Jackson Lafferty

The language symposium is scheduled for next week. My colleague Mr. Nadli will be co-chairing with me on this. The expectation is, we want to hear from the general public, the experts in the field to give us direction, to give us guidance. We are going on the next phase of Aboriginal Language Secretariat on the long-range plan. We want to hear their input. Right now we’re at the first phase of the Aboriginal Language Secretariat. It’s just a basic approach and then we want to take on the second phase. That’s why we need their expert advice and recommendations on what we should be focusing on...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Aurora College Annual Report 2011-2012. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the Education Renewal and Innovation Initiative is examining a wide range of issues facing education in the NWT and developing a comprehensive plan to address these. The development of this plan and many aspects of the plan itself will involve participation of other GNWT departments. I am happy to report that a wide range of GNWT departments have dedicated staff to participating in this process. The plan itself is scheduled to be completed by this late fall/winter.

The renewal initiative is currently in the research and engagement phases. The project charter, describing the work...

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod will be absent from the House for a portion of today’s proceedings to attend meetings with the Prime Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Today I’d like to talk about the Pages that are here to help us. We have two, Amber Beaverho. That is one of the Pages from Gameti; and another one, Krischan Smith. They are both from Whati community. And Alfred Beaverho, who is their supervisor. I would like to say thank you to those Pages and all the other Pages that have been here helping us through our session at this time. Thank you.

Yes, we can. This is an area that we’re very closely monitoring and there is a huge potential opportunity here. We have to find out the needs of the community. How much manpower is there in the Sahtu region? Who is trainable, employable? What are the training needs in the community? Industries have to be involved as well. We have to get the industries at the table and start discussing this immediately. I agree with the Member, we’re going to fast-track this and have a meeting within hopefully the next couple of weeks.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree that there should be formal meetings, potentially monthly or quarterly. There are all these different activities happening in the Sahtu region. More specifically, through training, we do have a steering committee of the regional representatives involving different parties as part of their discussion and planning stages. What are the communities’ needs? By all means my department will be sharing that with the Sahtu regional representatives, and they should be having more council meetings preparing for the huge activity that will be happening in the region.

I don’t recall encountering this kind of incident in the past. There might have been a couple before. The time frame, I need to seriously look at this. As I’ve stated, this is the first event, but I will be working with the Department of Human Resources, and also the NWTTA and within GNWT policy itself, and working with the DEA. We need to involve them, the superintendent. We’ll try and expedite this process as best as we can. Again, there are parties involved, so we need to engage with the parties. If the changes are going to be made, they need to be involved as well.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I do agree with Mrs. Groenewegen that these teachers that do volunteer work are invaluable to the team and they make a difference to the students’ lives, even the athletes’ lives, so we must support them as best as we can. This is the first I’ve heard of the incident but, definitely, this is an area that we need to follow through with the DEA, and I need to work closely with my colleague, as well, in HR. We all need to work together on this on what’s best for the students and how we can have those individuals, the resource team available for these athletes. It’s based on...

Yes, this is an area that, again, we’re very interested. Along with the Deh Cho riding, there is a lot of activity happening. We want to expedite the process. The Member is alluding to within 25 days. I think that’s doable. Having our parties involved to get to the Sahtu region, the Deh Cho region, and start talking about the training plan. What is needed in the community? What kind of training is required from the industry’s perspective? Because industry have their own certain criteria of positions. They need to be involved. By all means those are areas that we want tackled from my department...