Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. When we’re talking about capital planning projects, which we are, the planning process itself, we reach out to the college. We reach out to the school boards and identify what their needs are. In general terms, yes, we are getting feedback from them.

What I’m referring to was just recent because they know the capital planning project is coming up. In usual terms they show interest. So they showed interest in writing to us, and now we’re going to meet with them to discuss the capital planning project that will be before us with the college campus, stand-alone, and it has...

I realize that part of the review process was based on certain criteria, whether it be evaluating and so forth. This CanNor funding up to $9 million, I believe, over the two years to expand the programming in our territory and increase employment opportunities for the North. Of course, I’m happy that we received funding, as well, and any new funding that’s available to us, even though we’ve done our comprehensive review of our adult basic learning education. But at the same time, we have to keep in mind that there are a lot of opportunities out there where we need to utilize and expand our...

I think we’re talking along the same line, so I agree.

Mr. Chair, if the decision came down from the Board of Governors through their chair, through their president, it will go to my department, deputy minister or ADM, assistant deputy minister, and will be brought to my attention, and in due course we have to go through the process to identify funds, capital.

We are talking about capital infrastructure here. If there is a plan in place, then by all means, my department will work very closely with the college to identify the needs. There is a process that we follow. It is a process of this Legislative Assembly as well. That’s what we follow. Mahsi.

When we talk about the language nests, obviously the program would have to be delivered by a language spoken qualified teacher. That is an area that sometimes we’re challenged with. To date I have seen some real success in regions that are delivering the Language Nest programming. We’ll continue to invest in those areas because they are working. When I talk about the elders in school, I want them to be fully engaged in those areas. I have made a commitment that we want that to be delivered. It probably won’t be in all schools, but starting this school year in the fall time. We want to have...

Mr. Chair, I am trying to get more detailed information from my staff here. There has been some fluctuation in, of course, income support throughout the Northwest Territories, and we’re trying to reflect on that where if there’s an increase in funding. We realize that some of the regions are lacking, let’s say, job opportunities, so there’s been an increase in caseload in those areas. But at the same time, there are other regions that their caseload has decreased, so it balances each other. Obviously, we like to see caseloads go down.

In due time, where the economic booming is happening in the...

The letter expresses an interest in a college campus. That’s as far as it went. Like I said, we need to get into more detail, which wasn’t provided.

That’s correct. It’s open to anybody that wants to deal with the preventive measurement, the early children’s initiative and so forth, in the 33 communities that we service, so it is open to them.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is a concern to me as well. It has been brought up through the stakeholders and most specifically with the seniors as well, the elders that we brought in, that they want to have qualified individuals coming back to our communities and working for fair wages looking after our children, similar to teachers. Those are areas that we are looking at as we speak, and even through the Early Childhood Development Framework, it does consist of a lot of entities and it will capture the wages. It has been a concern for a number of years now, and it’s been brought up here in the...

The reporting and also appointing is laid out in the legislation. The president reports to the board, the Board of Governors for Aurora College. Also, I have working relations through various areas with the president. If there are things that need to be addressed or issues or concerns or ideas, then we would meet. The same with the college chair. I would have frequent contact with the chair as the need arises. But the reporting mechanism comes down to the president to the Board of Governors of Aurora College.