Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One way that we are measuring the evaluation of four-year-olds in the education system is through our early development instrument. Later on, we have the middle development instrument that we are introducing into the schools and, obviously, ultimately, at the end of the school year, the graduation rates either from elementary school or even through high school. There are other areas that we are looking. Mainly, it is the early development instrument to make sure we watch the progress and then re-evaluate again at the middle development instrument. I agree with the...

The Member is right. We do have an agreement that we have signed. We are just waiting for the announcement from the Government of Canada that will increase the amount of funding we will have in the Northwest Territories. As I mentioned in this House, we have 11 communities that don't have any early childhood programming outside junior kindergarten that we implemented in the school.

We want to ensure that we put a focus on those communities that currently don't have early childhood programming and also continue to sustain other daycare spaces and daycare programs throughout the Northwest...

There are other ways. One way was: everyone knows that junior kindergarten is optional. For the parents, single parents, even, who enter their four-year-olds into the junior kindergarten system, I did mention that it saves the families anywhere from $8,000 to $12,000 per year. On the family side of things, it is economically having an impact on some of the families across the Northwest Territories. Also, areas that we are able to help the junior kindergarten classrooms, as well as Aboriginal Head Start, they were able to access the $5,000 one-time funding to get pay-based materials into the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we have very well-trained client-service officers in all of our communities, and they do updated training on a yearly basis. Every community has a unique situation, and I understand the situation in McPherson with the payments and some of the suppliers not getting paid on time. That is something that we can take a look into, but, at this moment, what we will do is we will make sure that the client-service officers in the community are aware of this situation and that we will touch base with them to make sure to see if we can be a little bit more efficient.

I do understand that some of our suppliers, especially when it comes to wood, use their own gas, their own time, their own machines to go out and cut the wood and that they incur expenses, as well, in terms of us getting them their payments. I cannot comment in terms of the individual cases that we have with some of our clients, but, come April 1st, we are we are making some enhancements to the Senior Home Heating Subsidy, and we will look into such an agreement. If the Member said that he did have an agreement previously, in previous governments, we can take a look at those options and look...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to welcome Roger Epp, the director of the University of Alberta North, to the House today. As usual, all the youth who are visiting from Penticton, welcome. I hope you had a good tour and enjoy the city of Yellowknife. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following eleven documents entitled "Aurora College Annual Report 2016-2017"; "Tlicho Community Services Agency Operating Plan for 2017-2018 School Year Ending June 30, 2018"; "Beaufort Delta District Education Council Operating Plan for 2017-2018 School Year (ending June 30, 2018)"; "South Slave Divisional Education Council Operating Plan for 2017-2018 (School Year ending June 30, 2018)"; "Sahtu Divisional Education Council Operating Plan for 2017-2018 School Year (ending June 30, 2018)"; "Dehcho Divisional Education Council Operating...

I think the message here is that anybody who wants to go into a social work program or education program, that we will continue to support them. I've always said that we have one of the best student financial assistance programs in all the country. If they want to get into that program, we can help them identify an institution, whether it's outside the Northwest Territories, getting that program in place. I think also a focus right now as we're moving forward, and I've said this to Members, is making sure that we get that foundational review done. It absolutely isn't a program review. I've...

As I mentioned yesterday, those two specific programs, we did stop taking enrolments in the programs. The students who are currently in there are going to continue to get the support that they need to graduate, complete their programs, and I've said that in the House on numerous occasions. We will follow up with the staff at Aurora College as well to make sure that they're sending the same message to the students that we want to support them, we want them to graduate, and also to support them if they want to go to another post-secondary institution.

Well, just the two programs that were discussed that we brought up in this House over and over and over again and many times, so just the two programs.