Alfred Moses

In the past months that I’ve been Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, we’ve been having meetings with a lot of different parties. We’re trying to build a strong relationship moving forward and letting them understand that we are moving forward on the court case issue. Spacesharing agreements, it’s a little tougher in Hay River in terms of addressing some of the issues there. Here, in Yellowknife, I believe we will have it all straightened out come fall time, and we are still having those discussions in Hay River to address their concerns. Our department is working with the education...

We should have that decision ready and the announcement made before the 201617 academic year, so before the fall. Families, community members will be ready to know the decision that’s going to be made with that ministerial directive.

Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, when the school was constructed in 2009, the activity space for recreation and leisure was fit to the school code under the NWT Schools Capital Standards and Criteria policy which was in 2005 developed. We will work with the education authority and do a visit to the school to see how we can address this issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we are aware of the situation down at Ndilo with K’alemi Dene School. Just a little bit of information there: in 2009, when the school was built with our NWT Schools Capital Standards and Criteria, when a school has a targeted enrolment of anywhere from 50 to 150, 70 square metres for recreational use is met to with a design in the school. In K’alemi Dene School, there is an 85squaremetre activity room. I do understand the situation, though, in terms of utilization rates. Once a school reaches 85 per cent, then our department works with the district education...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because it’s a ministerial directive and we do have the two schools here in Yellowknife and in Hay River that are affected, it will be reflective of both situations throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, the government is abiding by the court case with the Ecole Allain StCyr. In terms of Ecole Boreale in Hay River, we’re actually just working on trying to develop a plan. Hopefully, everything should be resolved by the fall time. We are looking at putting through that spacesharing agreement in Hay River, hopefully, will be addressed by the fall time, as well as here, in Yellowknife, we should have everything in place come fall time.

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. As Members are aware, there were public hearings here, in Yellowknife, as well as Hay River. Actually, in Hay River, it was more of one that we had meetings with the Hay River District Education Authority to get more feedback. That consultation is done. We’re just getting the information gathered together. We will be making recommendations. We will be meeting with our department staff, and we will be making a statement very soon on where that ministerial directive is going.

In the 17th Legislative Assembly there was a motion that was brought forth actually I believe in November of 2015. The department is looking at that. Most recently Nunavut did do a feasibility study of the same information that the Member's asking for. We did get a copy of that feasibility study from Nunavut. We are looking at the recommendations and the possibilities moving forward and what we as a territory are going to be doing in terms of the legislation or the granting of degrees, but we've got to take a look at that feasibility study and see whether or not it will reflect whether our...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department has been a supporter of Dechinta for the past several years in providing some funding. We're always working with them and just having ongoing discussions with the Dechinta executive. Most recently our current discussions is that we're waiting for this current budget process to finish before we start allocating funding. We continue to speak with Dechinta executive and supporters to see where we move forward next, and that will be at discussions at the next business plan cycle which will be commencing in about three months' time. I really appreciate the...

Any program funding that the department does have is based on program eligibility, and funding applications must be submitted to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in order for funding considerations to be explored. Our department is working with partners or interested organizations to help them develop those proposals and applications moving forward. And, like I said, it's based on program eligibility and whether or not they do meet the criteria, but we are interested in receiving applications from the Yellowknives Dene First Nations and moving forward from there.