Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would have to provide the detailed evaluation at a later date, as soon as I can get that from the department.

I can tell the Member that MACA is working with the community of Fort Resolution in particular. They are initially looking at changing their status from a settlement to a hamlet, which will enable them to own assets. They will be able to get a lot of money from the New Deal. They’re also planning on going into Lutselk’e later on this month to meet with the community there to see what options they can put together for them.

MACA is working with the communities to identify negative impacts of lack of maintenance. They are working with the communities to develop capital plans so that the

funding will be allocated to take care of those impacts as required.

Mr. Speaker, will the Minister conduct a meeting with me and each of the communities to discuss the development of the new community specific infrastructure strategy? There seems to be a vast difference between the smaller and the larger communities as far as community infrastructure goes. If the Minister could commit to that.

Certainly, I will commit to meeting with the Member and each of the communities to discuss it. In my initial briefing and meeting with the folks from MACA last night I did give them the direction that when we look at allocating infrastructure funding, I’d like to try to find the balance where all communities receive their fair share of funding.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today I raised a matter that I take very seriously and I find very important. The matter really is about student safety while they’re travelling.

I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment: would he look into the matter of making sure there are safety guidelines for all travelling students, and would he work with his partners at the school boards to make sure something could come forward as soon as possible?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly, we do take safety as a first priority in any trips that are going on, these sports trips for students or community trips. Most of the time they go on a school bus, and as you know, the school buses are regularly maintained. Those are the factors that come into play.

It’s the students’ lives we have to deal with, and they are the first priority. I can provide that information to the Member. Whether he wants the schedules of maintenance or information pertaining to that, I can provide that to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, when they travel by school bus, I certainly hope that they are well maintained, et cetera. What this really comes down

to is small teams. All big schools can afford big school buses, but when you send a small team…. As I recall very intimately, when I travelled in a small group, we used to take small vans and cars, and they sometimes went without any formal guidelines for safety.

Really, what I’m asking is: would the Minister look into things like guidelines that reflect making sure we have a first-aid kit, making sure the driver, who may be the coach, has a certain amount of downtime, and maybe even making sure they have a satellite phone just in case something happens during winter travel. That’s the type of issue I’m trying to raise, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister look into that?

Mr. Speaker, for the transporting of students, whether it be by bus or van, we take the safety precautions of inspecting those vehicles, maintaining those vehicles. We are fully aware of the incident that happened in another jurisdiction. We are taking safety as a priority. Certainly, I can come back to the Member with the information he’s requesting. There are certain guidelines on the safety aspect. Each school board could provide that, and I can have that available for the Member.

I am well under the understanding that some school boards have certain guidelines. I just want to make sure that the Department of Education is taking some leadership on this issue and some guidance on the bigger issue. I want to make sure that all school boards have a full understanding of the complexity of this problem and that the territorial government supports those complex problems by making sure they have the appropriate equipment so all kids travel to their events and homes safely.

I’m asking the Minister: would he take the initiative, garner what guidelines some schools have, what some don’t have, and create some general guidelines that would be applicable to all schools?

Mr. Speaker, within the education system, with the Education Act and also the guidelines and policies that we follow, those do come into play even before the trips go out. Identification of the maintenance of the vehicles…. If there are any problems with the vehicles, then they need to work on those vehicles, as well, before they hit the road.

Certainly, most of the school boards and also school authorities have a common practice of regular maintenance on the buses, and they have school vans as well that they maintain on a daily basis. There is a common understanding that there are guidelines in place and that there’s a safety factor. It does come into play as the first priority of our educational system.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ve heard I think three times that the schools take care of maintenance, and I appreciate that. That’s not the only issue. It’s an important issue

—

don’t get me

wrong; it really is

—

but there are more issues.

There are issues such as if the coach is the driver. The coach has been coaching all day, all weekend. Then what they do is they drive the team back in the dark, maybe on a cold winter’s day, and they’re exhausted.

Mr. Speaker, with those types of guidelines I’d like us to sort of take a formal approach, bring them together. It’s the guidelines of making sure there’s a satellite phone, which I know there isn’t. Yes, it’s goodwill to have a first aid kit, but making sure everyone does it…. That’s the question I have for the Minister: would you take on leadership of drawing up general guidelines that would be applicable to all schools?

We can certainly gather the guidelines we currently have in place to see if we need to improve in certain areas, whether it be the satellite phone for a long journey from here to Hay River, that type of deal, or Smith or isolated communities, for that matter. Those need to also be taken into consideration.

At the same time, these are important issues we’re dealing with. On these trips and journeys it’s not only one coach who goes. There are always chaperones. There’s always an assistant coach and the students and the peers of the students. We have to keep that in mind as well. It’s not only one person who drives. There are other teammates who are going on these journeys as well. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d just like to follow up on my Member’s statement in regard to inspections of wood stoves and pellet stoves in our smaller communities.

I know that in larger centres like Yellowknife and perhaps even Inuvik they’ve got access to certified inspectors. I’d just like to know the government’s position in getting inspectors out to the smaller communities. There’s certainly assistance needed for this important matter. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure about Yellowknife, but I don’t think there’s a wood stove inspector in Inuvik. The insurance company — I know from experience — requires that very stringent inspection process. We have the gas inspectors and the boiler inspectors in many of the regions. I did some checking, and I know that the Office of the Fire Marshal is not qualified to inspect wood stoves. So this may be something we would have to have a look at and see if it’s something that’s feasible to bring into regional offices.

I’m glad to hear that the Minister is responsive to the needs of the communities. As I said in my Member’s statement, on one hand, we’re encouraging the use of wood stoves and wood pellet stoves and alternative fuel energy, and on the other hand, we’re not making it easy by providing inspectors. People are actually at a great risk level, because there are no inspectors for their homes and they need insurance. House insurance is important for many, many different factors, Mr. Speaker.

Once again, it will fall under MACA, so I’d like the Minister to really have a good look at this. Can the Minister come up with some kind of strategy to provide inspections for wood stoves in the regions and communities?

I totally agree with the Member that we do try and encourage the use of wood stoves, so we should have mechanisms in place for people who want to install wood stoves. I know for a fact that existing wood stoves have to almost be opened up to be inspected. With new wood stoves, new construction, it’s a little easier.

But the Member’s asked if I would look into a possible strategy, and I assure the Member that I will ask the department to have a look at a strategy and see what options we can come up with that would be of benefit. Because we do encourage people to burn wood, I guess we should have mechanisms in place to back that up.

I’m sure glad that we’re going to take care of the long term need, but the needs that people can knock on my door and my office are for today.

I’d like to know if the Minister can look at doing some type of travel assistance to get these inspectors out to the communities, because their home insurance policies have now expired. It’s just not fair for them to individually pay $1,400 when government’s here and they can make some travel assistance to the inspectors, Mr. Speaker. Can the government look at that?

Yes, there are a few qualified wood stove inspectors, I believe, and it does, as I think the Member pointed out earlier,

cost approximately $1,400. I’ll assure the Member that I’ll talk to ENR and the Arctic Energy Alliance to see if there’s some financial assistance that could be provided to bring an inspector into the community and maybe hit more than one unit at a time.