Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to reflect on some of the issues I’ve been working on and have been raising with the Minister over time and I think the most recent was in my Member’s statement today where I was talking about the Bompus Elementary playground and the efforts of the parents group to raise funds for it. I think the department really went out of their way when they assisted Fort Liard enough to extend that over to Fort Simpson and do what they can there to replace that playground, because it is pretty sad when I think this is almost the second year for those children playing out there and there’s hardly any playground equipment. It goes a long way to health and wellness and happiness of the children when we look at that, Mr. Chair.
The second biggest issue I’ve been faced with now is the amount of Wrigley high school students that are not successful in Fort Simpson. I really think that we have to do a good review or some kind of assessment just to see what’s going on there, because our students are running into trouble and we’re going to have to support them, Mr. Chair. So we’ve got to review that situation and we’ve got to ask the Dehcho Divisional Educational Council to get into Wrigley to meet with the parents and look at some solutions and work with the parents to see if there’s a better way to do it, because they are concerned.
Like I said, I think it was over 12 students in the past three years and as far as I’m aware there’s only two successful students that were able to maintain themselves in the student residence that’s there. So we’ve got to really look at that situation, come up with some alternatives. We cannot deny
them educational opportunity. The divisional education council has taken the position that, okay, if they’re not successful in this residence, then we’re not paying for the students anywhere else, and like my colleague just indicated, our smaller communities have low to little income and paying on their own for students to get to a different community is very hard. We’ve really got to have a look at that.
I’m pleased to see that there’s money in the budget this year to do the Student Financial Assistance review. Over time I get contacted lots, I get students inquiring, can we have a better rate, is there a better way to support the students in school. I don’t know, maybe the Minister can write this one down, but I think the biggest little change that you can do is pay for even their rent, because right now their rent has got to come out of their student financial assistance and I think it’s almost, like, 25 percent of their contribution agreement when we include rent, and probably higher in some other institutions, even if they go down south. So that’s something that we should try to consider. I know at a place like Aurora College it would be easily done, because it’s local and Aurora College is virtually government, so rent can be easily monitored, but when they’re going down south to other institutions it will be a little bit harder. That’s something that doing that one little, small change I think will go a long ways.
Another issue that I found particularly hard this year was the seniors’ home heating subsidy and having non-working children that stay with the elder. Some of them have trouble with the filing of their income tax statements or going backwards to get income tax statements done. Apparently it’s a firm guideline, there’s a firm rule that they have to see this. I offered the solution of let’s do a statutory declaration if that person is having issues with getting income tax statements, just to self-declare with a semi-officer of the law that, yes, they did not make any income in the last year, and that’s a good enough solution for the interim. Then we can always get the paperwork necessary later, because the income tax takes quite awhile. Somebody who needs fuel in December, if they’re waiting for paperwork from income tax Canada and the flow of paperwork is going to take two months and by then the elder still needs fuel every two or three weeks, that fuel goes a long ways. The seniors do not have that much income.
I spoke often about the schools in Trout Lake and the one in Nahanni Butte and I really believe that we have to start developing a strategy to upgrade and beef up our schools in the smaller communities, because I think we spend lots of money on super schools and big, expensive schools, but now it’s time to start concentrating on the smaller communities. I’d sure like to see us work towards that. They really have to be
refurbished. Some of them in my communities are 20 to 30 years old and they do need reworking. I believe that we have to start developing a strategy towards that.
I’m pleased to see that all the work we did on the official languages is finally making its way into the budget. There’s a start in terms of some of the programming that we’re looking at for official languages. I certainly continue to support that and would certainly like to see more of it done in future budgets. Certainly it’s a start on revitalization and supporting our Aboriginal languages in all the communities and in the schools. I know that we just did the Aboriginal student achievement workshops. The Minister was in Fort Simpson and people were very pleased to see him there, taking the time to be with the people, to hear their needs, and indeed we have a long ways to go because some of the Aboriginal Student Achievement recommendations did include languages. We have to start working towards that, getting it into the schools, immersion style. I believe that would really help our Aboriginal students.
I think another big thing is the Minister and government have heard about employment rates in the small communities. I’m glad to see there’s money in the budget to continue our successful summer employment for small communities this coming summer once again. I look forward to working with the communities and getting the proposals in and getting some work in the communities.
Just with that, I’ll end my opening comments now and I’ll be glad to address further concerns as we deliberate the budget for the rest of the week.