Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while we had hoped to see better results from all the communities in the Alberta achievement tests, the Member is right that the results themselves from the small communities caused us some concern. I think we were aware that we have in the Northwest Territories a challenge with literacy and numeracy and, because of that, we already have started to strengthen the program and curriculum to deal better with those challenges.

In a small community, it is more difficult to offer the breadth of programming and the level of service. Sometimes the small...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess as a Legislative Assembly we could have a discussion about the policy and whether or not we think that the no-fault insurance way in which the WCB has operated is the way that we want to do it. We could get rid of the WCB, bring in private insurance like they do in the States, and allow all sorts of litigation in order to see whether or not people get compensation. I think the system that we have, Mr. Speaker, is one that works well. There are some people who don’t feel that they’ve been satisfied and we have, with Valic’s situation, a case where the courts have...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The board has announced or said that they are not going to appeal the Valic decision. As I said, they are reviewing their policy. Their policy will be rewritten. They had, in September of 2004, issued a new policy for pain which dealt specifically with chronic pain and had felt that at that time that that policy would be in compliance with court decisions at that time. Now they are in light of more recent court decisions and they are reviewing their policy. So the understanding of the field has changed and the board is responding to that reality and will have a policy...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We need to be careful that we are not using these tests for comparison purposes, because we can’t. These tests are administered in our jurisdiction in a far different way than they are anywhere else that they are used. We don’t allow or don’t have the exclusions that are found in other jurisdictions, so that means that all of our students are participating in these exams whether they are on an individual education program or a modified program. In many other jurisdictions, that doesn’t happen. So we don’t have comparison.

These tests are designed for us to take a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We will certainly be following up on this. We have had some initial discussions with the chairs of all the divisional education councils across the Northwest Territories. Since the report the Member talks about has come out, there have been some changes to the formula that is used to fund schools and the funding has been disproportionately increased for the small schools in comparison to larger schools in recognition of some of those challenges. We are planning to continue our work with divisional educational councils to ensure that we are delivering as good a program...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Towards Excellence: A Report on Education in the NWT, 2005. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; all income security programs will exempt the lump sum payments.

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The social assistance regulations require amendment in order to accommodate that. That amendment has not been completed yet, but work on rewriting the regulation is underway and will be done before the payments are issued.

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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the federal government has the responsibility for the compensation payments and have set up the Indian Residential Schools Canada Secretariat to coordinate this program. So the GNWT is not directly involved in the lump sum payments, but the GNWT is working to provide files to the secretariat to allow for the verification of student attendance. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The current schedule would see the request for proposals going out by the end of this month, with our expectation that the award would take place shortly thereafter and construction hopefully starting by the end of August this summer.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because this is a federal program, the best number to call is the Indian Residential Schools Canada helpline, which is 1-800-816-7293. I think that, for the public, is the most important number for them to call because they need to contact that number in order to find out how to access the forms, the applications and so on. Applicants do not need to have verification of attendance before applying for this compensation. The first call should be to the commission to make sure that they get their applications in. Once they file their application, then verification of...