Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We introduced junior kindergarten through the work of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and a lot of research has been done. This is an area that has been earmarked as a success, focusing on early childhood at age four. Based on the feedback that we received, even just as late as a week ago, out of the 29 communities we have 22 that registered to enter into the establishment of junior kindergarten in the Northwest Territories. In fact, one just came in just the other day from Aklavik. Aklavik wants to join as member 23 out of 29. It’s over 70 percent that are...

Mr. Speaker, for the record, on May 14th there was an e-mail from my office to @email. There was a request for a meeting, as Mr. Bromley alluded to, and I did commit that my department would meet. Unfortunately, at that time I wasn’t available.

I did commit that my department would meet with the organization, of which they did. They provided all kinds of information to us, and we are working with that information that has been provided to us.

Next week I am travelling to the Deh Cho region. My commitment is to meet with Joyce McLeod, who is affiliated with the organization, and we’re...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We need to be on top of all the experts in the field of early childhood development. We’ve done our research. We’ve done our engagement with the general public and working with the early childhood educators as well. Through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Forum, we’ve reached out to all regions, the educators, grandparents, parents. So with their input, we talk about early childhood programming in the communities. Based on that, introducing Junior Kindergarten and others was their feedback and we are moving forward on wage subsidy, as well, for early childhood educators...

In fact, we’ve been doing that since we started talking about the JK and other early childhood development areas. There has been some funding issues because of enrollment. It’s not just JK. We need to focus on how we can improve the enrollment issues and challenges that we’re facing within the communities. My department is committed, through the education renewal, that we need to talk about formula funding for the student enrollment in our education as part of a contribution, so this is an area that we will continue to push forward.

We will be continuing to contribute to the school boards to establish this type of programming in the communities. As I stated in this House, I did commit that if it’s beyond 16 to 1 ratio on the teacher ratio basis, then obviously there will be a difference of a new funding formula towards those organizations and towards the school boards. These are the commitments that I have made in the House and I will continue to live up to it. It’s 16 to 1, and anything beyond that we will provide additional funding to the school boards.

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to dismiss those individuals who are in the education system at this point. There are some individuals who have 20 or 30 years of experience working with early childhood programs for all these years. I certainly do not want to shut the door on them. They should have the opportunity. That’s the reason why we’re providing all this training over this summer and also in the fall, so they can be prepared to roll out the Junior Kindergarten in 22 of the 29 communities that we’re establishing this fall. In fact, one additional community wanted to deliver that on top of the...

I didn’t say I didn’t support those individuals who are in the field of early childhood such as the Head Start program. We do appreciate their feedback, the feedback they’ve given us over the years. We, as a department, although it is a federally funded program, we at the GNWT, ECE, work closely with them as well. So providing feedback from them, it was based on that that we developed curriculum. When there’s a survey in the communities and also research concluded that the curriculum created is appropriate for four and five-year-olds in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, this particular...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker…[English translation not provided.]…

I’d just like to recognize and also welcome Education Hall of Fame inductees that are here with us for 2014. They are as follows: first, from the Beaufort-Delta Region, Lorna Storr. Lorna Storr is with us today. Welcome.

From the Deh Cho region, Martina Norwegian.

From the North Slave region, Liz Baile.

From the Sahtu region, George Cleary.

Not with us here today, but Celine Marlowe is another one from the South Slave region.

Also here with us as Minister’s Choice Award is Valerie Carter. Mahsi and welcome. Congratulations.

First, I’d like to commend the Sahtu region and the communities for their academic success. Congratulations to them. The needs assessment that the Member is referring to is before our department now compiling all that information. I know the Member has addressed that issue in the House on numerous occasions. Now it’s before us within the department. Now we’re compiling all the information from other jurisdictions, as well, because we are looking at a territorial-wide training initiative and how it’s going to look in the Sahtu region. The Member alluded to earlier about the program development...

During my discussions with Jason Kenney, these were some of the discussions that we’ve raised. We’ve raised some concerns, as well, just to elaborate and also enhance our nominee programming. The Northwest Territories Nominee Program is employer driven. The program is administered by our department and supports a permanent residency. The department is investigating ways, as I stated, to enhance the immigration program, which includes raising awareness of the Nominee Program and provide supports for new Canadians. Any new enhancements to the Nominee Program will be met with the existing...