Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The question I want to bring up today is about schoolyard safety.
One of the schools in my riding, which is Mildred Hall School, has a fire hydrant right in the middle of the playground. The children can’t play soccer or play baseball without safety concerns.
From my research, no school in the Northwest Territories, or even Alberta, has this type of safety problem. Actually, it’s beyond ridiculous that the children have to worry about this. In a situation where we have declining physical activity with children, we must find ways to encourage, not discourage, children from playing and being part of activity.
So my question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is simply this: Would he be willing to agree today to look at trying to find a financial solution to this particular problem, because it isn’t a heavy capital issue but it is one that should be paramount always before our mind: the safety of the children and making sure that they’re active in their own ways.
So will the Minister work with the school board to find a financial solution to this problem because they don’t have the money? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an issue that was just brought to my attention just now. So I will commit to working with the school board to find a solution. Mahsi.
Thank you. I appreciate that answer. I’m not sure I want to screw it up by asking another one and getting him to retract it. But does the Minister see a possibility of working on the solution within the next few weeks so we can build it into the upcoming budget?
Recently the Department of Education has taken back about $400,000 from this school board. I know the Department of Education – we don’t need the exact dollar – turns back money every single year to the Department of Finance, and I know they’re always happy to get that money back.
So what I’m trying to get at is: Does the Minister see if he can get this plan in action immediately, because it’s robbing the kids and we want to make sure we can get it in the window of this upcoming season of construction.
Mahsi. Those are the discussions that we need to have. I don’t have any information in front of me pertaining to this. My department needs to sit down with the school board and find out the details of the issues that may be before us. It’s not only our department but Public Works and Services that we have to work with when it comes to infrastructure. So that discussion needs to happen with the school board. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.
