Alfred Moses

The gap in resources, I'd like to hear if it is anything specific. We've been out engaging, we've been hearing the responses that needed to be met. We've addressed those needs and the concerns, but for the gaps I'd like the Member to let me know where they are rather than some of the projected numbers where I actually have some of the actual numbers in front of me. We're still putting that plan together as the motion said earlier this week. So in two days, I don’t think I could get a plan together from what the motion said, but we will have that in time for implementation in 2017-2018.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following 11 documents entitled "Aurora College Operating Budget 2016/17;" " Yellowknife Catholic Schools (Yellowknife Public Denominational District Education Authority) Budget, June 30, 2017;" "Yellowknife Education District No. 1 2016-2017 Approved Budget;" "2016-2017 Operating Budget - Commission scolaire francophone TNO"; "2016-2017 Operating Budget Dettah District Education Authority"; "Tlicho Community Services Agency Operating Budget 2016-2017"; "Sahtu Divisional Education Council Operating Budget 2016-2017;" "South Slave...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to amend Motion 26-18(2).

I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre that Motion 26-18(2), Junior Kindergarten, be amended by deleting the words:

"AND WHEREAS implementation of Junior Kindergarten will jeopardize existing programs by removing four-year-olds from their programs.'"

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Later on we're going to be hearing a motion here in the House, but as we mentioned, one of the recommendations that came out of the report earlier this year is we're doing surveys, we're seeing what's needed in the communities, what resources are needed, and as we continue to hear those updates and talk to all the schools through that survey we will be coming with a plan, implementation plan and any other needed funds. We're going through our capital business plan and in there we did have some funds that were allocated to the communities for capital expenses, and we'll continue to look at...

We have had some concerns from the Aboriginal Head Start program, specifically in Fort McPherson. We received letters addressing some of the concerns that were raised at a meeting with the Aboriginal Head Start staff. Our Director of Early Childhood Programs and the program coordinator went in, we met with the school. The junior kindergarten being offered in McPherson was an option and the school decided to opt in this year. We didn't ask them to, but it was an option for them, they decided to do that. We've informed Aboriginal Head Start staff throughout the whole Northwest Territories that -...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Members for bringing this motion forward as amended. I appreciate all the Members who spoke to the motion and all the comments, concerns from the small communities, communities that have Aboriginal Head Start, and the regional centres here in Yellowknife as well.

Mr. Speaker, the government believes that we owe it to the children of the Northwest Territories to give them the best start in life. To achieve this, it's going to take some changes from all of us. The early development instrument shows that the status quo isn't working, and junior...

One of our mandates is to do early childhood programming throughout the NWT in partnership with existing childhood programs. We do support Aboriginal Head Start, we do fund them, I believe the Community of Fort McPherson is going to get around somewhere over $25,000 this year.

Part of the department is we do promote Aboriginal culture, traditions and values into our programming, right from JK to grade 12; you can see that directly in our Northern Studies programming, and moving forward in Northern Studies 20 and 30 as well. So it's very important for us and we continue to support Aboriginal...

We have had some training courses for people in the junior kindergarten program; we're also doing web seminars to update our staff in that area. In the Member's riding we currently hold junior kindergarten in all three communities and we also have 28 families in Aklavik, McPherson, and Tsiigehtchic that currently have their children enrolled in a program in one of the three communities.

So in terms of the training, we're continually doing the training for the staff to address those issues. As I mentioned, on October 4th we had some of our staff, regional staff, go in and speak with the...

Yes, they would be. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Senior management involves workers that we have throughout the Northwest Territories. There's consultations between the head office and the regional offices in terms of positions that are made.

As we said, we looked at entry level jobs to management jobs. We do have directors and senior managers in the regional offices, as well, that communicate with our head office staff. We look at positions throughout the whole Northwest Territories, so there is discussions. As I mentioned, given the confidentiality of the exercise in the reductions, they were conducted by those...