Robert Hawkins

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My written question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Would the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment please provide the analysis that was used to support a funding reduction for inclusive schooling?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t recall it being a standing committee recommendation, but if the Minister wants to blame standing committee, I guess we’re big enough to just accept that and move forward. We’re talking about going forward, of course.

Was the reduction of inclusive education money meant to penalize or redirect those who were not spending the money properly? Was it a form of punishment? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be again to the Minister of Education regarding inclusive schooling. Maybe, for this moment, on my first question I’ll ask the Minister his version of what is inclusive schooling. Maybe he can explain that. What is the purpose of the money and how does it help the students?

Thank you. If the Minister responsible for Education doesn’t want to be responsible for the inclusive education, maybe we should be asking him today who should be responsible for this and how has it improved the lives and education of students who need inclusive education money. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and my question is simple. Does he support inclusive education and can he explain it? How and why?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Many schools, including those in Yellowknife, are shortchanged when it comes to support in funding for inclusive schooling. This is the practice of including all students with special needs in regular classes and providing the extra support they certainly need and deserve.

Yellowknife schools are attracting special needs students from far and wide. Why? Because it’s a clear demonstration of the good quality schools we have here. As well, sometimes the families need to come to Yellowknife for the other services, which include health care, respite and counselling.

Insuffic...

Just one last question in this regard. Are they seen as a territorial board for egg producing or are they seen as a local micro-board looking after a smaller region? I would just hate to think that somebody expressed interest from the Sahtu to start raising layers and the Hay River-stacked board says no to protect their interest in the market. I guess, to demonstrate public confidence and surety, how do you describe the board in its role at the territorial level? Are they a local microcosm board or are they a territorial board?

Thank you. Maybe I’ll say it for the record, the layers are chickens that lay eggs, which sounds obvious, but that said, if anyone follows this closely as I do they may have wondered what that is.

If the deputy minister could elaborate a little more on the council, their role, who’s on the council, explain where the council’s authority comes from and what the relationship is with the general public. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I won’t spend too much time. I think most of my colleagues have spent a fair deal in going through things. The only areas I’d like to re-emphasize, of course, are a couple of them that did stand out.

I, too, am curious how much work was done on the removal of the BIP office to the South Slave. I am not against us devolving to other areas. I do continue to stand by taking people who are in working positions without better plans, so what I’d like to see here is, I’d like to hear some feedback as to how this analysis drew down to saying this office is the best one we should...

It’s really nice the Minister is assuring me they’re going to do this and I’m really happy when he says they like to hear from consumers. I guess my question now is: What should consumers expect and what type of activity is the Minister going to take to demonstrate that they’re going out and getting input from consumers? Because an office buried in a department doesn’t advertise far and wide enough to draw this type of discussion. So if he says he cares about them and he wants to hear from them, how is this Minister going to rise to that challenge? Thank you.