Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have instructed my officials to review the busing guidelines to ensure that the busing is consistent throughout the Northwest Territories. I anticipate that the student transportation assistance policy guideline will be reviewed with the local education authorities and the divisional boards in time for the 1993-94 school year.
Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education was never funded to provide students with transportation. The funding for student busing has been provided for individual requests -- the school bus funding has been justified because of distance and severe safety hazards.
In 1990-91, the department provided $1.5 million to the boards for busing. The department carried out a survey in 1989 analyzing housing patterns in the communities and their distance from the schools, as well as safety hazards and transportation needs of students. As a result, the student transportation assistance policy guidelines were approved in principle in 1989 by the cabinet, but no additional funding was approved to implement the guidelines.
The two main principles guiding the student busing are that all students should have access to school programs, and student age and the distance from their homes should be considered the main criteria for funding of busing services. Mr. Speaker, the criteria for busing, approved in principle as I said earlier, says that the boards will provide for students who are the age of five and six if they live half a kilometre away from the school; students the age of seven to 10 years old if they live one kilometre away from the school; and students the age of 11 and over if they live one and a half kilometres away from the school. However, this criteria is used now only as contracts. Additional funding is required to implement the policy guidelines if they are to be stated. In some cases where there are no private contractors we have assisted the divisional boards in purchasing the buses through our capital process. Those places are: Fort Rae, Edzo and Pangnirtung. Thank you.