Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment wishes to recognize the dedication and service of the educators who have contributed to the well-being, support and education of our students.

The Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association was founded 60 years ago with just 60 teachers, including those from the Western and Eastern Arctic, eventually becoming a member of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. As we proudly recognize this anniversary, the NWTTA now represents more than 800 teachers in 49 schools, demonstrating tremendous growth in the territory.

Throughout this growth...

We have to keep in mind that we are providing free junior kindergarten across the whole Northwest Territories, and especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The communities will definitely be benefiting from this program that we’re initiating. It’s a three-year phased approach, so the daycare, the home care operators… Again, I must emphasize that we are providing the supporting mechanism in place. It’s been there before, it’s always been there, and we’re going to enhance it further as we move forward on implementing a junior kindergarten. There is a lot...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This whole implementation of junior kindergarten has been positive news. As the Member alluded to earlier with his statement, there’s a lot of support on this particular piece of work that has been in the works for some time now, the last few years. We are mindful of the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. We’re doing this for the whole Northwest Territories and the Member touched on two under two, there’s also three under three that we’re fully aware of and my department is working diligently with the operators, the day home operators and other operators...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I have an important thing to say. I know that there are a lot of things happening in our region. In the last little while in my region, in Whati there were hand games that were held in the community, and I want to express, to the community, a thank you and congratulations.

We had visitors from Alberta and all the people from the Northwest Territories. This was put on by the Whati community. The chief and council have prepared and hosted the hand games for all the people. They also had security for the community. I want to express my thanks and congratulations...

I will commit to the Members that the information that we’ve compiled to date on the pupil-teacher ratio across the Northwest Territories will be shared with the Members.

This is an area that we have made a commitment to, that on average, none of the school boards will be over 16 to 1, on the average territorial. At the same time, those individual education authorities, as the Member indicated, year one, year two, year three, some will be just slightly over and those will be mitigated through the subsidy that I have highlighted.

The Member is also asking if it’s going to be on a continuous basis. When we roll out the junior kindergarten and start implementing that, then the funding will be based on their enrolment as well. The larger the student population, then...

Those are discussions that we will be having through the education renewal innovation. As you know, one of the pillars is to focus on small communities. The discussions we’re going to be having today until we develop the action plan with the work of the DEAs and the Aboriginal leadership, this is an area that will be targeted, the small community schools. By this summer we should have a clear idea of which communities we’ll be working closely with pertaining to these schools, what kind of programs should be delivered, upgrading and enhancing our programming. It will be part of the education...

This particular school was built and constructed in 1969. Again, there was a major, major retrofit in 1999 and since 2008, 2012 we’ve spent well over $2 million upgrading this facility. So we are on top of the renovation.

But at the same time, first on a typical capital planning cycle, Moose Kerr School will be scheduled for replacement or renovation in 2019. That is the overall plan and this is 20 years from the date of the last major renovation. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I would like to recognize our guests. It is the language group. They’ve been working on language development for many years. Today they are having a meeting and they’re here for a brief visit. I’ll tell you their names. From the NWT Metis Nation, Vance Sanderson, Leah Desjarlais; and also for Akaitcho Territory, Chief Ernest Betsina is here to represent the Akaitcho, interpreter Mary Rose Sundberg is also with that group; and Betty Grandjambe from Sahtu; Deline First Nation’s Pauline Roach; and for the Deh Cho region we have Violet Jumbo; IRC is represented by...

To my understanding, the information that we have received within my department working with the school boards on compiling all the information, we work closely with the school boards so we can access their information, as well, so they can share the information with us, so we can compare. If it’s based on per school or per educational authority, those are areas that the education authorities need to work with us. The information that we have we’ve compiled based on the projected enrolment. Phase one, phase two, year three approach is all projected on the student enrolment over a three-year...