Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, NWT students who do meet the required courses graduate with an NWT Senior Secondary Diploma. The NWT has set its own criteria and standards for a high school diploma, and although similar to Alberta's graduation diploma, it does have some differences. We are working with Sahtu communities to ensure that we work on supporting and having access to some of these core courses for the students in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do know that some of our Aboriginal governments are already in that process of digitizing the stories that have been told over the years. That is something that we want to continue to support, and I think the Member has a really good idea in bringing this forward so that we can preserve our culture, languages, and the stories of our elders and our ancestors. I want to thank the Member for bringing that up.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has made this call to action for all provinces and territories. We are stepping up to the plate. We are working with our Aboriginal governments to ensure the future of Aboriginal languages. Preservation of culture and traditions is a priority, and we are going to work to increase our efforts, as well as working with the federal and Aboriginal governments to ensure this is done. At the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we have made it mandatory. With Northern Studies 10, we are implementing the residential school curriculum, and...

Obviously, there are a lot of indicators that we can identify. We want to see the outcomes of these investments that we are doing in the Northwest Territories. Our end goal is to have revitalization, preservation of our languages, our culture, and increase the amount of our NWT residents speaking their Aboriginal languages.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just recently tabled the official Aboriginal Languages Strategic Framework that we are going to be working with and building on, but we also have really great partnerships with all of our Aboriginal governments. Since 2014, we have given them funding so that they can develop programs, regional Aboriginal languages plans, and we support them with this additional funding that we did get through the agreement signed with the federal government.

We are getting increased contributions to these Aboriginal governments, as well as creating a territorial linguist position that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's a great honour to recognize our Aboriginal Languages Secretariat, Ms. Jessica Schmidt, Ms. Gayle Strikes With A Gun, Ms. Nora Russell, Ms. Jaycee Hegin, and Dr. Angela James for all the hard work that they've been doing on the tabled documents, on the document I'll be tabling later. Also joining us today are the members from the NWT Teachers' Association, President Fraser Oliver, as well as Adrien Amirault walking in as well, and a good friend of mine, Andres Hamel, who is visiting us from Ottawa. Welcome to the House. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "NWT Aboriginal Languages Framework: A Shared Responsibility." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories made a commitment in its mandate to strengthen culture and heritage in the NWT by working with partners and stakeholders to update the 2010 NWT Aboriginal Languages Plan.

I am pleased to share with Members that later today I will be tabling the 2017 Northwest Territories Aboriginal Languages Framework: A Shared Responsibility. This is the product of extensive engagement across the territory with Indigenous governments, language communities, cultural organizations, elders, and regional language coordinators. The Official...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know our discussions with education authorities, we did have those discussions that it’s not mandatory and that education authorities have the discretion to reallocate some of the funding that the department provides to them to offset some of the costs that are associated with busing, so that will be up to the district education authorities as well as the education councils. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a lot of different intergovernmental, interdepartmental programs that we work with other departments within the government, that provides a lot of program services. I believe I have been asked this question before in previous sessions, and I would be willing to share that information with the Member.

Just recently, I and the Minister of Health went to Camp Connections and spoke to about 60 youth on health, wellness, education, culture, and language, and wanted their views and their input. At the end of this week, we should be getting it. We also engage in schools...