Jackson Lafferty

The workers were in the midst of cleaning out the asbestos and arsenic from the roaster complex at Giant and they were wearing the protective equipment required at that point. In some cases equipment fails, and in all the cases WSCC and company are still trying to find out how the workers were exposed. During that time frame, the WSCC were giving directions to the company on how to eliminate the exposure and WSCC also immediately closed the project down until the company determined what caused the spike. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. WSCC was first informed about the exposure on August 10, 2013, and they sent me a briefing note on August 14, 2013. Those are the days that have been identified. Mahsi.

That is happening at the same time as well. As you know, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is the second biggest department along with Health and Social Services. We go through so many transactions throughout the day and we just want to be mindful of the requests that come in, so we can be prepared for the session and prepared for any briefings that may come up. So, we’re on top of the activities that are happening or transactions that may come across our table.

At the end of the day, we just want to keep track of all the transactions that are going through. We may have missed...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is a mutual agreement with the MLAs on guiding principles and process convention that we want to have a coordinated approach with our departments, not only my departments but other departments. Once it is funnelled through my department, we are fully aware of what is out there. But an independent agency or organization or MLA’s office go directly to the department and we need to keep track of those activities, those transactions. Those are just mere transactions that we need to be fully aware of. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

WSCC is dealing with the workers that were exposed, to ensure that they have all the information that’s required to deal with the exposure.

The low-level arsenic exposure is not a substance to cause any instant illness. It can manifest over long periods of time. That’s the information that we received. WSCC is also ensuring that it is not manifesting to a latent disease of the workers. Those are some of the areas that we are currently monitoring. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Part of the mandate of the WSCC is to first deal with the workers and the employers. In this instance, the general public were not at risk of exposure but were confined from the contaminated zone on the Giant property. The general public does not have access to the mine site or the contaminated zone. Worker/employer information is confidential and cannot be disclosed, so that’s part of the reason why it was kept confidential to the parties. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

There is always hope.

---Laughter

Honestly, I can work with the Member and have that brought to my department to discuss further. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Madam Speaker, as Legislative Assembly Members we’re obligated and also responsible for the people of the Northwest Territories. We’ve reached out to the people of the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities, the leadership, the parents, the grandparents, through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. This is building on that. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the action plan that has been brought forward will certainly highlight the importance. We have all these stats, through the renowned researchers across Canada and internationally. Those are some of the areas that we...

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. This is an area that we are embarking on, a new initiative. We’ve been talking about this junior kindergarten since the Aboriginal Student Achievement a few years back now, and it’s based on the engagement process that we’ve heard from the parents, the Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, and the past and present MLAs that were part of the process. These are the discussions that we’ve been having for quite some time now.

It’s before us through the Early Childhood Development Framework. The action plan will be a tabled document today. It does capture an area...

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. As I stated before, the overall $7 million that we’re talking about over the three-year period, dealing with all the schools across the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we are going to be servicing is re-profiling from the PTR. We’re still above the legislative target that we have for PTR, so what we’re proposing is delivering this this fall and then continuing on to other regions, other communities in the following year and all Yellowknife communities in year three from now.

Again, I have to reiterate that Dr. Stuart Shanker gave us the stats that junior...