Alfred Moses

The NWT Film Commission falls under the Industry, Tourism and Investment portfolio of the department. Would it be in the best interest to allow a little bit more flexibility that if, possibly like the NWT Tourism, this commission becomes independent of the government so that they can run on their own timelines but also access funding from the government? Has the Minister had any discussions on that with his colleagues, in terms of possibly looking at that as a stepping away from the government?

Thank you. Currently the Yukon government and the Nunavut government offer rebates. Why can’t the NWT come up with a policy of their own that offers rebates to some of these production companies? We have a very great group of individuals in the Northwest Territories looking at development and training.

Does the Minister see any type of funding to go into development and training for some of our individuals that are in the industry? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier this week I did a Member’s statement on the legacy of Members in this House who have served for this government. Today I’m going to talk about a different legacy: building a legacy in our youth, in our communities and in our future leaders.

Today I want to talk about the Northern Youth Abroad Program. The Northern Youth Abroad Program specifically is designed to meet the unique needs of youth living in isolated communities in Canada’s North, specifically the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This program was initially designed to help find Nunavut teachers to...

With the e-learning program, I’m a strong supporter of the program itself. The Social Programs committee sat before the e-learning process in the classroom and we did one of our correspondence on the Education Act on it, so we saw it work firsthand. Speaking with the individuals who run the program, we had educators from McPherson teaching people in Inuvik and in Tuk, and we actually had educators in Tuk teaching people in Inuvik and McPherson. So it’s a great program. We just heard from our Member from the Deh Cho that there are six small communities who could benefit from that program. We...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. We’ve discussed this before, but as some of my colleagues from the small communities have asked questions today with regard to academic programs, Grade 12 programs in the small communities, I wanted to ask the Minister what 30-level courses are being offered in the small communities. I know in the Deh Cho, there are six small communities. In the Inuvik region, there are six small communities outside of Inuvik.

What 30-level courses, academic courses, are currently being offered in these small...

Thank you. I do agree with the Minister that we do have a lot of caring families out there and I appreciate the hard work that they do, as well as the staff that continue to go out and recruit. The last time I left Yellowknife I saw a booth that was set up in the Yellowknife Airport looking for foster parents.

Does the Minister have a number of apprehended youth in the NWT right now looking for foster parenting placements, and if there’s no placement for them, what are the services that are provided to children that are being apprehended? Where do these children go? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’ve had a lot of discussion today on the Education Renewal document that was tabled in the House last week. However, I’m going to ask my questions and rank them in the way that we talk about anti-poverty and we talk about mental health and addictions. I’ve got questions today for the Minister of Health and Social Services and that’s relating to foster parenting in the Northwest Territories.

I’d like to ask the Minister what is our current situation with foster parenting in the communities, in the small communities and the regional centres where we tend to sometimes...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just to get further commitment since this ERI is a 10-year action plan, can we see an action plan for the e-learning specifically over the 10 years where it will develop from not only providing educational services in Tuktoyaktuk and Fort McPherson, but down the Mackenzie Valley to more of our 33 communities that we provide services for? Thank you.

The Minister is leading right into where I was moving with my questions in terms of e-learning. I was going to ask him what is the cost of adding another academic teacher into one of these small communities, just one out of the six. What is the cost of a highly qualified educator that can teach one of these advanced learning Math 30, Chemistry 30 courses in our small communities? What would the cost be to the department? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister provides some very interesting statistics, knowing there is a need for foster parenting. He mentioned group homes. I was wondering how many group homes do we currently have in the Northwest Territories.