Alfred Moses

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a responsibility to make sure that high school students in the Northwest Territories have access to an equitable, high-quality education that prepares them to be contributing members to our communities. We owe it to our young people to provide an environment that supports wellness, inspires a sense of identity, and builds on their strengths, because we know it means a greater chance for success both in academics and in life.

Mr. Speaker, Members are aware of some of our work to date to implement education renewal and, in particular...

As I have mentioned to Members, as we are going through our main estimates, we also have the labour market development agreements that we do have with the Government of Canada. There are funds in that agreement that we do have with the federal government that will also help with employment, so there are some dollars that we are accessing on a bilateral basis, as well, and we are just looking at hopefully signing that agreement soon. We'll get all that information to the Member and to Members as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One other thing that I want to highlight is that, out of that $4.2 million that we budgeted in the last budget, up to the present we have almost spent all of that money, and I am confident that we will have all of that funding in the Small Community Employment Fund spent by the end of this fiscal year. Of course, we want to look at other ways that we can partner with whether it's another organization, possibly through a wage subsidy or partnering in share costs for projects, as well as looking at some of the other programs that are in other departments on how we can work together so that we...

As I mentioned, we are putting in career and education advisors as well this academic year. The whole education renewal that we have been working on over the past number of years is going to hopefully impact the way our students learn, the way our students succeed, the way our students are able to graduate, right from the JK to 12 system. With our new investment in the career and education advisors, I think we are going to be helping our students to complete graduation, look at a career that they might want to take, or, further, going to a postsecondary institution.

The child and youth care...

I do appreciate the concern. When students do miss class to go out and seek other supports that they need to be successful in life, we would work with the education authorities to ensure that teachers who are in a situation where their students are leaving class, whether it's for a medical appointment, dentist appointment, or if it's for counselling, that the teacher makes every effort to ensure that the student gets the materials or information that they have missed for that day or a couple of days.

I am not sure if the Member knows, but, in previous governments, I have done a lot of work with youth in every position that I have had. We have a lot of smart youth out there and strong voices that represent their cultures, their languages, represent their people, and I am more than happy to reach out to the schools as well as some of the Indigenous governments that allow youth to participate in their daytoday business. We will be reaching out and finding ways to connect with our youth and getting their input in terms of looking at the possible development of a youth council for the Northwest...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've heard, on numerous occasions, that our current high school graduation requirements are not meeting many of the NWT students; and, therefore, the department has taken it on and is looking at reviewing and working towards revising the current requirements and looking at how we can assist students to create a pathway to graduation, whether it's the trades, whether it's for future post-secondary education, whether it's to get into the career field right away, or even just to get a completion of their high school, but those are discussions that we're going to have as we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are certain criteria for families and seniors to access the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. They can also be accessing income assistance. Other factors, such as kids going off to school, no, we don't factor those in. We factor what is in the criteria for accessing Income Assistance and the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There would be a number of variables, and I think the Member has alluded to a few of them, in terms of journeypersons with certificates. We have seen a decrease over the years. We continue to also look at having 389 apprentices who are current registered in the Northwest Territories. The good news is that we have developed an Apprenticeship Trades and Occupational Certification Strategy for the next five years, and that's being implemented by the working group and the steering committee. That's mainly made up of people in the industry. So hopefully we will start seeing...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is a great honour to recognize our president of the NWT Teachers' Association, Mr. Fraser Oliver. He did a great job this week with the Educators' Conference. It was well-attended with teachers from across the Northwest Territories, and I welcome all educators here in the gallery today. Thank you.