Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I appreciate the Member's interest in this program. It's been an ongoing issue in the Court of Appeal since January 2015. The most recent update is that we have finalized the schematic design that was approved by both the CFSTNO and the departments. It has gone out for an RFP with the standard gym as the basis for evaluation with the option price for the expanded regional-sized gym that can be selected solely based on the GNWT discretion.

The RFP will close March 10, 2017, and we're expecting to break ground spring of this year and hopefully have the work completed...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are an education system. There are a lot of partners at the table. It is specifically around instructional hours. We have the NWT Teachers' Association, educational authorities, ourselves, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. If the Member is wanting us to do another information blitz, getting out there and letting the public know, again, we would have to do that in cooperation with our partners that came to an agreement on the instructional hour times. We want to get that information out there, but we also want to make sure that we protect and give the...

When we look at the Income Assistance Program, the benefit levels are determined on a few factors in partnership with the NWT Bureau of Statistics, using information from the Northern Market Basket Measure, the NWT Community Price Survey, and the living cost differential. These are measures of costs of living in the Northwest Territories. We also use the Consumer Price Index, the Food Price Index, and the lowincome measure scale, which are nationally recognized models for determining income assistance rates. Those are what we are using for each of the communities in the NWT.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have tried to use numerous outlets, such as the media; we have information on our websites; there was a technical briefing. For further details, I will go to my deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a few factors that are taken into consideration when we are calculating income assistance. As you know, income assistance provides financial support to anybody who is over the age of 19. Some of these factors include such things as where the person lives, the size of the family, as well as the income that is in the household. The IA program also has fixed food rates for each community. Therefore, the amount of assistance that a recipient receives for food depends on where they reside. In August 2016 the department introduced a new IA benefit called the...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. During the whole negotiation process for the instructional hours, we did have staff at those negotiations, so they knew what needed to be coming out of those meetings that was going to impact the Education Act. They knew the legislation that was going to be coming forward. I will go to my deputy minister for more details.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We currently have three communications staff positions.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, and as I mentioned this is collective bargaining agreements, legal binding agreements. The DEAs do sign off on the schools' plans when they're developed, and we will share that information with the Members. We are working on finding a date to do a briefing with committee, and as I mentioned we could send out that technical package to all Members again. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, this would be the area, under policy legislation and communications.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When it comes to communication, the strategy that we do develop, it's sometimes on a case-by-case basis depending on what's being discussed. We're also working on a protocol with all the board chairs to make sure that we do all work together in getting the right message across throughout the NWT to all the communities when we come up with discussions such as inclusive schooling or junior kindergarten, and that's what we're working on right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.