope is that the Minister will see this as a broader and long-term solution, recognizing, I know, we can’t solve every problem at once but we can certainly work towards doing our best today. Mr. Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: would he be able to look into this problem that N.J. Macpherson School is having, to see what support the Department of Education, Culture and Employment can provide at this time? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is definitely an area that we need to look at with the schools. We are trying to make it as accessible as we possibly can, especially with the older infrastructure barrier-free schools. Those are the areas that we are always improving and enhancing, whether it be playground equipment or school accessing, the railings and so forth. Certainly I will work with the school boards and also with our department and with the MLA on where we need to identify those areas. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I may applaud the Minister for a fantastic answer on dealing with this issue. Mr. Speaker, just one last question. I certainly hope, as I view this as a territorial problem not just a Yellowknife problem -- and I stress that -- would the Minister look into the feasibility, and I stress, look into only the feasibility at this time about drawing it into a long-term program where we can ensure that all our schools are barrier-free and certainly accessible not just to our students but to our community? Because, as we all know, schools are schools during the day, but they are also the heart of the community in the evening when you want community functions and events. Mr. Speaker, I am looking towards the bigger picture. Would the Minister take a look and see if it is feasible to set up a funding program that could work towards these needs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, it is a territorial-wide challenge with some of these older facilities. So those are the areas that we need to highlight and my department has been working closely with the school boards to identify those areas barrier-free and try to identify some areas of funding, if that is required, working closely with the school boards. There are also parental advisory committees that we work closely with as well. Apparently there is funding allocated as well. Those are the areas that we need to discuss as a group. We will certainly talk further on this particular item. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
