Alfred Moses

There are a lot of good statistics and highlights that I’d like to recommend. I don’t have the time to do it at this moment, but what I do want to do at this moment is just thank Dechinta staff for their commitment to the delivery of quality education, traditional knowledge and culture, and utilizing our elders to do this, and also recognize them for the passion that they do in providing this work and for their dedication in making a difference in the lives of people across the Northwest Territories and in our young adults who are wanting to get an education and go back to school.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m glad to hear that that database does exist and now we’ve increased it by about 600 new emergency firefighters and that we’re still looking at starting that training early on in the season.

It was mentioned earlier about compensation for equipment lost to hunters and trappers, or even property, cabins. I’m not sure how many cabins or property were damaged during the last fire season, but rather than looking at increasing that budget and providing compensation to those that live on the land or those that keep their equipment on the land for hunting and trapping I think...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The first question I have for the Minister and department is just in terms of the fire suppression budget. The actuals in 2013-14 were about $20 million, and the revised for last year was $54 million. In a news article that was in one of last week’s papers, the Minister said that funding for the wildland fire management is based on a 10-year average of suppression expenses. With these numbers that are in place, especially with the revised estimates coming in this year, you would think the budget for the ’15-16 year would be increased if he’s, in fact, going by the 10-year...

Thank you. I know I’ve asked questions in the House at one time or another about the need to invest more into our traditional economy and into our harvesters throughout the Northwest Territories, especially up in some of the regions where we did have some development going on and possibly some work that has been going on in terms of having some of the animals migrate in different routes than they used to. In some cases our hunters and trappers have to travel further now to get either fur or to get the animals that they’re hunting. That needs to be addressed.

We do forced growth in a lot of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to table a couple of news reports here. The first one is from Northern Journal, October 27, 2014, and it’s entitled “Cultural resurgence at core of the Dechinta studies – all women cohort attends fall semester out on the land.”

The second one is from the Globe and Mail, entitled “Learning from the land in the North,” and it’s referencing the work that Dechinta University has done as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, 90 percent of the alumni go into the NWT labour force. I made a comment yesterday about the NWT Labour Force Framework.

Will the Minister work with Dechinta University and work with our alumni to get them into the labour force within the Northwest Territories as well as create jobs in our small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I’m glad to hear discussions are in the works and moving forward. I haven’t seen government work so hard in terms of education and developing this Education Renewal and Innovation, working with Aurora College and making changes in our education system. We’ve done a lot of work in the last three years. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I’m looking at ways we can move forward.

We have already got a very unique university looking at unique ways to educate our people. One of my colleagues mentioned Canada not having a university. When we met with the Norway ambassadors for NWT Days, they mentioned...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are joined here today with some individuals that graduated the Dechinta program, Dechinta alumni, as well as staff, and I’d just like to take the opportunity to recognize all those who have gone through the program: Ms. Cheryl Mandeville, Savannah Lantz, Justina Black, Rebecca Grooms, Charlotte Overvold, Trisha Smith, Mandee McDonald, and some of the staff as well, and Jimmy Billard and Erin Freeland-Ballantyne.

Just to note that of the 100 percent completion, 49 percent of those individuals pursue further education post-secondary, 57 of them are employed and 90...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start off by saying that was nice to see the NWT Teachers’ Association set up their display and their meet-and-greet in the Great Hall this morning. They do it every year to talk about the successes and the great work of their educators.

I’d like to recognize all the educators throughout the North, but take this opportunity to recognize a certain group that does extraordinary work, and that’s the staff at the Dechinta Bush University. They have taken a very unique approach in promoting our traditional knowledge, culture and education throughout the Northwest...

Thank you for the explanation. Also, I know that discussions have already been going on in the communities. Just referring back, because we don’t have the report in front of us so we have to go by what has been quoted in some of the papers, it talks about some of our experts who have been in the field a long time, stating that in some of the cases a personal opinion is that this is going to be a fairly dry season, if not drier than last year. As I mentioned in briefings before, I’ve talked to people in the fire suppression division and they’re saying the same things.

It’s also mentioned here...