Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to raise the issue of student busing. As you may be aware, student busing was suspended in Hay River for the first month of this year, school year.
Mr. Speaker, it was unfortunate how the cancellation of busing materialized. What it did was create a possibility that some students would have no means of transportation to get to school. This forced the Minister of Education to conduct an investigation as to whether or not the decision by the Hay River DEA to suspend busing was a sound one.
Mr. Speaker, the decision by the Hay River District Education Council was cited by the investigator as political. This the decision failed to consider the student transportation regulations and lacked community consultation.
Mr. Speaker, the Hay River DEA referenced a lack of funding for their decision, and there is no doubt in my mind that due to the drop in student enrolment over the years that the Hay River DEA is underfunded when it comes to student busing. However, we have legislation in place that provides the DEA and the DEC with authority to offer or not offer student busing, and we also have a set of criteria that must be considered when reaching such a decision.
Mr. Speaker, regardless of the funding issue, the student transportation regulations sets out specific criteria when assessing whether or not busing should be provided. These regulations appear to have been ignored otherwise the decision by the DEA would have been to would not have been to cancel busing.
It was fortunate that the DEA and the DEC were able to find 400,000 which allowed busing to restart.
Mr. Speaker, the issue of busing not only impacts the community of Hay River but from what I hear, also communities such as Inuvik are grappling with the issue as well. It may be time to rethink how busing is managed. It may be that the department needs to remove it from the DEA's and the DEC's authority and operate as part of the department's overall infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, busing is an integral part to student learning. Without it, many students may not make it to school something we want to avoid. I do not want the DEA to have to go through this every year as it puts stress on students, parents, the busing contractor, and DEA members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Members' statements. Member for Nunakput.
