Those are real good ideas that I’m going to have a discussion with the deputy minister of Human Resources on.

One thing that was contemplated this year, it was interesting, it was brought up by another Member

last year, and that was hiring students on a 0.7, 0.8 basis so that they have an opportunity to also work outside of their field of studies and maybe go into the private sector a bit and then give the private sector an opportunity to also attract the students. That was something that we looked at so that we would broaden out. If we were to hire all the students at 0.75 as opposed to the full-time job during the summer months, then we’d be able to increase the amount of students by 100, for example, last year. So, that was something that we looked at closely.

There was a bit of an issue with doing that right then. Maybe we didn’t have the time in HR to be able to sort out all the numbers and so on, but certainly that’s the one idea that we would look at, subsidizing the private sector to be able to attract students and also doing some as part-time summer jobs for summer students so they could also venture into the private sector. Those are good ideas that the department will look at. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The information that I do have from Public Works and Services, working very closely with my department, is that there’s been a building assessment done in 2008, and the building ranking obviously came back as good condition at this point. But as the same time, my department visited the community’s school in November 2013 and met with the officials, met with the community members and identified one of the areas, the floor that the Member is referring to. It has been identified, the floor movement. My department is working closely with Public Works to resolve that issue as we speak. Mahsi.

The Minister is correct. I have copies of my Member’s statement and my exchange with the Minister of Education, also the Minister at that time, the Minister of Public Works, talking about the work that’s been done on the Deline school.

I want to ask the Minister, it’s like having a plate or a bowl of Jell-O and putting straws in it and putting a building on there. The building is shaky. It’s moving and it’s falling apart. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t keep Deline’s school together again.

---Laughter

So you need to build another school. The Deline community is asking this government if they’re looking at if they were to work together, they could look at the concept of working with the community, working with the government to say, if we are to build it, can you lease it off them? We had that type of discussion. I believe at the time when I asked the Minister of Public Works, that type of discussion can be had.

I want to ask the Minister of Education, is he willing to come to Deline to the school and say, “Yes, let’s see if we can do something?” Given the life of this government, given the financial situation we are going to be in, is this the type of thinking that could be had with the community of Deline?

Any opportunity for the department to visit the community, obviously, I’m receptive to it, having my department and myself visiting and also meeting with the officials and the community members on how we can deal with this matter. As I stated, there are at least six different items that are being worked on as we speak since November 2013. It may not be completed fully, but those are areas that we continue to work on, because we have to keep in mind the safety of all our students.

When the Member is talking about opportunities to meet, by all means, those are areas that I’m willing to consider, as well, meeting with the MLA and also his leadership.

When I questioned the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment when I spoke about the same and similar responses back from the Minister, which we appreciate, I’d like the Minister today to really think and seriously take the opportunity to come in to Deline, look at the school, look at the conditions that we’re subjecting our children going to school in these types of conditions. It’s amazing that school is still together with the condition that it’s in. If you look at the foyer and the school gym, the foyer and the school gym are falling apart. I think the only thing that’s holding them together is that strip of tile on the floor there. It’s just a gap in there. If you took that strip off, you would see a gap in the gym floor. It’s like this. It’s amazing. It’s a crying shame in this day here that we’re subjecting our children to this type of education facility.

I want to ask the Minister if he would be willing to come soon to Deline to look at the school and have a sit-down with the leadership to look at some

partnerships where the community can take a larger role in building a new school. Deline needs a new school.

What the Member is referring to, obviously, is the floor movement between the gymnasium and the corridor, and my department is fully aware of that. The Member and I are considering visiting Deline, if it all works, on June 12th for the grad. We’re still working on the

logistics for that. If it works, then that will be ample opportunity to sit down with the Member and also the leadership to go visit the school, as well, because that is part of the plan as we speak.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned in my statement about the bridge at Willow River, the community is very thankful for the support from the Minister and department, but moving forward in the next Assembly, the community would like some assurance that this Community Access Program will continue in the 18th Assembly.

I’d like to ask the Minister, will they recommend that the Community Access Program continue in the 18th Legislative Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Blake. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That program is fully utilized all the time. It’s a very good program. All the communities like it and we’re going to maintain the program.

This program that I’m referring to, the Community Access Program, has roughly a million dollars in that fund. We have 32 communities that make use of these funds and it’s very limited to the amount that you can put in for.

Will the Minister recommend that this fund be increased?

We had recognized that it was the previous government that had tripled the budget from around $300,000 to just slightly over $1 million. We recognize that the budget is fully utilized and we are receiving applications well in excess of what money is available. We continue to have internal discussions in DOT to see if there’s a possibility internally to move some money around. So, we continue to have that discussion.

There are a lot of areas where there are pressures, of course. We have highways, we have marine services and airports and winter roads. So within those areas we are looking to see if it is possible to move money around internally.

Alternatively, I guess we go back to the House to look for additional funds, but at this time we are looking internally at that, in hopes that maybe in the future there will be a little bit more money put into the Access Program. Thank you.

We’re getting our transition protocol here to recommend to our next government what to carry on with, and I thank the Minister for doing that with this program here, but I’d like to also recommend that this fund be increased. Even by $200,000, it helps the communities a lot with programs that create employment in the communities and I hope that happens. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

At this point in the transition planning, we are not working specifically on any of the budgets, departmental budgets; however, we would have an opportunity to maybe discuss some of the programs that are very well-utilized, some of the more popular programs, and we could have that discussion in the transition meetings as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Before we go on, colleagues, I would like to welcome back to Yellowknife, I guess, Mr. David Lovell, former mayor of Yellowknife. Welcome to the House.

---Applause

Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up on my Member’s statement with questions to the Minister of Housing. Specifically, I have questions for the Minister. The need for housing is acute throughout the Northwest Territories, as we heard, for all people on the ever-growing waiting list, but the need is even more acute for people with disabilities.

Can the Minister tell me how many clients on the housing waiting list in Yellowknife and the NWT are people with disabilities? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister of Housing, Mr. McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have 894 people on the housing waiting list across the Northwest Territories. I’m not sure if we have them broken down as to those with disabilities or not, but I will find out and I will share the information with the Member. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. I heard 894 people. I believe they would be families. People.

---Interjection

Okay. So, we don’t know how many families.

Another group of housing clients in desperate need than most are single parents. Not only are they suffering from lack of housing but their children, especially for the very young, are not getting a secure, healthy beginning in life that we desire for all of our children right from the start.

How many of the families on the current waiting list are parents with very young children? Mahsi.

As far as the ones who have young children, I’m not quite sure of that. I do have the numbers for the people who are waiting for one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom and that would give you a fairly good indication of the number of people that are in the family. But we recognize that our largest growing segment in the population are those with young families, so we’re going to take the direction that we put up a lot more family one-, two-bedroom, multiplex-type units across the Northwest Territories and I think that will address that particular issue.

I’ll get the numbers for the waiting list on the number of bedrooms and share it with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.