Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 4, returns to oral questions. Item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some folks that are tied in with the NEBS legislation that are putting a lot of time in this particular bill: Shawn Maley, Nicole Pintkowsky, Bev Walker, Cassandra Cassaway, Rebecca Masongsong, and Ken Burns from Lawson Lundell. Thank you for being here today.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. R.C. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Damon Crossman who works for our sport and recreation division and a man that can find you anything when you go to the Arctic Winter Games. I’d also like to recognize and wish good luck to Jamie Koe, who is going off to the Brier, I believe it’s this weekend, and if you need someone to pack your brooms, I’m available. Thank you.

---Laughter

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Mr. Ramsay.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wanted to take a second to recognize a few folks in the gallery today. Superintendent of YCS Ms. Claudia Parker and also assistant superintendent, Mr. John Bowden, a former teacher of mine at St. Patrick’s, welcome to the House today. I also wanted to recognize and wish good luck to Jamie Koe, Team NWT at the Brier that’s coming up at Kamloops. Good luck to Team NWT. I also wanted to wish good luck to Damon Crossman. I know he does a lot of great work at MACA with sport and rec. I know the team is on the way to Fairbanks in a few weeks. Good luck to Team NWT in Fairbanks, as well, and good luck, Mr. Crossman.

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize Anti-Bullying Day today. In the gallery I would like to recognize two people who wrote the lyrics and produced the song “Think Pink,” the anti-bullying theme song that was performed at the Pink Shirt Day today in the Great Hall. They are here with us today, Teaya Crossman, a Grade 3 student from Weledeh Catholic School, and also David Dowe, a classroom assistant from Weledeh. Also joining them is Damon Crossman, Teaya’s father. Of course, I’d like to recognize the superintendent, as well, Claudia Parker, and Assistant Superintendent Johnny Bowden.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again I want to recognize my son McKinley Hawkins, who wrote the speech I had the pleasure of reading today and I want to thank him for allowing me to read his words on his perspective of bullying. That said, I’d like to thank all of my colleagues for sharing the time and allowing me to do as such. I must finish by saying, now I have to get him back to Weledeh. So, thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to introduce to you and through you, a number of

residents here from Range Lake. Of course you heard already Mr. Damon Crossman who is here, who is a resident of Range Lake, and his daughter Teaya with her song. I guess it was played this morning on CBC, so now you’ve got a hit soundtrack out there, so I’ll get your autograph later for that. Also in the crowd, as we heard earlier, Team NWT representing the Northwest Territories, Mr. Koe, who is also from Range lake. Good luck, my friend. Of course, we were all inspired by the young Mr. McKinley Hawkins, who writes just as good as his dad, I think, in the House. Better. We’ll leave that up to the jury.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. I’d like to welcome everybody here in the gallery today. Mr. Shawn Maley, a good old friend from up in Inuvik back in the early days. Welcome here, everybody. Also to Mr. Koe, I see you’re going to be playing your brother first game, so good luck. We’re all behind you.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The Member for Hay River South, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Evidence suggests that suspending a bully is not effective because it basically rewards the bully with a vacation from school.

I’d like to ask the Minister, what progress has the department made towards a tiered approached to discipline in the schools with suspensions as a last resort?

Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The bullying has been the highlight of the day today and throughout all schools across the Northwest Territories it’s a special day for us. We talk about the suspension for those bullies that are bullying the students, and we’ve been dealing with the school boards on how we can develop a plan of action. There is a draft Safe Schools Plan by this department in early June of 2014, working in collaboration with all the school boards to deal with those matters that Member Groenewegen is alluding to, where if there’s going to be a suspension it’s considered as a vacation. We heard that from the students. We want to take those seriously into consideration, so those are the discussions we’re going to have, and we’re going to

develop a plan of action in 2014 that’s coming this summer.

I’d like to thank the Minister for that. Can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment describe his department’s efforts to address bullying through collaboration with any other departments such as Municipal and Community Affairs or the Department of Health and Social Services? Could the Minister describe if there are any of those kinds of collaborations taking place?

I’m glad the Member is asking that specific question. Yes, indeed, it is a collaborative effort. It’s not just the Education department. As Member Bisaro also alluded to, we’re in a workforce environment, so it does cover all spectrum of activity that is happening in the schools, outside the schools, so working in collaboration with MACA, Health and Social Services, the Justice department and other departments are getting involved. It is one of our priorities, as well, to prevent bullying from happening in the school environment, in the work environment and in other places within the Northwest Territories. It is a collaborative effort.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Colleagues, before we go on today, I’d like to recognize today in the House that it’s Mr. Blake’s birthday today. I’d also like to wish Mr. Bromley’s mother a happy birthday. It’s her 88th birthday.

---Applause

Happy birthday, and hopefully you’ll have cake today, son.

The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it is dealing with income assistance.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, what does the department do for people who are stricken to their homes or place of residence and have challenges such as disabilities, reading, writing challenges, anything that might hinder them from being able to go to the income support office to get the assistance in filling out an application? What does the department do with people that need this type of assistance and are stricken to their home? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did raise cutting some red tape in this

House. That is one of the areas we’ve initiated with income support, the reporting mechanism on a monthly basis like we have on a quarterly basis or every six months type of deal. So those with disabilities, we highly recognize them. We want them to have an easier life than all these different reporting mechanisms. Some can’t walk to the office and we recognize that as well. We’ve made some changes in that respect.

We have client service officers working diligently with those clientele that have the disability. Most times the CSO would go to their household, as well, to assist them as much as we possibly can. We want to make it easier for those people with disabilities. It’s my department’s goals and objectives to reach out to them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister alluded to my second question. That was how do we reach these individuals who are in their homes. Do we have a community outreach worker or a mobile client service officer for the communities? I know in some of the smaller communities, we have these government service officers that might be able to help, but in some of our regional centres where the GSOs aren’t readily available -- we have a higher population – our home care can address these as well. They usually help in that case.

Can the Minister confirm that in the regional centres that we do have mobile client service officers that go into the homes to help fill out applications that are needed? I’m also really concerned about the safety of these client service officers that might be going into these houses and if they are being accompanied by any type of RCMP officer. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.