Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two Pages from Inuvik here today, Caitlyn Church and Ms. Olivia Inglangasuk, both of whose favourites sports are northern games. I asked them what did they like best about being here in the Legislative Assembly this week. They said it was fun and would definitely do it again. They also said you get to meet lots of people and all the important people, so I’m assuming that might be the Members. They also said that they get to go on TV a lot and you get free food. But most of all, they said they have a better understanding of how the government works...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I get into this motion specifically, the department and all Members of this Assembly have noticed that the Regular Members have introduced three motions particularly to this department. It’s not that we’re questioning their authority over what they’re doing, we just want to support the great things that are happening in education right now, early childhood development, child daycares and, in this case, the e-learning program.

We see what’s happening in the communities. We see how things are changing within the communities and throughout the Northwest Territories...

Thank you. I’m glad to hear that formula funding is something that’s going to be looked at and addressed. I think it’s long overdue because each authority only gets so many dollars to spend and when a lot of it goes into travel, that’s a lot taken out of the education components, the support components there.

Moving forward, one way that we can affect this is through a program that the Minister is very familiar with and that’s the e-learning program. I just wanted to make a little comment on the e-learning program. Committee has seen firsthand that program in action, seen the results that were...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What I have here in my hands is the Early Childhood Development Framework of the Northwest Territories. In this framework we have seven commitments made by both the Department of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment. Within these seven commitments, we have 22 areas of action and underneath that, 39 deliverables and somewhere in the area of about 82 targets. I’m not sure if I counted them right. That’s just for this year alone, so moving forward I have a lot of questions about where we should be putting dollars.

When I look at these...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We heard a lot of questions here about early childhood development in the last couple of days. I have a motion that I’d like to read, please.

So some things I caught there were support mechanisms and specific training. As you heard yesterday, there was a lot of concern with stages of early childhood development. I do support the junior kindergarten programs in the small communities and the way it’s coming out, but we also need the prenatal to five and six, even to there, as a strong initiative.

I want to ask the Minister, in terms of specific training, if he’s familiar with the BC Early Learning Framework where they’ve actually developed child care licensing regulations. They have a child care sector occupational competencies. I...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m trying to get back into my frame of mind here. I know last night I was really eager to get into questions and comments, but since we left general comments yesterday I just want to open up with a couple of really quick remarks. With this department here, I know the Social Programs committee has had numerous dialogues on so many different topics that it’s really great to see where we are. I feel that all committee and Members really need to do is support and monitor and continue to keep the department accountable with all the work that has been going forward.

In the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This week is Education Week and the theme is Changing the Way We Learn. I’d like to take this opportunity to recognize educators throughout the Northwest Territories for their hard work, dedication, support and commitment to our youth, but also to those who are seeking further education in post-secondary or upgrading programs.

With the constant goal to make sure our students are successful beyond the classroom, I want to make sure that our educators are, as well, and offer any type of support that I can. But I want to make a special thank you to those educators who take...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I have questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and it is dealing with income assistance.

I’d just like to ask the Minister, what does the department do for people who are stricken to their homes or place of residence and have challenges such as disabilities, reading, writing challenges, anything that might hinder them from being able to go to the income support office to get the assistance in filling out an application? What does the department do with people that need this type of assistance and are stricken to their home? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, I think this does bring merit to the issue of daycare facilities in small communities. I know the staff understands, mainly because of the initial results from the EDI instrument that we were trying to address. Kids are going into school as high as 69 percent not developed. I think this motion speaks to that. It’s also an opportunity where we can support mothers, parents, which ultimately leads to parenting skills but it’s also an opportunity where we are able to monitor a child and allow this child, also, before they go into the junior kindergarten, to develop through play-based...