Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be happy to ensure that this item gets placed on the agenda for the social envelope Ministers. We have a committee that meets on a regular basis and I will work with my colleagues to ensure that we have a coordinated approach. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’ll make sure that we have that discussion with my colleagues in the social program departments to ensure that we do what we can to coordinate efforts in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education, Culture and Employment has the lead at getting information to the people who are claimants to make sure they can fill out their claims accurately and quickly to get them filed with the Residential Schools Commission. But in terms of the social work that would be necessary, no, that is not something that the department does. Each department has its own field of responsibility. For instance, the Department of Justice handles the legal sides in this jurisdiction. So it would be up to the Department of Health and Social Services to take the lead on counselling...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We would have to see evidence that there was significant demand for the program to talk about a pilot project such as the one that the Member talks about. I think I can demonstrate to the Member that we are prepared to consider pilot projects, because in the Tlicho region the department is working with the Tlicho Community Services Agency to bring in a Teacher Education Program where we are trying to bring people into the field of teaching who will be comfortable speaking their own language. That is the first step in making sure we have better language services...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member is right; the previous courses offered, or the previous participants in the courses offered by the college have been very successful in achieving a certain high standard of ability to interpret.

Unfortunately, the college hasn’t seen much uptake. They kept offering the courses, but there were very few people who signed up to take the courses. We suspect that that may be because, particularly since division of the Territories, there hasn’t been as much demand for interpreting services. There hasn’t been, therefore, the registration of students at the college...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department really is supportive of the development of language skills among the population and a lot of money is put into, for instance, helping northerners do better at picking up their languages. For instance, ALCIP, the Aboriginal Language/Culture Instructor Program, has been expanded to next year. It will be a two-year course. That’s expanded by one year. The first year will focus on language acquisition. What we are trying to do is make sure communities are better supported to have teachers who speak the aboriginal language of the communities. We should...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, I’ll make sure that we have that discussion with my colleagues in the social program departments to ensure that we do what we can to coordinate efforts in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, the next scheduled meeting for our committee is after session ends, but it is scheduled for the month of June. So it will be something that we’ll discuss and I’ll ensure that we contact the Member in writing to let him know what the results of that discussion are.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Education, Culture and Employment has the lead at getting information to the people who are claimants to make sure they can fill out their claims accurately and quickly to get them filed with the Residential Schools Commission. But in terms of the social work that would be necessary, no, that is not something that the department does. Each department has its own field of responsibility. For instance, the Department of Justice handles the legal sides in this jurisdiction. So it would be up to the Department of Health and Social Services to take the lead on counselling...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d be happy to ensure that this item gets placed on the agenda for the social envelope Ministers. We have a committee that meets on a regular basis and I will work with my colleagues to ensure that we have a coordinated approach. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.