Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. About two years ago a new teacher arrived in Fort Liard and noticed the youth lived, ate, and breathed soccer. As she got to know the students and the community, she realized one of the students had the opportunity to go to England for a soccer camp and a tour the previous summer. This seemed to be the talk of the community and the school.

Mr. Speaker, this led to the idea of a school trip outside of Canada. After checking with her fellow teachers, the DEA, the DDEC, community members, and the older students, it was decided that this would be a great idea. After a lot of...

I appreciate the Minister's answer and look forward to hopefully implementing this. However, as we are talking about the plans, it can be a long process. What will happen if this government does not utilize all of this money? Where does this money go?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today the Finance Minister provided some information to the public and to us in the House about increases to the budget. In one of the lines, it says that we will increase the budget for homecare for $2.5 million. Through the whole process, we started at $1.5 million, so can the Minister of Health and Social Services please advise this House what this extra $1 million amount is going to be allocated for in homecare? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer. I understand what they were trying to do. I just didn't know this fee existed, and I don't know a lot of people probably did know that. Mr. Speaker, as the honourable Member for Kam Lake spoke about the airline collecting these fees and charging administration fees, has the department agreed to a percentage that the government is going to accept the airlines to do it, or is this something that the airlines actually impose on the government for collecting these fees?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, my colleague the honourable Member for Kam Lake was talking about the user fees and landing fees being proposed by infrastructure, the new potential infrastructure department. They talk about between $8 and $10 million going to be potential new revenue. In regards to the $10 million or this money being proposed to be collected by the new airport fees, how much is this going to be coming from the GNWT's medical travel and GNWT businesses? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the deputy minister for that answer. Could the Minister advise us if these two positions were vacant or if they were reduced through a package at the end of the day? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the deputy minister for his answer. Just to follow up on honourable Member from Sahtu, when we talk about other program costs, is there a rationale for it being split up, or why couldn’t we just put it into the areas that it should have been put in? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. I think we are looking at the bigger centres, and that is why we are seeing a larger increase. With the implementation of junior kindergarten from the start, my understanding is the department required the divisional education councils to provide $2 million of the startup cost. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if this $2 million is on top of the $1.4 million? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I thank the Minister for that answer, but he has to also realize that I speak for the territories. I sit as the chair of social development, and I am hearing these concerns across the territories. I have to agree with the Minister. It is working well in my region, and I am not saying that. I am saying, across the territories, there are concerns, and this is why we are asking these questions.

Mr. Speaker, ECE has indicated that it will take $5.1 million to implement junior kindergarten in all of the remaining NWT classrooms, not including some onetime spending to make classrooms physically ready...