I'll take that as a comment. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Further to my statement today about Ecole Boreale and the ministerial directive, I will be directing my questions to the honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Will the Minister commit to conducting review in good faith of the ministerial directive related to the enrolment of students in French first-language language education programs before the end of this school year? Thank yo

Mahsi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Before I begin, I'd just like to thank all the parents and families who have written letters to the department in regards to concerns with the French first language education programs and enrolment of students. The ministerial directive has been in place since 2008, and I have communicated with the Commission scolaire that I have directed the department to do a review and look to see if any changes should be considered. Hopefully those will be done before the next school year begins. Thank you.

That's good to hear that a review is underway. I'd like to know what impediments or roadblocks that the government perceives stand in the way of loosening these strict admission requirements that are stopping the GNWT from bringing its admissions policy more in line with the rest of the countr

As the Member had mentioned in his opening remarks around the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as the government, we need to ensure that we meet our obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when providing French first-language education programs throughout the Northwest Territories, as well as having facilities open for all children. Those are some of the roadblocks that we're seeing that might prevent this, but we are looking at other jurisdictions, seeing what they're doing that can help loosen up some of these restriction

I'd just also like to ask, would the Minister commit to working in good faith with the Hay River District Education Authority (DEA) and the Commission scolaire to find a solution to the Ecole Boreale enrolment issu

Yes, the department is committed to working with the Hay River DEA and the Commission scolaire. We did have a meeting earlier this year with the Commission scolaire, as well as we sent letters out to their staff. We will be sending letters out, as well, to the families that have sent letters to the department, and we do have a meeting set up with the Hay River DEA in the near future to discuss some of these concerns that are brought up from the community of Hay Rive

Mahsi. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member for Hay River North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This is all good news and I appreciate the Minister's response. Finally, I'd just like to ask the Minister, is it the department's working assumption that Ecole Boreale is viable in the long term as a French language school in Hay River? Thank yo

Yes, the department does consider that Ecole Boreale is viable in the long-term as a French language school. As mentioned, we do want to serve the francophone population in the community of Hay River. Earlier I talked about the review of the ministerial directive, which hopefully should address a lot of these issues. I do thank both Members from Hay River for bringing these concerns forward to the office and to the departmen

Mahsi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I understand that the RCMP has recently stopped providing housing for its staff posted to Yellowknife. I also understand that when the Police Services Agreement was renewed for 20 years, a new Contract Management Committee was created for consultation on just these kinds of issues. Can the Minister of Justice confirm if the RCMP is pulled out of staff housing in Yellowknife and whether the GNWT was consulted in any way before it occurred? Thank yo

Mahsi. Minister of Justice.

I'm very concerned about the ability of the RCMP to attract and retain staff to Yellowknife. Now we've heard that this is going to potentially impact a number of other communities. Can the Minister of Justice tell this House whether there will be any monitoring and evaluation of the impacts on recruitment and retention of RCMP in this transition to private housing? Will that monitoring be carried out by GNWT or the RCMP itsel

“G” Division continues, as I mentioned, to receive a large number of applications, and they don't expect that this change of housing policy will affect that. As I say, it is mainly an internal duty of the RCMP to look into this, and they are doing so. They will be consulting with us, but ultimately it's their decisio

I appreciate the answer from the Minister, but although it may be an internal management issue for the RCMP, I think this has potential impacts on our communities in terms of the ability of the RCMP to provide appropriate policing. So once again, can the Minister tell this House whether the GNWT then, if the RCMP won't do it, is going to monitor the impacts of this change in policy in terms of retention and recruitmen

Yes, we will of course be monitoring with the RCMP if there are any changes and if there are problems, and I assume that if there are issues of retention, they will speak with us and there may be further changes in policy. They are not expecting this change of policy to have any effect on the recruitment, as they already currently receive far more applications than there are positions, so they're not expecting a change in that. If there is a change in that area, I would expect they would consult with u

Mahsi. Oral questions. Final supplementary. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to seek a commitment, then, from the Minister that he would report back to the House perhaps within six months about retention and recruitment rates for the RCMP in the communities where this transition in housing policy is going to take place. Thank you.

I think I can make that commitment. I will be in touch with the RCMP, and certainly if there are any changes in the issues of recruitment, we will be discussing those with them, and perhaps there will be tweaking of this policy. But they are fairly certain that this will not affect retention or recruitmen

Mahsi. Colleagues, I would like to take this time to direct your attention to the visitors in the gallery. Mr. Eugene Hodgson, the son of the late Mr. Stuart Hodgson, the first resident Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, and Evan, Eugene's son who travelled from Vancouver, B.C. to be here with us this afternoon for the memorial for Stuart Hodgson. Welcome to the gallery. Mahsi. ---Applaus

Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.