Alfred Moses

This year, when we fully implemented junior kindergarten throughout the territory, we had a budget in the 2017-2018 school year of $5.2 million. Our ECE budget throughout the territory was set at $8.91 million. I don't have the ratio of the education authorities to ECE. Our JK funding to ECE ratio is 1 to 1.7. In this upcoming budget for 2018-2019, we will have a junior kindergarten budget of $6 million. We will also have an ECE budget of $11.6 million throughout the territory. We are making very vast investments and improvements in how we operate with early childhood programs in the Northwest...

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...

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...

As I've said in this House before, it was the enrolment rates and graduation rates on that program. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is right. We've stopped intake into those two specific programs. As I've mentioned many times, I don't know how many times I have to mention it, but we are doing a foundational review. We have to make sure that that gets completed. In the meantime, when that foundational review is complete, as I stated yesterday with the management response, and I gave a timeline that we should have something at the 2018-2019 academic year moving forward, then we can use that foundational review, that management response, along with our Skills 4 Success document, and our labour market needs...

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...