Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Obviously, this whole remissible loan within the SFA area, we want to attract those individuals to come back to the North. As Mr. Hawkins alluded to reviewing, we are doing that as we speak. We want to evaluate our current system in place to make it more attractive, to make more incentives for those individuals who are going south. We want them to come back. If not, what other options can we provide to them? Mr. Chair, those are the areas we are currently reviewing. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are fully aware of the temporary foreign workers moratorium that is laid out across our country. GNWT has no Temporary Foreign Workers Program. It is a federal program but we do share concerns. I did speak with Minister Jason Kenney just the other day, Wednesday evening, May 28th, about this particular program and share our concerns, how to move forward on this and what his plans were. My department senior officials are working very closely with other counterparts as well, territorial/provincial and also the federal Minister’s office on this particular subject. Thank you...

I agree we have to have all those programs in our communities that do not have licenced early childhood programming. Based on the stats we have delivered in the House, there are 10 communities without the program. So, yes, I agree with that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Yes, this particular remissible loan, $40 million to $45 million, is certainly an incentive for the individuals to come back to the North and also to live in the North, and also to welcome them back to work in the North as well. Yes, they are 30 percent, or less than 30 percent out there we’re still working with individuals that may not come back or there are some challenges. We have to continue working with that, but it is creating incentive for them to come back to work. Mahsi.

Yes. The answer would be yes. We have considered all those mitigations and working with the early childhood deliverers in the communities, the child care workers, as well, and the program deliverers. We thought about all the implications, as well, but at the same time, creating more opportunities where if we draw out the four-year-olds, they have more opportunity to focus on zero to three years of age. How can we assist in those areas?

At the same time, the Head Start program, some of those have been in place for a number of years. This is an option for enhancing. Working with the Head Start...

These are the areas that we are currently exploring. As I stated, two years ago it was introduced to the standing committee, and we want to have a better and also a faster process of dealing with it in light of this time-consuming…(inaudible)…. We hear the Members clearly, so we’ll find ways of expediting this process in a timely manner.

Again, it was brought up in this House about the Sahtu and will there be a training institution. We were waiting on the training needs assessment and the assessment of the communities, which involves the stakeholders, the industry, the community leaders and community educators. Now we have that package and now we need to identify what’s needed in the Sahtu region when it comes to program development and also a training centre area, how is that going to look. Based on the package that we received, those are options that we’re going to create and then deliver that to the Sahtu region.

We just know that over a five-year period it’s around 70 percent, but we can provide the detailed information to the Members.

Yes. It’s a great possibility. In fact, I’ll be addressing that with the Board of Governors when we’re meeting in June. We’ve already addressed with the Board of Governors a while ago, and they are developing their corporate plan for a long-term strategy. This will obviously be part of their strategy, community learning centres in all communities. They should be producing highly skilled, qualified people. That’s my view, that’s my push, and I fully support that. The Members support that, as well, so we’ll continue to push that forward.

Mr. Speaker, when I talk about the action plan, yes, it’s been directed to us that we need to have more time to engage the general public because it will be their document, their solutions, their ideas and their suggestions. So I have allowed more time for that to happen. We want to deliver a draft action plan by this fall – that’s the target date – and deliver that in the House potentially I am hoping by February session or sooner. It all depends on the engagement that we’re conducting.

When the Member is talking about using existing resources or new funding, those are a mixture of information...