Alfred Moses

Mr. Speaker, my questions are arising because we’re lacking some services in the NWT. I know the department is looking at developing physician recruitment and possibly developing a pool of physicians here in Yellowknife. What’s lacking there is we don’t have psychiatrists or psychologists that we do need in the small communities for so many different issues.

Would the Minister be looking to address these concerns of medical travel, look at doing a recruitment on psychiatrists for the NWT? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Lastly, I’d like to say a special thank you to those that have kept this House in order for many years, the courts and the staff of the Legislative Assembly. And a very special thank you, Mr. Speaker, to your office, to the staff of this Assembly and to the Clerks and all those involved in making this past weekend a very memorable one, and also continuing to be active in historical events and the legacy of this government and building. Mahsi cho.

I understand that the Minister’s department had been engaging residents of the Northwest Territories since 2007. I was asking specifically to the Directions for Change document that committee saw and only had about a month to reply on that. However, I’ll move on to my third question here.

With a lot of the monumental changes that are going to be happening within this education action plan, I would ask the Minister, will there be new dollars going into this action plan and is the action plan going to be implemented within the schools across the Northwest Territories in the 2014-15 school year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment regarding his Directions for Change document that was tabled in the House yesterday. In the opening message in the document, the Minister talks about the coming action plan will breathe life into this framework. I’m just wondering what the time frame is for this government and people of the Northwest Territories, specifically the educators.

What is the timeline for that action plan? When are we going to be able to see that action plan in a document that we can go by and our educators and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment tabled a document in the House, entitled Education Renewal and Innovation Framework: Directions for Change for our education system here in the North. I appreciate and recognize the hard work and efforts that went into this document by the Minister’s office, also by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I also acknowledge the hard work that the Standing Committee on Social Programs put into this document by providing their input and recommendations, as well as any other Members that came to those...

The reallocation of these internal funds also brings to light a concern. Which programs are they going to be taking the dollars from and which programs may be hindered by taking on these new initiatives? However, with the Aboriginal Student Achievement, before I got in this position, I did do some work with some of the committees in Inuvik in the elementary and in the high school in my previous position. I want to ask the Minister what is the role of these Aboriginal student achievement committees moving forward in this Directions for Change. Also, he mentions in his document that there was an...

Mr. Speaker, the standing committee had a short timeline to give their feedback and input into this document moving forward. It is a 10-year action plan, so it’s very important that we do it right the first time and that all the recommendations and input are addressed with moving forward with this.

I just want to ask the Minister, was proper consultation with the district education authorities, the Aboriginal student achievement committees, the NWT Teachers’ Association, did they have a bigger time frame, because obviously these guys are the ones that are going to be working on this education...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d also like to recognize and welcome to the House former Premier and current mayor of Inuvik, Mr. Floyd Roland, as well as Ms. Angela Young, who is one of our hardworking educators at the East Three School.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First off, I just want to say that I was very honoured to be on this tour with committee, and the hard work that the Social Programs committee put forth and the staff that travelled with us, as well, to these communities. They did a really great job, as well as the department staff who came on this tour with us. So it was a lot of hard work and I listened to a lot of community members, educators, as well as youth, which was very unique and I was very glad to hear the students speaking up on such legislation.

I’d like to thank Mr. Dolynny, Mr. Yakeleya and Ms. Bisaro for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government’s been doing some really proactive work in this field with early childhood development and looking at the investment that we have been putting forth over the last couple of years. We’re working on this Early Childhood Development Framework, which will be kind of a framework that will outline where we’re going with investing in the development of our infants, prenatal to three or four years old and getting ready for school. But this motion that’s before us here will not only allow for affordable daycare, but it will also increase the amount of people that...