Charles Dent

Frame Lake

Statements in Debates

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, this doesn’t replace the registration with their professional organization if that is required to practice a profession. What it does is the credentials are checked and then assessed against a Canadian standard, and what you get is a certificate that says yes, you meet the standards, then you could submit that to the professional organization and they would then review it and determine whether or not to agree that you should be able to practice. For instance, Alberta Opticians recognize the standards and are willing to accept them. It is a fairly extensive...

Debates of , (day 7)

Yes, Mr. Chairman. In fact, that’s what I said. There hasn’t been any growth in the students The number of students has actually gone down. There has been a reduction in the number of students. Almost $2 million of that is due to salary increases.

Debates of , (day 7)

Mr. Chairman, I am always pleased when I can be responsive and passionate and…

---Laughter

…I would like to point out that I have already responded to the Member that there is a new school for Yellowknife in the plan with construction starting in 2006-07. We have already identified in the five-year plan the need for the school. We now have to work with all the boards in Yellowknife to discuss the school and figure out where and how it’s going to go. The school itself is in the books. There hasn’t been any decision yet as to which school board is going to get it at this point, but we are going to...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, the evaluation should be completed in April. Then what we would hope to be able to do is if we are able to find any new money, use the evaluation of what programs that have been particularly successful, use that as a guide for where we should then start to emphasize the new money going towards, if we are able to find some new money. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very shortly after I became Minister I raised this issue with the department and asked that they do some work to take a look at what trends were across Canada. I, too, had heard from people that our system appeared to be falling behind in some areas. So it is something that we're watching. We're looking for opportunities that we may have to restructure the program somewhat to try and make it more relevant, more useful. That is, of course, a challenge when we have the fiscal climate that we have. But, yes, it is something that hasn't fallen off the radar, it is...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I can certainly talk with my colleagues and make sure that they're reminded of this requirement.

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a return to an oral question asked by Mr. Allen on March 17, 2004 regarding the constitutional questions related to attaining provincehood.

Mr. Speaker, the Aboriginal Summit is a society established by aboriginal organizations to represent their interests in the Intergovernmental Forum process, including the negotiation of the transfer of lands and resources to the Northwest Territories. While the Aboriginal Summit does not have constitutional status, many of its member organizations have lands, resources and self-government agreements that do recognize and...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Madam Chair. The college does have a program for professional development for the staff and as part of the collective agreement, we are required to invest in professional development for staff at the college. So there are ongoing opportunities for the staff to improve their skills and the college will, of course, be regularly encouraging people to do that because they, too, would like to see people encourage their skills. Having said that, we don’t have any territorial standards for certification. The college does oversee people to make sure the people who are teaching are...

Debates of , (day 7)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. These numbers are not completely finalized and that is why I said we would likely be coming back for a supplementary request. In the 2003-04 school year, the contributions to schools was $110.375 million. What we are expecting that will be in the next year is $113.233 million. That’s made up of UNW increases, cost for implementing curriculum, updating of average salaries for the enrolment change and to maintain the 15 percent inclusive schooling directive, basically.