Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From the Member's statement earlier, we did contact the department and ask them to give us an update. I don’t have a firm date right now, but as soon as soon as we get it we will share it with the Members. Thank you.

This program, both the programs, have been around for a long time. When I did say we are listening, we are hearing, we are continuing to support all the students who are here today through Student Financial Assistance programming, as I mentioned before, best in the country. We are going to give them all the support they need to graduate from the program in the time that is allocated.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I have mentioned in this House before, the executive council for Aurora College did consult and meet with our department. We looked at where we can look at reductions and look at our programs, and it is always being reviewed, and looking at how many graduates do we get out of the programs for the big investment that we put in. These two programs were recognized. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past year, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has implemented new initiatives and improved existing programs and services to help meet our mandate commitments to address the cost of living for NWT residents.

We all understand the importance of reducing poverty and providing our residents with the tools necessary to achieve their goals and live healthy, productive lives. The work under way at the department supports those goals.

Actions in early childhood development, in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Services, have been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As we mentioned, it will be up to 100 hours. It will be flexible, and it is up to the schools to decide, and the principals and the teachers working on the direction that they take.

Actually, Alberta is moving away from the standard 125hoursperfivecredit high school courses through their own high school redesign project. As Members know, we did have a meeting with Minister Eggen from Alberta to discuss those changes to the curriculum. Alberta is a shift away from the standard of 125 hours of instruction for fivecredit courses, where students who are involved in the project can now complete courses in less than 125 hours and/or take more time if it is needed. It is based on what the students need. The NWT has always been flexible in this area, part of the education renewal...

I personally have not engaged in that meeting. We did have staff meet with the Canadian Public Health Association of Canada. We invited Aboriginal Head Start staff in on that meeting to talk about the federal funding, and that wouldn't be affected. Currently, we do a joint junior kindergarten/Aboriginal Head Start program coexisting in some of our communities where they're both providing half-day services so families have that opportunity to have full daycare, quality early childhood programming for their kids.

As I said in the House yesterday, we're sending out packages to all the parents across the Northwest Territories. With the Aboriginal Head Start staff, our department has already been engaging with the staff. We made trips to Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, K’atlodeeche First Nations, and had those initial discussions and talks about implementing junior kindergarten for the 2017-18 school year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we do have that Skills 4 Success document that we are reaching out to organizations as well as in the high school to look at all jobs, all programs, across the Northwest Territories. We still continue to support our students throughout the NWT with our Student Financial Assistance programs at whatever institutions that they want to go to. We have career development officers, employment transition officers. We have guidance counsellors in the schools who work with students to develop and go along the career path that they choose. We continue to support...

We are still waiting on that strategic plan. At this time, we are looking at these programs to see where we are getting the best investments and the end product. I encourage all the students here, as we continue to support the students going through the program before they finish, that they work hard, study, and make sure to graduate because that was one of the factors was we weren't getting graduates coming out of the program for the big investment that we put in.