Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, part of the process is, of course, we have our ECE staff that deal with apprentices, and just to make them aware of their obligations within the program itself, being an apprentice. My staff is, of course, available any time if there is a challenge or a barrier in the way that the Member has alluded to earlier. Those are areas that my departmental staff are available to meet with certain individuals, especially those apprentices. We also have a regional representative, as well, that deals with the service centres in the regions. They are available to help and support these...

Mr. Speaker, elders play a vital role in integrating languages and culture into school programming, and provide valuable skills and knowledge to our children and youth.

I am happy to announce that, beginning in the coming 2013-14 school year, we will be launching the NWT Elders in Schools pilot program to strengthen and increase elder involvement in our schools. While there are currently a significant number of elders already involved in many of our schools, this program seeks to enhance and formalize elder involvement within our school system. This pilot program will run in all schools across...

Mr. Chair, regarding the student information system, there have been some changes to our current system. In order to be trained on a new educational system, we need to have that mechanism in place. We are tracking the students, as the Minister alluded to earlier, because everything is based on enrolment. We have to monitor the student progress, attendance and so forth. The conversion from one system to another does take time and that’s the reason why we had this training mechanism in place to convert to another system. That is what is before us today. It is continually improving that system...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Elders in Schools Handbook.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, we are engaged with the community and the DEAs. The planning study is proposed for 2014-15, so that is earmarked that we are proposing as a department and then moving forward towards the capital projects based on that. A decision will be made from there. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been closely monitoring Trout Lake, the population and the number of students in the school, as well, along with other schools that are in a similar calibre. Currently, we have approximately 19 students. That’s 58 percent being utilized in the school.

Those are just some of the numbers that we have in play. But we are in the process of visiting the community, and I want my staff to be in the community to look for themselves, because they are a part of the capital planning process, then I think that will make a difference. We are planning to visit the community within...

The Member already alluded to some areas where management of property arrangements have been made with DECs and DEAs, and either with the local bands, local development corporation, private companies or even the other unique partnerships. With this, there is also – I’ve just been informed by the Housing Minister – some home units in the communities, homeownership program, that could be potentially converted to be made available to these professions in the communities. Those are some of the key areas that we are currently discussing, and we want to make as many units available, especially in...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area with a broad perspective beyond the ECE department and beyond the school boards. It is the GNWT as a whole, because we do have all the professions within the GNWT. So if we need to change that regulation, then it would have to be the GNWT changing the regulation. If we do it for one, then there will be others lining up.

So I think we need to strategically look at the overall regulations we have, how they impact on different departments. So that’s what we need to discuss, and we have discussed that with the Housing Corporation and Human Resources in the past...

Part of, again, the process is apprentice training on the jobs that we have. We currently have a wage subsidy, and that’s provided to the small employers so they can be competitive with the larger employers as well.

Most of the programs, as you know, there are limited financial resources with a high demand exceeding supply. With the feedback from my colleague, the Minister of ITI, on the Economic Development Panel, part of the role, I guess, is apprenticeship is something that we will review in light of supply and demand, and as you’ve heard from the panelists, there’s a high demand for...

Mahsi. I do believe this question is timely. As you know, the Minister of ITI delivered an economic development report that was tabled last week. Part of that consisted of training, training Northerners. With the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupation Act, it was recently revised. It came into force October 2012, and full implementation this August 2013. So that is part of ongoing development that we’re going through.

The review also consisted of various partners involved, stakeholders, industries, apprentices and the Apprenticeship Board. So those are just some of the processes that we have to...