R.J. Simpson

Ms. Karin Taylor on your left, and on your right Ms. Christina Duffy.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So we need a facility to hold youth. Whether that is the current facility or we build a new facility, we do need somewhere. It's not really feasible to send youth away to Whitehorse or Edmonton. And I think we all know that the cost of constructing something new is a big upfront cost, and so our option would be to construct something new and then try and do something with this current facility that already exists and is pretty difficult to repurpose or to keep the facility as is.

So that's a long way to say that I wish there was an easy solution where we could say, yes...

Yes, I would.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Everything's on the table right now when we're looking at modernizing the Education Act. Any changes we make to the regulations have to be done in consultation with the education bodies. So it's not something that I can just do on my own. That being said, I think it's important to get rid of as many barriers as we can to students getting education. And so ensuring that students can access transportation when they need to is one of my priorities and whether that is an elimination of fees or whether that is a system where income is taken into consideration, I'm looking at...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, that's one of the things that ECE does. We do have the number of programs that try to connect employers with student so students can actually gain experience while they're in school. We are rolling out career and education counsellors to help connect employers with students and figure out and help students figure out what they need to get to the careers they want. So that's exactly the type of work that we are undertaking at this moment. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The exact process that's involved with building a school in a community, I can't say that I am overly familiar with how ECE works with Infrastructure who works with MACA who works with Lands, it's very operational. But whatever we need to do to ensure a successful project, I am committed to doing that. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents entitled Legal Aid Commission of the Northwest Territories Annual Report 20202021; and, Annual Report on the Activities of the Rental Officer April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the fact that it came to this investigation is a symptom of some of the issues we have in the education system. The ambiguity in the Education Act, the massive responsibilities that local DEAs have without the appropriate, I guess, clerical and administrative support to carry out those responsibilities. And so I knew there were these issues coming in to this Assembly and that's why I said, since day one, that this busing issues is one of my priorities and I want to address it before we are done here.

So I am going to take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Member is speaking about one of the issues we spoke about in the summer when we were in this House, whether or not there would be money for bussing. And at that time, I was of the mind that there would be more than enough money for busing because I knew what was in the bank. And as it turns out, the projected deficit of nearly a million dollars was actually a surplus of nearly a million dollars, so there was more than enough money for busing. And the DEA's share of that is somewhere around $400,000. We do have a surplus retention policy. We do want schools to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree with the Member, skilled tradespeople are key to the economic success and prosperity in the Northwest Territories. So I've heard a lot about the need for additional trades programming and giving high school students and younger students even more access to the trades, more opportunities. And so our curriculum review and our Education Act modernization have, through the engagements we've heard a lot about that, and so going forward that will be a focus. I can't commit to offering certain programs in certain schools. Of course the education bodies definitely...