Robert Hawkins

Mr. Speaker, my written questions today are directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Will the Minister supply a copy of the terms of reference to the program review that he has referenced is taking place at the Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith?

Will the Minister provide the details as to when this college program review started and when it is expected to be completed? And what are the Minister’s intentions for the program report generated in this review?

Will the Minister provide the details as to when this college program review started and when it is expected to be completed...

Mr. Speaker, I had a mother tell me that her kid woke up in the health centre in Fort Smith because he got a beating. Like I said, he woke up in the health centre.

Mr. Speaker, I had another person tell me about being chased running to the store. And the stories go on and on and on. I’ve heard that the students feel intimidated throughout the community; it’s like the community doesn’t want them.

Mr. Speaker, I want to know exactly who is doing this review? Who? Do we have a name of who’s doing this review? And how much is this going to cost us, and where are we going to take it?

Mr. Speaker, while I quickly ran upstairs to type a written question, my office was contacted again by someone else who had another unhappy experience at the Thebacha College, which I referenced.

Mr. Speaker, the point is — I hope it is being well made — that there is something strange going on there, and the fact is that if students are not feeling safe or their safety is being put in jeopardy in any way, I hope that message is being to delivered to the Minister of EC&E.

Mr. Speaker, with all that I’ve said right now, will the Minister be willing to put this so-called review on pause just so...

Mr. Speaker, I heard nothing about review of students past and present to find out about the students’ safety. I heard nothing about — if I may quote from the Minister’s statement today: “Students are most successful when they have many supports….” I want to make sure we're supporting our students.

Would the Minister be willing to make sure that the terms of reference are provided to Members? Would the Minister be willing to accept more questions as to what type of survey questions should be out there, just to make sure that we're doing the right kind of review at this time?

Mr. Speaker, in my Member’s statement today I spoke of the Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith and the fact that we may not be meeting all the needs of our Northern students. It really is a question of safety and effectiveness. We cannot have a 67 per cent drop in our trades program without that raising a warning flag.

I’ll go a little further and say that we had a Social Worker program offered in that community. For two years in a row it had little or no attendance. It had to be cancelled and was moved to Yellowknife. There it was picked up, and it’s being subscribed to quite fully.

My question...

Mr. Chairman, I move that $500,000 be deleted from the Interim Appropriation Detail booklet amount set out in Schedule 2, Capital Investment Expenditures, item No. 4, Health and Social Services, page 6, for the project Health Care Centre, Fort Smith.

Interjections.

As I said earlier today — and I’ll reference again that people don’t want to go there — we have a Social Worker program that people don’t want to go to. It wasn’t fully subscribed to, cancelled, moved to Yellowknife and was fully subscribed to and even over-subscribed. The trades have dropped by 67 per cent — two thirds. So the fact is that people aren’t wanting to go there.

What is this Minster doing about this process, and is he cutting back on the college’s budget and funding because people don’t want go there?

Mr. Speaker, without hurting anyone’s feelings or insulting anyone, I have to tell you when the Minister says that ECE and Aurora College are doing this review, it’s like putting the fox in charge of the hen house, for goodness’ sake. I mean, why doesn’t he say to me that the president is reviewing the effectiveness of the campus in Fort Smith — by the way, where he lives and runs the program. Wow, I’m sure that will be independent.

Mr. Speaker, what I’m asking for is an independent review. What I’m asking for is: will the Minister bring to Members — maybe just myself, but I’ll tell you that I...

Mr. Speaker, let me say it very clearly: MLAs want input on this survey. Rather than doing a survey without any consultation in this House…. It’s nice to hear that a survey is going on, but I didn’t hear when this was going to come forward. I didn’t hear about consulting MLAs or any details about that. These are some important issues that need to be decided in this House, and if we are going to do a survey, we should be having input from this side of the House to make sure it is effectively done.

Would the Minister ensure that MLAs such as myself have input on this survey? If this is done in...

Mr. Speaker, if there's a review going on, I'd like to know what the review means. Does the review mean you're going to go to an independent survey? Does it mean you're going to create questions, or you're going to check with students? What is the definition of a review? Does it include the staff, the management and the bureaucracy of Aurora College, to make sure we're delivering safe and effective programs for our students?