Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The people really appreciate the Minister coming on the Sahtu winter roads and seeing it for himself. The previous Minister came on the winter road, too, drove the 700 and some-odd kilometres. I think we need to have some of our people here, some of the Ministers and people here just to take a drive on these winter roads just to experience it, to know what we’re talking about. It’s really strange to sit here and talk about it without first experiencing and knowing what people, day in and day out, go through on the Sahtu winter roads.

I want to thank the department and the contractors for doing good work. I want to ask the Minister, are we going to have this type of experience again next winter in light of maybe not seeing any type of significant work in the oil and gas industry?

Thank you. We have a guy that is going to be living in Tulita right throughout the entire winter road season who works for us. He’s a fairly senior individual in the Department of Transportation. He’ll be working with two monitors also out of the Fort Simpson office and we’ll be doing some debriefing at the end of the winter road to see what is needed. I think it’s at that point that the department has indicated that there may be certainly a look at our base. We have a certain amount of money in the base and that requires the contractor to grade at certain intervals and sometimes there’s a lot of snow in between, unfortunately. So we may look at how the grading schedule works with the contractor and that way try to maximize the work of the graders as we try to improve the winter road. Mahsi cho.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier today the Minister read into the House an Early Childhood Development Action Plan update, but what caught my attention was, within his update, iPads for new parents. Now, during this time period, since he made this announcement, I went back and looked at the main estimates, looked at the budget for this fiscal year and I was unable to find any line entry with respect to this as being an initiative under the ECD Action Plan.

So, could the Minister indicate to the House how many of these iPads the department is purchasing, what’s the total cost of this initiative and the distribution strategy? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This ECD, Early Childhood Development Framework, overall does fall within that. We will be distributing iPads to new parents so they can have a tool that they can use with their newborns or children as well. That information was part of the action plan that we talked about last year, as well, and the money has been identified.

There are around 500 mini iPads that we’ve initiated as part of the overall plan. The overall cost of the iPads is around $160,000. These are some of the ongoing costs that we’ve identified.

We’ve also had, within our department, individuals that have been working on this with particular stakeholders as well. We are, in March, doing a pilot project where we’re going to roll out at least 100 mini iPads and then full distribution in August of this year. Mahsi.

Thank you. I do appreciate the Minister’s work on the ECD plan and I’ll be looking very favourably at those numbers in due course. Ironically imbedded in today’s statement the quote is “These iPads are the techno baby bags of the future.” Now, I have to smile a little bit because the words “baby bags,” it’s well documented within ECE that there’s been a lot of year-end splurging in the past of baby bags, getting rid of budget dollars near the fiscal, March 31st , year-end.

Can the Minister indicate to the House, is this just another splurge technique to get rid of funds? Thank you.

I can assure the Member that it’s not. Since 2013-14 and also ’15, we’ve been allocating funds towards this particular programming, mini iPads for new parents, and this is very important for the parents so it can provide

increased access to early childhood development programming. Not only that, some of the parents also share with us and told us that they need help in understanding and tracking their children’s developmental milestones, providing humanization, nutrition information, recalling safety alerts. These are some of the areas that have been shared with us, and also the language apps within the program. So, this has been in the works for the last couple of years now and finally we’re at the stage where we want to distribute it. We’re ready for it in March and then August. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve heard from the Minister there’s been lots of work, allegedly behind the scenes, in preparation for these distributions of iPads. As indicated in the release, they’re going to be full of childhood apps and resources, but can the Minister indicate to the House, is he prepared to provide committee and Members the research and the evidence-base behind what we’re doing?

Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, my department is willing to do that, provide the detailed information on these particular mini iPads that will be distributed to new parents. We’ve done a lot of research not only on these mini iPads but on the overall Early Education Development Framework. The action plan we’ve developed over a three-year period to deal with the 22 recommendations. This is part of the recommendations that have been brought to our attention, that we need to provide tools and resources and that’s what we’re doing. So we’ll provide that information, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. Thanks to the Minister for his response. We know the old saying, what you spend you should be able to monitor.

With that, can the Minister indicate what performance measures are with this investment? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this is the very reason why we’re doing the hundred mini iPads in March, March 31st , just to have a review of

the testing of the technology, the cost factor and the rolling out of the program, where we may run into some obstacles or developing some programming of apps and so forth and we do have a monitoring mechanism in place as well. The Member was referring to how we evaluate and monitor, so those are areas that we have established, as well, for this particular area and also other projects in play. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Time for oral questions has expired. I’m going to call a 30-minute break.

---SHORT RECESS

Mr. Beaulieu.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 6, on the Order Paper.

---Unanimous consent granted

I would like to introduce a couple of people in the gallery. Steve Loutitt is director of road licensing and safety for the Department of Transportation, and Anita Merritt is his friend visiting us from Alberta.

Welcome to the House. Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu.

Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to opening address. Item 12, replies to budget address, day six of seven. Item 13, petitions. Item 14, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 15, tabling of documents. Item 16, notices of motion. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, February 16, 2015, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Sahtu, that the Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Department of Health and Social Services clarify procedures for Stanton Territorial Hospital employees to follow when violent incidents occur, including procedures expressly for the use of physical restraint in these cases;

And further, that the Department of Health and Social Services direct Stanton Territorial Hospital management to hire security personnel with recognized training in non-violent crises intervention and physical restraint techniques;

And further, that security personnel at territorial health care facilities be hired as full-fledged employees of the Government of the Northwest Territories, guaranteeing continuity of service and benefits resulting from accumulated experience, institutional memory and professional training;

And furthermore, that the Department of Health and Social Services review its policies and procedures pertaining to security at territorial health care facilities, including long-term care and extended care facilities, and report back to the House within 120 days.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Item 17, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 18, motions. Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that, notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on Thursday, February 12, 2015, it shall be adjourned until Monday, February 16, 2015;

AND FURTHER, that any time prior to February 16, 2015, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice and shall transact its business as it has been duly adjourned to that time.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The motion is in order. To the motion.