Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the strategic plan may not specifically mention that sort of program, but it is certainly one of the basic tenants of the teacher education program and one of the reasons for offering the program right through to the baccalaureate or bachelor degree stage in the Northwest Territories. We are anxious to see more teachers who are born in the Northwest Territories and conversant in the language of their community who have been able to go through the process and become fully qualified teachers with a B.Ed. to work in the North. That's one way in which we are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in fact through our participation in the Western Canadian Protocol we have enhanced the curriculum across all western provinces in both territories to include more history of the North, and in the social studies curriculum you will find that in particular starting even as early as Grade 4 that there is a fair emphasis on northern history. In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, through the teacher education program at Aurora College there is again a significant emphasis on northern history so that teachers who come through the northern system are even more...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister has no flexibility in student financial assistance. The regulations must be followed explicitly. The Minister cannot bend the rules. So I would be quite happy to investigate the situation if the Member would subsequently provide me with the name, and certainly follow up. The student always has the right of appeal to the Student Financial Assistance Appeal Board, and I would encourage the student to make that appeal. Again, just from what I’ve heard, it sounds like someone made the inadvertent mistake of not recognizing part of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would expect that the only occasion we would see that sort of incident happening would be if it was found out that some information was wrong in the application or that the funding had been improperly accessed. If there was some reason to believe there was a problem with the way in which the funding was allocated, that might be the situation. It is difficult to respond to a general question of that nature, and it is unfortunate that I don’t have the specifics of this case to be able to follow up on it. Of course, it would be difficult to give a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will certainly discuss this further with the Member. It is my impression that we do offer that kind of support, if it's necessary, right now. If the Member has examples where he feels we are not following through, I would like to hear about them. So I will commit to discussing with the Member his recommendation and we'll take it from there. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the college has an aboriginal language and culture instructor program which is designed to prepare aboriginal language teachers to deliver aboriginal programming in NWT schools. This is a program that is offered on top of the teacher education program and it can be supported through the student financial assistance program, which also offers access to scholarships, as well. We find that many employers are prepared to support their employees to access this kind of program, as well. So the answer is yes, we make this programming available to assist...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, the Tl'oondih lodge was used in conjunction with corrections. The goal was to run a program that would help offenders reintegrate back into the community through a program that was tied to the land, and the program started I believe in late March and ran for several weeks. The early reports that I have received are that the program was seen as very successful by both the inmates who went through the program and by the staff. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, it’s not a tactic to stop people from advancing, it’s a tactic to ensure that people can advance. Rather than filling those positions with long-term employees, we have two positions that have been supervisory positions that have been used to rotate a number of people through so they are prepared to apply for supervisory jobs when they come open. So it’s an effort to provide some experience while people can have an active position to improve their skills.

Mr. Speaker, without having some names to address, it’s a difficult one to have some comments on. I guess I should point out though that the Member makes it sound like there are no aboriginal employees in corrections. In fact, our department is ranked third in government, in the last report on affirmative action, at 34.2 percent of its employees being aboriginal. Corrections services, since that time, has increased the number of aboriginal managers by 35 percent. So of the current 46 manager and supervisor positions, 57 percent are staffed by aboriginal persons and an additional 21 percent...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the intention is to be able to deliver the services at the facility, and we do currently have two nurses on staff to be able to provide services. I am advised by the Department of Health and Social Services that there has been no appreciable increase or noticeable increase in the patients from YCC to date. Thank you.