Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today: community subsidies and assistance for professionals.

Recently in one of the Nunakput communities they evaluated their subsidy contract with the teachers. As a result, they felt that continuation of these subsidies is very important. Providing subsidy and assistance for two professionals to costs such as accommodations goes to the very core of the number of issues facing small, remote communities, especially in the Nunakput region.

Due to the unique geographic challenges and enormous operating costs, our communities are continuously disadvantaged while trying to provide the same services to our residents. Many of these services are very basic, such as education and health care.

Another community concern identifies teachers having to pay rent only 10 months of the year while local housing authorities absorb the remaining costs. If we’re going to try to develop realistic solutions, then it is important that we don’t focus on identifying which community-based offices should absorb the cost. Rather, the approach should be to take all levels of government together to recognize these extraordinary costs to provide resources accordingly.

I also believe that the government must be proactive to work with all community governments, offices and industries to encourage an environment for real infrastructure development. Programs such as teachers’ housing subsidies are very important to the future success of our students. Many communities lack adequate accommodations for teachers for the upcoming school year. The recruitment and retention of teachers in small, isolated communities, such as my hometown of Tuktoyaktuk, is critical to the continuing success of our students and schools.

Recently this government initiated the Come Make Your Mark Campaign. This campaign is an attempt to attract more people to the North, but many of our residents have questions. How can we attract people to the North when the housing conditions are so desperate? Housing has been identified as the most important reason when this comes to recruitment and retention of professionals.

I will have more questions for the honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment at the appropriate time.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. I’d hoped that the Standing Committee on Social Programs would have had an opportunity to discuss the Department of Health and Social Services’ response to our recommendations before we began debating in the House or talking about it in the media. However, the response was tabled and the free-for-all has ensued, so I too will now talk about the government’s response.

The Department of Health and Social Services indicated that they did not accept the recommendation for prevention and early intervention in the 2011-2012 budget because the budget had already passed. This sort of tells me that the reason for the recommendation was sort of missed.

The communities were told that a lot of issues of child protection and child apprehension was due to the addictions of the community. The Standing Committee on Social Programs recommended that the department provide support and resources to communities for such things as healing on the land. This was conditionally accepted by the department, but indicated that there was a certain amount of money being spent by the GNWT and the federal government. However, the community has indicated that they have not seen positive results.

The current Child and Family Services Act claims where the Child and Family Services Act committees would be set up in each community. This act has been in place for over 12 years and more attention was needed in this area, not just conditional acceptance with a provision that this could be done if there was more money. The Standing Committee on Social Programs saw this as a very important item in child protection.

Working with First Nations communities to create more foster homes that are culturally appropriate for children in care was also a recommendation. This would require work on the part of the department to work closely with the First Nations governments, and the department should endeavour to do so.

Many of the recommendations were accepted outright and this is a step in the right direction. I will have questions for the Minister of Health and Social Services at the appropriate time.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I’d like to highlight the accomplishment of an excellent educator in our Yellowknife education system: Mr. Paul Bennett, principal of Ecole J.H. Sissons School.

Mr. Bennett is in Toronto at this very moment as one of 32 educators from across our country receiving the Outstanding Principal Award for Canada’s Learning Partnership for 2011. Canada’s Outstanding Principal Awards are presented to administrators who have made unique and crucial contributions to publicly funded schools and this year we are lucky to have one of our northern principals as a recipient.

Paul, as many of you know, has been the principal of J.H. Sissons for the past 10 years and I would like to say that he has become a pillar of that school’s success as the principal of the NWT’s first single-track French immersion school.

As one of two schools in my riding of Yellowknife Centre, I often have the pleasure of visiting J.H. Sissons and supporting them as often as I can. On each occasion I’ve visited them I’ve learned even more about their great programming and leadership. What becomes increasingly clear is that with Paul’s hands-on, caring approach, he has had Sissons school students become recognized as a place of pride, a place where they want to be, a place that they find higher learning with great success.

As a francophone, he works hard to foster in his school a community where students are proud of their French language and their culture, which instils further pride, rate of success, and impressive achievements from everyone, both students and teachers alike.

Paul, without any doubt, is a true icon in our educational system throughout our North. He inspires others to reach in ways that they did not know they had it in them. He is cherished by his students and respected by his staff and peers, which I’ve witnessed myself.

Paul is leaving a legacy of success and his students are answering his call to action as they reach and achieve greater heights in learning. I can tell you that YK1 is lucky to have him and I would definitely say the North should certainly be proud to have him as one of our northern principals receiving this national award.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to welcome and recognize Mr. Dave Reid, the president of the NWT Teachers’ Association.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize Mr. David Reid, president of the NWTTA.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Great Slave, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement I talked about the airlines and our lack of morning flights, with the exception of Saturdays. I know that Canadian North recently announced that they’re going to be putting some morning flights in on Saturdays and Mondays, and maybe possibly some other days. My question is for the Minister of Health and Social Services. I understand that the airline that we use for medical travel is First Air. Can the Minister confirm that for me?

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, Ms. Lee.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as I’m aware, we don’t have one airline that we use. We use all airlines available. Canadian North just instituted morning flights for four mornings out of the week. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That’s not the answer I expected. I had received information from the Department of Human Resources about medical travel saying that we’re committed to our northern providers, which are Canadian and First Air, that our primary contract for medical travel was actually First Air, and Canadian North was only used when we couldn’t get appropriate flights on First Air. Frankly, I’m totally stunned that we use all the providers. I mean, WestJet and Jazz aren’t northern-owned or operated. That is stunning to me, as a matter of fact.

With respect to what I believe to be true with the fact of medical travel and the fact that First Air is our provider, First Air used to provide morning flights. They don’t provide morning flights anymore, except for Saturday. I think this is going to cause us a problem with respect to the cost of medical travel,

because people are going to have to stay down in Edmonton when they go for appointments as opposed to flying back in the evening. Has the department engaged First Air or any of the airlines about morning flights, specifically, our contractor First Air, to see if there’s any opportunity for them to reinstate some of these morning flights and save us some money? Thank you.

I need to confirm that. I don’t know where the Member got that information. I’m not at all aware and I don’t believe that we use only one northern airline. We use both and we use smaller airlines as well, community airlines if they are available for medical travel, because we have people travelling from all over the Territories to Yellowknife and then on to Edmonton. Mr. Speaker, we use First Air and Canadian North to facilitate medical travel.

I’m aware that we use different airlines to travel to Yellowknife with the small airlines. It’s pretty much one of the only ways we can get into Yellowknife from some of the smaller communities. I’m talking specifically, obviously, of Yellowknife to Edmonton.

Morning flights have been an important part of medical travel in the past and I’m concerned that with currently no morning flights, that the costs are going to peak. I’m just curious what kind of action plan the department is putting in place. I know that there’s a review being done by the review office in the Executive. I’m wondering what types of plans are being put in place to help us control some of these costs, which can be blown up, of having to house people in Edmonton for longer than we have in the past. What is the department doing to help us reduce our medical travel costs?

Our staff that organize medical travel arrangements from Yellowknife to Edmonton would use the most economical means of booking those flights, but as the Member is well aware, some of our medical travel is time sensitive and we can’t be going for the cheapest flights.

I just want to confirm again that, as far as I am aware, we use both First Air and Canadian North. They are both northern airlines. Canadian North introduced a morning flight for Monday mornings in September, and on February 3

rd

they announced

that they will reinstitute morning flights from Yellowknife to Edmonton on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. So we have four out of seven days of morning flights. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think some of those dates don’t take effect until April. So we’ve had a couple months here where our costs have probably been higher.

I go back to my original question on what are we doing to control the cost of medical travel in the Northwest Territories. We do have a lot of our residents who go down for short appointments. I know there’s always the other circumstance, always the one-of’s, but a lot of our residents go down for short appointments, and now our costs are going up. My question still stands. What is this department doing to help us, with the help of the Program Review Office, to control our costs on medical travel? Thank you.

That is part of our daily business, to manage our medical travel budget wisely. As the Member is aware, medical travel is under review from a couple of points of view, but from a daily arrangement for our residents who need to go to Edmonton, they are booked for the services they need. It is true since they’re having less flights and less direct flights and less turn-around between Yellowknife and Edmonton, we have seen the costs go up, but we have to do what we have to do for our residents. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lee. The honourable Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to stand up, like my colleague Mr. Abernethy, and say I’m completely stunned, but I am, I am stunned by this Student Financial Assistance Handbook. Mr. Speaker, I’d like to know why the SFA Student Handbook, the Form ‘A’ Travel Claim, the Student Handbook and the student travel reminders all contain conflicting information. Perhaps the Minister could enlighten me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are policies in place for a specific reason. What the Member is referring to, I can touch on. The student case officers need to track all expenditures, our sponsors, our subsidies to the students through the SFA program. Not only that, but there are also First Nations and other organizations that also sponsor students. We just want to be cautious about who is paying for what trips. If the First Nation claim is paying for a particular trip, then we need to be aware of it so there are no duplications. We just want to have accountability in place. That’s part of the reason why we have this policy in place where there is that transparency. We just want to keep track of expenditures.