Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We have a deputy minister. Today we have a deputy minister, we have an associate deputy minister, we have an assistant deputy minister, two

of them. Now we have added Olin Lovely. We’re going to have Dana Heide soon to retire. Basically, Olin is taking over Dana Heide’s position. At the end of the day, it’s still the same numbers. It’s just a change of titles.

Mr. Chair, I got a little confused there. So we have deputy minister, we have an associate – I believe that’s Mr. Heide – and we have two assistant DMs. Mr. Heide is retiring soon, so we have three now, or we have four now, or we’re going back to three? I got lost there. Thanks.

We have three ADMs today. We have an associate deputy, so three deputies and an associate, but the associate term will be up in June. So instead of three, four, five, we’ll be back to four again, three associate deputy ministers and a deputy minister. Mahsi.

I think I got that. Thanks, Mr. Chair. That’s enough.

Thank you. Continuing on questions on page 61, I have Mr. Bromley.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a little bit of follow-up and then one more area. First of all, I want to correct the Minister. I didn’t say it was a failure across all regions; I said it was a failure in my region specifically in Yellowknife. If the Minister had been with us on our tour of Aurora College Yellowknife Campus, I probably wouldn’t have seen him because we had to squeeze single file through the areas, and if anybody stood up from a desk, that stopped our procession and you would have been out of sight. This has been a known situation for a long time now. Talk about sardines in a tin can. It was pretty amazing. We well know the issues at Mildred Hall, at Sissons and so on. So I just want to correct that.

I think the Minister has done a stellar job in the Beaufort-Delta for example – I didn’t say anything about that – and in the Sahtu and so on in terms of infrastructure, but for three years of a paltry $2 million or $3 million of education infrastructure across the whole Northwest Territories and letting issues drop off the plans that have been referred to, I’d say, yes, there’s a basis for my conclusion.

I want to express appreciation for the Minister being open to looking into the possibility of a guaranteed basic income, a form of that. I’m interested in learning more about how that relates to the labour force issue and how they offset income or supplement income somehow. But I think there’s more than one way to skin a cat, so I would be very open to learning more about that.

My last issue is the education system, generally with the large 10-year review or comprehensive review of the entire education system that’s being planned, and my reference earlier to the Finnish education system which I gave a Member’s

statement on and had some questions for the Minister. He was interested and I know he’s explored that system and is aware of their success and their high stature because of that success around the world. I’m wondering, as we do this comprehensive education review, where is the Minister at in terms of looking at how we can adopt and adapt some of the Finnish approach, or is there a perspective already on where we are at with that?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I would like to thank the Member for addressing this particular area where it’s been addressed in the House as well. I did show interest a while ago, how the Finnish overhauled their education structure. This is an area that my department has been exploring and continues to do so because we have to learn from the best practices from other jurisdictions as well. If this is an area that will benefit the Northwest Territories, by all means, we will tackle that issue. It is at preliminary stages. We’re still compiling that information. It’s not only in that country, other countries are very successful that we are collecting information from as well. Mahsi.

I thank the Minister for that. I will leave it at that, I just wanted to raise that possibility. It sounds like a comprehensive review will take a bit of time. I am anxious to plant seeds, if possible, at the early stages of this. I appreciate the Minister’s response. That’s all I had on this page. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we report progress.

---Carried

I will rise and report progress. I’d like to thank our witnesses here today. Sergeant-at-Arms, if you would please escort the witnesses out of the Chamber. Thank you.

Good evening. Item 21, report of Committee of the Whole, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Your committee has been considering Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016, and would like to report progress. I move that the report of Committee of the Whole be concurred with. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Do I have a seconder? Mr. Blake.

---Carried

Item 22, third reading of bills. Mr. Clerk, orders of the day.

Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Accordingly, this House stands adjourned until Wednesday, March 4th , at 1:30 p.m.

---ADJOURNMENT

The House adjourned at 5:59 p.m.