Alfred Moses

I think the dollar back in the seventies was a lot different from the dollar of today, and also the fact that we have made increases as well, such as the Small Community Employment Support Program. That is one where we were trying to address some of these areas to help families, to help people get working, become part of the workforce. We continue to make changes to policies so that more families get more money in their pockets at the end of the day as well. We are still continuing to work to address those issues through strategies, initiatives, the Anti-Poverty Strategy, for one, and the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can assure Members of this House that our department is closely monitoring the three-year Ontario pilot project that the Member talked about in his opening statement. We are looking at the implementation, and we do look forward to seeing those results. In the meantime, we have done initiatives. We have created action plans. Just recently this past year we made changes to the Canada Child Benefit, as well as the NWT Child Benefit, to try to give every family in the Northwest Territories the opportunity to be part of their communities, the economy, as well as to meet...

Yes, previous to the decisions that I made we did meet with the board on a regular basis, and with the discussions in the May/June sitting we thought it was best to go in the direction in which we are removing it now with the foundational review that is going to look at everything. Prior to that, we did have those meetings with the board on a regular basis.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and with the removal of the board, it brought a focus on the review itself. We are going to be looking at the operations of the Aurora College, as well as the governance of Aurora College, and that is where we are focusing with this foundational review. When we get the results at the end of the review, we will be in a position where we can make the decisions moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did make a commitment during the presentation that we had to standing committee the other night and we'll make that commitment in the House that we will get those packages, Safe and Caring School packages to all Members should they want them, but we'll make sure that the honourable Member from Nahendeh gets the package and that all Members that would like one, we'll get one to them as well.

Approximately 225 NWT teachers across the North have been trained in the healthy relationships program called "The Fourth R." Training is provided to all NWT schools free of charge as well through continued working through the partnerships that we do have with the University of Western Ontario and as part of a federally- funded research project on youth and mental health. We work with our partnerships with the University of Western Ontario. We offer it to all schools in the Northwest Territories, and any schools that haven't received the training or feel that they might want more training...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and with our Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Board, when we have meetings with them, get updates, we will ensure that. This is a concern of the Member, but I am sure they stay on top of it. It is industry-driven, so anything new and innovative that we are doing in industry, I am sure the board is on top of that. I have full trust and confidence that they are working in the best interests of industry, but also in the best interests of Northerners, and we will make sure that is part of the next discussions that we have with the board.

The resources that are going to be used to encourage this is through the schools. We will talk with students in the schools, as well as our career development officers, our employment transition officers that go out into the communities and actually get this information to those that might be on income assistance or looking at a career moving forward, and most recently we also made an announcement and an improvement into our small community employment support program that does on-the-job training, so we will work with our Aboriginal groups. As you heard earlier, one of my colleagues mentioned...

Yes, as I mentioned, we do have a committee that is currently working on it. We are collaborating with our Aboriginal governments, engaging our Aboriginal governments on what they would like to see in this curriculum. It is very important to get their knowledge, so that we can in return teach our youth in the school system. I imagine over the next two or three years, I think the curriculum will be completed, and hopefully delivered in the school system.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Currently, we just have Northern Studies 10 in the curriculum that is being offered throughout the Northwest Territories. We do have a Wise People Committee made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous leaders that is currently working on a Northern Studies 20 and 30. Following the same process that we did with Northern Studies 10, the Northern Studies 20 and 30, under direction of the Wise People Committee, are looking at exploration and developments of things like land claims, treaties, self-governments that are all going to be focused on Northern Studies 20 and 30. That...