Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Social networking or social media are a great way to keep in touch with friends, family, or just a way to keep up with the social life of everyone around you. Unfortunately, as we all know there are consequences to our online networking such as cyber-bullying.

Mr. Speaker, cyber-bullying is bullying with the use of digital technology. It can take place on social media, game platforms, gaming platform, and mobile phones. It is repeated behaviour aimed at scaring, angering, or shaming those who are targeted. Examples include:

• Speaking half-truths or opinions that may or may not support the evidence out there;
• Sending harmful, abusive, or threatening messages via various messaging platforms;
• Impersonating someone and sending mean messages to others on their behalf or fake accounts;
• Saying and implying comments about the person without using the person's name.

Face-to-face bullying and cyber-bullying can often happen alongside each other but cyber-bullying leaves a digital footprint that can be seen for a long time or can be reproduced.

Mr. Speaker, cyber-bullying is one of the worst things that we live with today, not only for teens but for society in general. It is a very stressful and dangerous way to deal with issues and can have some very bad consequences including, mainly, such things as depression, even suicidal thoughts.

Mr. Speaker, as we all have experienced, there are individuals out there using Hansard as a platform to get their opinions across and saying things without consequences. As a politician, we get individuals out there that don't agree with your decision or of this government. I once asked an individual why they took to social media to express their frustrations and their response was it is a way to say things that are on my mind without no one arguing with us. I tried to explain that this was not the best approach to go about. The response I received is you should be doing the same thing. You should be out there disagreeing with and arguing with the people on that platform. At this point in time, we agreed to disagree and move on to another topic.

Mr. Speaker as Bono says, be kind to one another. I hope and pray people actually follow through on this. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Nahendeh. Members' statements. Member for Yellowknife South.

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today is the one year anniversary of the release of the national action plan to address the crisis of missing and murdered women, girls, and 2SLGBTQ and QIA+ peoples.

I chose this day to acknowledge the work of Yellowknife South Youth Parliament participant Aubrey Sluggett. Aubrey stood in this Chamber on May the 12th and gave a Minister's statement. As the representative of Yellowknife South, she was able to pick any topic she felt was important to her and the youth of the North and within the portfolios of Finance, Industry, Tourism and Investment, or Status of Women.

Mr. Speaker, Aubrey used her words and her platform here to bring attention to the national inquiry movement in the Northwest Territories, the public benches that the Yellowknife Women's Society has placed in honour of missing women, and the monument that we built on the Legislative Assembly grounds. She also spoke to what she felt we could be doing further to enhance the work that we are already moving forward on.

Mr. Speaker, further to this, she spoke of the importance of women in political office and how happy she was to point out that our legislature is a majority female and that the Youth Parliament had 14 female parliamentarians and one nonbinary parliamentarian.

Mr. Speaker, I was very proud to be a resident of Yellowknife South on May 12th represented by Aubrey Sluggett. It is not only the future that is in good hands, it is our present leadership who are pushed to live up to the example and the expectations of those who will ultimately inherit these roles. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife South. Members' statements. Returns to oral questions. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Acknowledgements. Oral questions. Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past week, I received many emails from teachers, parents, and students complaining about a long-standing issue with the plumbing at the Ecole Boreale portable in Hay River.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of ECE confirm if his department has looked into the issue and determined what the cause of the problem is? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this issue has been a long-standing one, as the Minister said.

Can the Minister confirm how and when this plumbing issue will be addressed to the satisfaction of the Ecole Boreale staff, students, and parents, as those students, staff, and parents accessing the building have a right to a safe place to learn and work. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I agree, students need a place to learn that is supportive of that learning. And in a supportive learning environment, staff need a safe supportive workplace as well. And so as soon as we learned about this, we started working with the Department of Infrastructure, and there will be a permanent fix in place over the summer. So in the next school year, it will no longer be an issue. It would be great if we could fix this issue before the summer, fix it now, but it's a very disruptive process. I believe it involves digging up the parking lot and, you know, the smell of sewer would be far beyond what it is now. So we have to wait until the summer to get it done but it is getting done. Thank you.

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if there are issues other than the plumbing, such as heat and cooling, as those were mentioned as recurring issues that need to be addressed as well.

Will the Minister also commitment his department to following up on these issues and remedy any issues found before the start of next school year? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And there have been concerns about the classrooms being too hot in the late spring/early summer. As a result, Infrastructure has installed portable air conditioners. There isn't a plan to connect the portable building to the main air handling unit but we do have the portable air conditioners in place. And I will say that, you know, this issue brought to light the fact there needs to be a little better communication. So I've reached out -- or I've had conversations with the president of the CSFTNO, the French language school board, and I've had conversations with the Minister of Infrastructure, and we are going to ensure that if there is an issue that the school board is encouraged to bring it forward. I want to hear from the president when there's these issues, and I told the department they need to have that discussion at the officials level as well because we don't want these to become long-standing issues; we want to get them fixed as soon as possible. I'm here to advocate for those education bodies and advocate for the students, and I need to know what's going on in order to do that. Thank you.

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Hay River South.

Rocky Simpson Hay River South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when this portable was first put in place, I think it was supposed to be a three-year fix. It's probably been ten years since it was actually, you know, installed. So, Mr. Speaker, when the portable was constructed, like I said it was a short-term solution to address lack of space in the main building, is it the department's intent to look at an expansion of the main building to eliminate the requirement for the portable? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So currently there is nothing on the books to build a new permanent facility at Ecole Boreale. As the MLA, I advocated for, you know, that in the past, advocated for a gym, advocating for all of these issues as the Member is doing now. Unfortunately, there was a decision made, you know, 15 years ago that we are now dealing with. It would have been great if they had just built a permanent building at that point. But now we're at the point where we have many schools that are in need of repair. There's 49 schools in the territory, you know, over 50 years old some of them, in desperate need of repair, and so it's a very competitive environment. So there is nothing on the books. But I hear about those issues. I hear about the desire for a gym at Ecole Boreale. And I would love to give them one. I'd love to give a gym to Jean Marie River as well, to N'dilo, to Dettah - to a number of different schools - but the fact is it's tough to get together the money to serve all the needs in the territory. But I am going to work with the Minister of Infrastructure and with my department to determine what the needs are at Ecole Boreale and see what we can do in the future. Thank you.