Alfred Moses

Thank you. We have had officials speaking with Alberta officials, but I also mentioned that Alberta has taken a different model as well and being flexible in the way they teach their hours, as I had answered questions in the House I think to the Member for Nahendeh when he was asking the questions earlier this week. As I mentioned, these plans aren't going to be divulged until the end of March for each school, and we can ensure that we give the supports to the principals and the teachers as they're developing these plans. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The department did present and work with CFSTNO on a schematic design and finalized it based on what the Court of Appeal had brought forth and, in fact, the department has committed to assuming responsibility for funding of the project in its entirety based on the final design, which was more than what was recommended out of the NWT Court of Appeal, and that's the design that we are going with.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we did use media. We got the information on our website. The department did a technical media briefing. We also sent technical packages out to all MLAs regarding the information on the agreement that was made. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We can take a look into the unique situation. Obviously, it is right across the Northwest Territories. We do have a lot of communities that don't have access by roads. However, all the factors, all the indicators that we do when we measure the benefits I believe take all that into consideration when we are looking at clients who are on income assistance. We can take a look at that unique situation. However, I think everything that I have said today takes every community, every individual and unique situation every community has and it is calculated to the best interests...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We do have good partnerships with the education authorities. They also play a role in these pilots and the work that is being done. They are the front line to the parents. They are the ones that see the parents most of the time with the boards, as well as the superintendent and the principals. That would be the best way to get that information out, is to have our school boards and educational authorities getting that information out to the parents. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The income assistance program does not specifically subsidize freight. When we do the calculations, all the factors that I have mentioned before are what we use. Moving forward, however, the Nutrition North Canada Program offered by the Government of Canada provides vendors with a subsidy for freight costs.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As this is a piloted project for the next three years, each school will develop their own plan in terms of instructional hours. They are working on those right now. They should be done, each school should have their instructional hours plan developed, by the end of March, so my suggestion to you, as any parent approaches you, ask them to go and speak to the principal or the superintendent on how this is going to roll out in the specific school's plan.

We have three policy officers and one manager.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Obviously there was mixed messaging going out from various parties, as well as the change in funding. At the beginning of this session, when we started, we had a funding model going through, but that had changed by the time we got started and had the budget addressed. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I don't disagree with all the honourable Members who have mentioned the communication issues surrounding junior kindergarten. I definitely think that it could have rolled out a lot better, getting that information not only out to the Members but to the residents. We are working on our communications protocol and making sure that we're making it as sufficient as we can in the future. As I mentioned earlier, we take it as a learning experience and we'll be learning from this and making sure that, as we communicate, there will be more efficiency a lot sooner than later...