Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the Member will turn to page 49, it would be in the labour development and standards. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, it is critical to ensure that the northern post-secondary education system meets the changing needs of our students and the demands of the Northwest Territories labour market.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment’s long-term labour market assessment tells us that 78 per cent of Northwest Territories jobs in the next 15 years will require a post-secondary education. This government has an ambitious agenda that will help us establish a modern post-secondary education system to support our residents’ academic and employment success.

Mr. Speaker, the department is...

Yes, I will work with the Member if he can provide us with the names and information of any constituents who are having any concerns with accessing the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. As I mentioned, there are different indicators of being eligible to receive the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. I will work with the Member and ask him to provide us with the names of his constituents.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can only really speak to my department, where we do have the Senior Home Heating Subsidy, as well as in September of last year we did do an increase to the Senior Citizen Supplementary Benefit. I know Housing has some programs. Health and Social Services has some programs. I mean, all departments can work together to get that information. We also do work very closely with the NWT Seniors' Society. The Yellowknife Seniors' Society, they have a really great handbook in terms of the programs and services that are provided to seniors. I would encourage the Member to also...

I will work with the Minister responsible for Seniors, who is also the Minister responsible for Health and Social Services, to look at options for such an event and get back to the Member and also work with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Member is correct. Depending on the household income and the community in which you live in is the amount of subsidy in terms of home heating that you will get. This is for all Members and all residents of the NWT: seniors are eligible to receive a set amount of wood, oil, propane, gas, and/or electricity. As I mentioned, it is dependent on the household income and the community in which they live in. Our client service officers do a good job of informing our seniors and residents of what they are capable of accessing and encourage any seniors who have any questions on this to go and see...

Yes. As I mentioned earlier, we are very big on supporting culture, heritage, languages in our schools and support our education authorities to deliver these programs. We have made some improvements, such as Elders in Schools, and that has been working very well. We continue to work with Alberta, as you mentioned. As I mentioned in the House, we have really great partnerships with the Minster of Education from Alberta. We are currently participating in working groups on the renewal of the Alberta curriculum that will help them promote culture and Indigenous languages in their schools, but...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, we do fund all of the education authorities on an annual basis throughout the Northwest Territories. One of our goals is ensuring that all students are grounded in the reach and diverse history, cultures, language, and heritage of our peoples. As we fund our education authorities, they are encouraged to develop local and regional courses and resources that do focus on culture, heritage, and languages, and we continue to support them.

One other way that we do that is through Elders in Schools. Not only our students, but our teachers, as well: teachers...

Our education authorities or education bodies currently receive about $9 million from ECE to promote cultural activities, heritage activities, as well as things such as drumming, sewing, beading, traditional classes in traditional practices that we have had over the years. The elders in the schools provide a big opportunity to help teach the traditions, not only traditions and skills, but the values of our ancestors in the schools today as well as working on revitalizing our Indigenous languages. We continue to work with all of our education bodies and support our schools in promoting those...

In the 18th Assembly mandate, the GNWT did commit to implementing a renewed directive to strengthen the role of schools in supporting Indigenous language development and cultural programming as well as the TRC's call to actions that address supporting the development of culturally appropriate curricula and the protection of the rights of Indigenous languages, including the teaching of Indigenous languages. We are well into that. As an update for this directive that we are working on, called the NWT JK to Grade 12 Indigenous Languages and Education Policies and Procedures, that will begin being...