Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised a matter that I take very seriously and I find very important. The matter really is about student safety while they’re travelling.
I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: would he look into the matter of making sure there are safety guidelines for all travelling students, and would he work with his partners at the school boards to make sure something could come forward as soon as possible?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we do take safety as a first priority in any trips that are going on, these sports trips for students or community trips. Most of the time they go on a school bus, and as you know, the school buses are regularly maintained. Those are the factors that come into play.
It’s the students’ lives we have to deal with, and they are the first priority. I can provide that information to the Member. Whether he wants the schedules of maintenance or information pertaining to that, I can provide that to the Member.
Mr. Speaker, when they travel by school bus, I certainly hope that they are well maintained, et cetera. What this really comes down to is small teams. All big schools can afford big school buses, but when you send a small team…. As I recall very intimately, when I travelled in a small group, we used to take small vans and cars, and they sometimes went without any formal guidelines for safety.
Really, what I’m asking is: would the Minister look into things like guidelines that reflect making sure we have a first-aid kit, making sure the driver, who may be the coach, has a certain amount of downtime, and maybe even making sure they have a satellite phone just in case something happens during winter travel. That’s the type of issue I’m trying to raise, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister look into that?
Mr. Speaker, for the transporting of students, whether it be by bus or van, we take the safety precautions of inspecting those vehicles, maintaining those vehicles. We are fully aware of the incident that happened in another jurisdiction. We are taking safety as a priority. Certainly, I can come back to the Member with the information he’s requesting. There are certain guidelines on the safety aspect. Each school board could provide that, and I can have that available for the Member.
I am well under the understanding that some school boards have certain guidelines. I just want to make sure that the Department of Education is taking some leadership on this issue and some guidance on the bigger issue. I want to make sure that all school boards have a full understanding of the complexity of this problem and that the territorial government supports those complex problems by making sure they have the appropriate equipment so all kids travel to their events and homes safely.
I’m asking the Minister: would he take the initiative, garner what guidelines some schools have, what some don’t have, and create some general guidelines that would be applicable to all schools?
Mr. Speaker, within the education system, with the Education Act and also the guidelines and policies that we follow, those do come into play even before the trips go out. Identification of the maintenance of the vehicles…. If there are any problems with the vehicles, then they need to work on those vehicles, as well, before they hit the road.
Certainly, most of the school boards and also school authorities have a common practice of regular maintenance on the buses, and they have school vans as well that they maintain on a daily basis. There is a common understanding that there are guidelines in place and that there’s a safety factor. It does come into play as the first priority of our educational system.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve heard I think three times that the schools take care of maintenance, and I appreciate that. That’s not the only issue. It’s an important issue — don’t get me wrong; it really is — but there are more issues. There are issues such as if the coach is the driver. The coach has been coaching all day, all weekend. Then what they do is they drive the team back in the dark, maybe on a cold winter’s day, and they’re exhausted.
Mr. Speaker, with those types of guidelines I’d like us to sort of take a formal approach, bring them together. It’s the guidelines of making sure there’s a satellite phone, which I know there isn’t. Yes, it’s goodwill to have a first aid kit, but making sure everyone does it…. That’s the question I have for the Minister: would you take on leadership of drawing up general guidelines that would be applicable to all schools?
We can certainly gather the guidelines we currently have in place to see if we need to improve in certain areas, whether it be the satellite phone for a long journey from here to Hay River, that type of deal, or Smith or isolated communities, for that matter. Those need to also be taken into consideration.
At the same time, these are important issues we’re dealing with. On these trips and journeys it’s not only one coach who goes. There are always chaperones. There’s always an assistant coach and the students and the peers of the students. We have to keep that in mind as well. It’s not only one person who drives. There are other teammates who are going on these journeys as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
