Statements in Debates
It is reviewed on a regular basis. Right now I believe we are going through a review and we will be making some comments to that during this session and we will have information provided to committee as well as all Members.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment has a great Income Assistance program and it's all based on a client-to-client review, and any persons with disabilities do have to set up a meeting with the client service officers within their regions and there are services provided to people with disabilities in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When the work went out in terms of developing this comprehensive agreement, we got input from all the stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, a lot of it did come from the business side sector. But we also got other programs in place such as the culture and heritage framework and action plan. We also continue to provide funding for arts and culture initiatives. When it was done, we had municipal governments, Aboriginal governments, business, industry, community members, all providing input into this Labour Market Forecast Needs Assessment. I think maybe some areas were just discussed...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you heard in the budget address that our Minister of Finance had mentioned, we are also reaching out to students who are graduating with the $2,000 forgivable loan if they come up and do some work in the Northwest Territories. That is one area that we are working in. We are also developing an action plan based on the labour market report. We are going to be working with Aboriginal governments, industry, business, and our education and training partners. As much as we want to attract residents to the Northwest Territories to fill in some of these positions, we also...
As mentioned, we are going to be developing an action plan that hopefully will be tabled in the House in October, and we will be making sure that those areas are discussed as well. We will see what the action plan comes out of. We will be, once again, discussing that with our industry, business, our education, training partners, and Aboriginal and municipal governments.
This is the first time that the government has done a comprehensive review of the labour market needs, the demands of our jobs, in the Northwest Territories. It is something that we are building on. We have our post-secondary education partners that we are working with to try to develop some of these programs. Aurora College is going to be embarking on a strategic plan this summer and the program will be better aligned with the labour demands that we are seeing through the Labour Market Needs Assessment. All this stuff is brand new. Like I said, this is the first time the Northwest Territories...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the constituent of the riding Inuvik Boot Lake, Ms. Judy McLeod. Welcome. It is always great to see you here. I would also like to welcome the victim services coordinators. I appreciate all the work that you guys do throughout the Northwest Territories and also like to thank the Stanton Elders’ Council for the work, guidance, and wisdom that you have shown us throughout the Northwest Territories as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents entitled “Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 56-18(2): Wage Subsidy for Child Care Workers” and “Follow-up Letter to Oral Question 74-18(2): Accommodating Students with Disabilities at Aurora College.” Mr. Speaker, further to my Return to Written Question 4-18(2), I wish to table the following document entitled “Aurora College Student Enrolments per Semester, 2013-14 to 2015-16.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
As mentioned earlier, we do take guidance from the National Occupancy Standards, as well as the Residential Tenancies Act. That was reviewed in the last government, but we don't have a specific policy related to overcrowding. Obviously, we do want to provide the best possible outcomes for families and those that are in need of being housed, but it is a shared responsibility of individuals as well as the social departments within the governments. If that's something that we do need to set as a policy or standard, like I mentioned, we'll have to look at what the National Occupancy Standards do...
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In terms of speaking to individual cases due to privacy laws that protect personal information, we cannot speak to personal individual circumstances or caseloads that are within our department. However, in terms of overcrowding, I don't have the exact number that the department does go by. I can inform the Member, though, that the department does currently get its guidance from sources like the National Occupancy Standards and the Residential Tenancies Act in assessing the appropriateness of housing of clients.