Jackson Lafferty

Again, we’re following the guidelines of what has been passed in this House. Yes, we changed those policies, we changed that legislation, the regulations in this House. At the same time, we have to follow the office of the Auditor General. Simply, there are strict guidelines for us to follow. Obviously, we don’t want to break those policies, those programs, those regulations that are in place. At this point there’s a reason for it. At the same time, the reporting mechanism is in place for various reasons. There are individuals who may be going through certain stages. We need to identify if...

Mahsi. When we talk about the income support division, it does consist of various programs and part of it is the seniors’ home heating subsidy, income assistance in general to support those individuals and providing assistance to residents 19 years of age and over for basic food necessities, shelter and clothing expenses and we have to attend to those most vulnerable individuals in the communities, the clientele. So, these are just some of the areas: NWT territorial workers supplement, NWT child tax, senior citizens supplementary benefits, SFA. All of these fall under income support. So, yes...

Mahsi. That type of training has been conducted in various communities, along with partnerships with the various different departments and the communities, so by all means we can pursue those. If it’s a real need in the community, for sure we’ll be working closely with the Department of Transportation and the community. Of course, the college will be involved, as well, when it comes to training in various areas, whether it be trades or different sectors. Those are the needs that need to be identified then I will be getting back to the Member on the information that’s going to be provided...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There are activities that are happening in the Sahtu region and my department will conduct a study regarding the feasibility of the Sahtu training centre that we’ve been talking about for quite some time now. That would consist of education and training, the needs of the communities. Obviously, we need to do that anyway, because we need those feasibility studies within the guidelines that we approach the next step.

We have established a committee and there’s been a labour pool that’s been developed for training needs, so it is before us. Through the committee, industry...

Mahsi. In order to move forward on a forum for the Sahtu region, obviously we need the tools, we need that data, we need the stats, so I’ll be working very closely with ITI as we move forward on developing the forum for the region and providing that information that’s required, the community needs assessment and information from the community perspective and also the region. We will be compiling all of that information and working with ITI to deliver that to the community. Mahsi.

Mahsi. I need to find out the latest status on the actual report that’s been worked on by the committee. It does consist of a variety of parties that are involved on the committee. I’ll find out the status and if it’s ready for public review or for the committee, because it’s a tool that it’s giving us to work with while we’re developing the study on the feasibility of the Sahtu regional institute of technology that will give us some areas of discussion as we move forward.

So, definitely this is an area that I’ll find out the status. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, part of the process will be the regs that will be before us would have to require those individuals to have the qualification. We will do our part, as a department, to provide the necessary training, necessary support mechanism that needs to be in place. Throughout the licenced early childhood programming, we talk about the daycares and junior kindergarten, a mixture. Yesterday, we got into more detail about how we can provide training.

That is information that is available and we will provide that specific training to qualify people in our education system to deal with the children...

Mr. Chair, the committee met, I believe, late last year and then we have been developing a terms of reference for the committee. I just got that last week or last week and a half. We are moving forward on that. It’s true that the committee has met. They are discussing options on the wage increase for minimum wage. I’m expecting a report very soon. As soon as I get that, we need to go through that. I will keep Members posted on that. Mahsi.

Mahsi. When it comes to inclusive schooling, this is what we have to date. There’s legislation that we have to follow, but we are listening to the Members. That’s the very reason we’ve listened to the Members, now we’re going to reviewing. We’re reviewing the inclusive schooling. So we want to make changes that reflect on the students’ needs as well. Based on the review, based on the input from the school boards, the school boards will be actively involved and will give us options to make some decisions if this is going to be based on students’ needs, the community’s needs and so forth. So we...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The increase is due to the fact that there is a Community Skills for Work, $290,000, provided to the college; Teacher Education Program is approximately $70,000; and also the UNW Collective Agreement, $404,000. There are also lease costs of $112,000, and then Geoscience Field Assistant Training program, $54,000. So that adds up to roughly what the Member has alluded to. Mahsi.