Jackson Lafferty

This is an area that we’ve been working very close with NCS, identifying the capital projects, and they’ve submitted proposals to our shop, the GNWT, through ECE, and we’ve been working very closely with Heritage Canada, as well, because they provide the capital expenditures. Those are some of the discussions that we are currently having with the federal government on behalf of NCS. At the same time, NCS, the CEO is also advocating with the federal government, as well, so at both angles we’re pushing the federal government. We’ll do what we can to push that even further.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As this House knows, I am a true supporter of anything that contributes to the health and strength of our Aboriginal languages. NCS, the Native Communications Society, is valuable and also contributes towards this.

Again, there is no doubt that those talented individuals have worked for the society, as well, and learned from NCS over the years. We fully support that as government, for their contributions over the years.

The Member does put in a very interesting idea about how we can move forward on providing the training to these northern broadcasters. I have instructed my...

Mr. Speaker, last week I informed the Assembly that officials from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment would be meeting with officials from the two Yellowknife education authorities to compare financial numbers about junior kindergarten. I would like to advise the Assembly of the results of those meetings because I think they confirmed that there is a lot of incorrect information floating around about junior kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, there seems to be too much opinion and not enough facts about junior kindergarten, which is why I tabled a detailed fact package in the Assembly...

We are re-profiling; we aren’t cutting the budget. So the $7.4 million, as indicated, it is being rolled out to all the school boards to implement junior kindergarten. Those are the areas we have been working with the school boards and we will continue to make that a success. The junior kindergarten has been under discussion through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, Early Childhood Development. This is where we’re at today. We’ve done a lot of research, and research is telling us this is the best way to go. The 16 to 1, at this point we are at 13.8 to 1. When we start implementing...

Again, the fact package does cover that detailed information. In 2014-15 for YCS, $277,000 will be deducted from YCS budget out of the $7.4 million that we’ve been talking about re-profiling through PTR. In 2015-16 another $467,000 is meant to be deducted from their budget. In 2016-17 another $393,000 estimated to be deducted. So it’s a total of $1.137 million. This reduction will be offset with an increase of $960,000 funding from ECE through formula funding to support implementation of JK, resulting in an overall reduction over three years of $177,000. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Since we’ve been dealing with NCS the last few years now on the reporting mechanism with the federal government, we’ve been talking about evaluating and reviewing of their proposals, as well, and the annual reports that are coming in. I completely agree, because we are a public government, and the way that the money is spent is essential to be a responsible government. This is an area that we’re primarily focusing on.

My department also recently discussed the 2014-15 contributions with NCS, which included an enhanced review of the outcome. This was done with NCS agreement, so they’ve also...

As I stated, this is the discussion we’ve been having. We’re talking about potentially just a sticker on the back of an iPad, a tablet, similar to the De Beers book that we distributed through our partnership with De Beers and the schools. So it could be a matter of a sticker on the back of that tablet. We’re finalizing those discussions we are currently having. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. As I stated, we are working on the details of that. Obviously, we don’t want to see when we open up an iPad and it flashes. We just want to have their branding or logo on the product itself. Those are the logistics that we’re still figuring out. We are working closely with Health and Social Services where it is a joint initiative, as well, early childhood development.

We are at the early stage of the branding at this point, but we are dealing with the industry on the particular matter. There will be some sort of branding, obviously, on the tablet itself. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Those are the logistics that still need to be worked out. With any sponsors, obviously, they want their logo. We are currently in discussion with the industry on the particular matter, but at the end of the day, the important part is we are giving tablets to new mothers, expectant mothers and all kinds of programs that will be beneficial to the family. That is what we’re doing at this point. There are a lot of discussions that are happening. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Junior Kindergarten – Fact Package.”