Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Standing Committee on Legislation, I am pleased to report on the review of the legislative discussion paper on the draft of the new Education Act.

Background

The Department of Education has been developing a new Education Act for the past five years. The process began in 1990 with a series of workshops across the north and the development of a paper called "Help Improve the Education Act."

From March to April 1994, the department consulted with students, trustees and school board officials in a series of focus groups, to discuss strategies for education program delivery and legislation in the north.

In May 1994, the discussion paper, Voices: Direction for Improving the Education Act, was widely distributed with a questionnaire to education agencies, municipal and band councils, cultural organizations and other interest groups. The discussion paper was based on comments and direction received by the department since 1990.

The department also received public and stakeholder input in preparing A Strategy to 2010. In addition to the views of northerners, much of the direction for improving northern education was founded on current educational research, the directions of the Legislative Assembly in Reshaping Northern Government, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of Canada and the philosophy of education presented in Our Students, Our Future: An Educational Framework (1991).

In fact, consultation on the development of a new Education Act has been ongoing since the Special Committee on Education was established in 1980.

The legislative discussion paper contains a preliminary draft of the legislation for comment. It is a consultation paper. The department distributed the paper to people and agencies in the north to encourage discussion and provide further direction in order to refine and improve the draft legislation prior to introducing the new Education Act in March 1995.

Standing Committee On Legislation Review Process

When the Minister tabled the legislative discussion paper on the draft of the new Education Act, he also made a motion to refer the paper to the Standing Committee on Legislation for review. Both the Minister's comments and the paper itself indicated that the department was continuing its consultations on education in the north in general, and on the paper in particular, in its efforts to bring forth the new Education Act in the very near future.

Subsequent to the document's referral to the committee, it was confirmed that the intention of the department was to obtain the committee's views on the draft legislation prior to the introduction of the education bill. The committee's review of the discussion paper was also intended to provide standing committee Members with a firm understanding of the nature and content of the legislation being proposed. In addition, Members would then be familiar with the legislative framework when the education bill is introduced and referred to the committee for public review.

The process undertaken by the committee consisted of an interactive workshop with committee Members and other interested Members of the Legislative Assembly to review the discussion paper in detail. Officials from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provided a complete overview of the consultation process and a detailed explanation of the draft legislation. This workshop took place on January 7 and 8, 1995. During the workshop and discussions, the committee was able to provide feedback and suggestions to the department on various aspects of the discussion paper. This report is a summary of the committee's concerns and suggestions and the department's responses.

Issues And Responses

The following issues and responses are presented in the order in which they appear in the draft legislation, and roughly the same order that they were addressed during the standing committee's review.

At this time, I would like to defer to my colleague from Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Lewis, to continue with the presentation of this report.