Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are various ways that the department is working with our stakeholders to adjust the issue that the Member brought up. First of all, through Aurora College, we do offer trades technical training at Thebacha Campus. We also work with the Mobile Trades Training Unit in Aurora College up in Inuvik. As with Skills 4 Success Initiative that I mentioned in previous answers to questions earlier this week, through implementation programs, programs are being aligned with identified labour market needs. With that said, we also want to make sure that communities and regional...

As I mentioned, with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission bringing forth the recommendations, when we looked at them, we found out we were already doing a lot of this work throughout the Northwest Territories. With that said, we are offering some of this training to other jurisdictions throughout the North and throughout Canada. I myself participated in the training. We had participants from Nunavut, Yukon, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and we are also looking at getting federal ministers who are also interested in taking some of this residential school training. Our goal is to ensure that anybody...

We are going to be releasing a labour market information report next month. It’s going to give guidance and direction in where we need to go. We are also looking at programs within the Aurora College system to address some of these issues based on what that report says, but also, our Skills 4 Success Framework and some of the other work that we are doing with the regional centres. I think in the next little while, as we get our mandates from this government moving forward, we will know which direction we are going to have to move forward in, hopefully, and look at increasing our employment...

Yes, we are working with, as I mentioned earlier, the regional training partnerships committees. The department has also created five new positions for Employment Transition Officers that work within the communities to help people transition from unemployment to employment opportunities. That is in some of the regional centres throughout the Northwest Territories, and we also have career development officers that we are trying to get more involved into the schools while they are working with Income Assistance clients.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Along with my colleagues, I'd like to recognize Mandee McDonald and Erin Freeland Ballantyne, who do some very good work with Dechinta University. Welcome to the House.

Yes, the department does consider that Ecole Boreale is viable in the long-term as a French language school. As mentioned, we do want to serve the francophone population in the community of Hay River. Earlier I talked about the review of the ministerial directive, which hopefully should address a lot of these issues. I do thank both Members from Hay River for bringing these concerns forward to the office and to the department.

As the Member had mentioned in his opening remarks around the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as the government, we need to ensure that we meet our obligations under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms when providing French first-language education programs throughout the Northwest Territories, as well as having facilities open for all children. Those are some of the roadblocks that we're seeing that might prevent this, but we are looking at other jurisdictions, seeing what they're doing that can help loosen up some of these restrictions.

It is unfortunate that the daycare centre did close in 2012. We do recognize that early childhood development is very important throughout the Northwest Territories, hence the Right From the Start Action Plan that we're developing, but I will commit that the department will work with the new administration to look at the possibility of opening the daycare again in Norman Wells.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is funding, I believe, the Norman Wells Land Corporation, and they're providing programs in Norman Wells. We have had proposals from day homes. However, none of the day homes have met the standards that we can supply funding for. But the Norman Wells Land Corporation is getting funding and we are open and consulting with the community to try to open up the daycare in Norman Wells again and provided them with the options for funding, for rent, mortgage, food, all those types of expenses. We'd like to continue to work with the community and the residents of...

The department is happy to release this report so that all residents of the Northwest Territories can see where our actions are and what our priorities are. That report will be released next month. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.