Jackson Lafferty

The terms of reference has been highlighted and it does highlight a number of meetings, so it would capture when those committee members will be meeting, so I will be sharing that with the Members. Mahsi.

The committee just met just recently. I believe the meetings required are on an as-needed basis between the parties, their availability and when the best time to meet will be. They will be providing recommendations to myself for the spring of 2014. I will be moving forward on it and working with the Members. I believe it will be on an as-needed basis when meetings are required. Mahsi.

The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative that we’ve engaged the general public, this particular piece of work, the Education Renewal and Innovation Framework, is building on that. It’s building on the success of our engagement. Through that there will be engagement with the committee that the Member is referring to, Aboriginal Student Achievement. There are committees being established at the regional level, at the community level. We must engage them, as well, because what it comes down to is we have to involve everyone and not just our department going to the community and saying this...

This whole engagement has been happening since just before 2007, before I became the Education Minister, and I’ve been engaging the general public, the DEAs and DECs, the schools boards, the parents, the educators, the elders and the students. They’ve been engaged since day one and we will continue to engage them.

Yesterday’s event with the media presentation, we had two of the partners, TCSA and also NWTTA, that have been actively engaged along with other DECs and DEAs who were in the audience. They are our true partners in the communities, and we will continue to work with them on developing...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I would like to recognize Mr. Henry Zoe, who is a past MLA. I want to have him recognized. And also Floyd Roland, who is the former Premier. I would like to have him recognized. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Kam Lake, that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Education Act, be read for the third time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The timelines will be established by the said committee. My department will be working with the committee to establish those timelines. If it’s going to be once or twice a year or on a quarterly basis, we will soon find out. They just met this past October, this past month. I will keep Members apprised as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We did appoint those members to the committee: the Federation of Labour, the NWT Chamber of Commerce, a business owner, two members of non-profit organizations and two GNWT employees. The committee has held a meeting in October 2013 and will make recommendations to me for spring 2014. So these members are currently established, they’ve met and they are going to make recommendations to me to move forward. I will keep Members informed about the progress. Mahsi.

With any new initiatives, we need to be innovative and creative how we can move forward. Developing the action plan, we need to identify through the school boards, through our partners, the cost factor. Some of it will be with internal reallocation potentially, as we’ve done in the past, but obviously, we may have to look out for new funding, as well, new partners such as we’ve done, again, in other jurisdictions.

When it comes to education and teaching, those are some of the areas that we need to improve. We’ve been told over and over from the communities, the engagement we’ve had, even from...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We just produced a document and tabled it in the House yesterday, Directions for Change, the Education Renewal and Innovation Framework.

Part of that will be developing an action plan in the coming months. We’re hoping by next session, February or March, we want to table a document, an action plan that will deal with the nine commitments that have been identified as part of the framework. So the next session is our objective. Mahsi.