Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. At this point, there’s not much of an impact. With the additional funding that we’ve received, we’ve hired staff to look after the artifacts as well. At this point there hasn’t been any impact, as far as we know. Mahsi.

I have to agree with the Member that we need to prepare our people, career readiness he is referring to. There needs to be a strategy in place that he has referred to, and there is a committee that has been struck from 2009. It’s a five-year plan, a training plan for the Sahtu region. It’s called the Sahtu Region Training Partnership Committee.

The Members highlighted some of the individuals that are nearly ready to enter the workforce. With all of those, Deline and different organizations that I just referred to, they are the ones who will be providing those human resources. Our job is to...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have to my left, Gabriela Eggenhofer. She is my deputy minister, Department of Education, Culture and Employment; Paul Devitt is director of strategic business services; and Dana Heide, associate deputy minister within Education, Culture and Employment.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This whole education renewal was the outcome of the general public and they wanted to see or provide some input. We had to find funds from within. As we move forward we may have to invest in certain areas. At this point it is all internal reallocation.

Mr. Speaker, this particular initiative would have to be undertaken by various parties that will be involved, whether it be Inuvik, the schools and also the college and my department. This is an area that has been addressed to our attention on a couple of occasions already. We are definitely exploring it. We will work closely with the college. I will be presenting that to the college at the next board meeting. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I probably have to refer to Mr. Devitt. He’s been involved heavily in the discussion. All I can say at this point is that we extended our NUP lease agreement to three years, knowing that we need to have a plan in place. My department’s working diligently to develop a plan to deal with the college. I realize that, obviously, they want a stand-alone campus. Another option again is that, developing plans, we need to come up with some options as well. When we presented to standing committee, this was a while back, a couple years back, and there was some fruitful discussion and we were going to...

The information I have is that we are exploring those areas. There are certain communities such as Hay River, Fort Smith, and Whati is another community, and other communities that have initiated Growing Food. This is an area where there’s a lot of interest from my department and other departments, as well, the interdepartmental working coordination. I can provide the update on the latest status from the coordination of the three or four departments that we’ve been working on.

It’s sold. This is an area that I’m very interested, as the Minister responsible, especially in the small communities. Even though it’s only 2013-2014 now, it is part of our long-term commitment that we want to continue with other regions as well. I was very excited when I saw that presentation and thank you to the Beaufort-Delta for allowing that to happen. As the Member indicated, I won’t be able to make a commitment today, but that is part of the long-term goal and commitment that I want to strive for that in other regions as well.

I can provide the detailed breakdown of the number of capital projects that would be before us throughout the Northwest Territories. So I will provide it to the Members.

Mahsi. Yes, we’ll provide the priorities of the school from first priority to all schools in the Northwest Territories.

The education renewal,’ as you know, is before us now. Our expectation is that we want to hear as much as we can from the experts, whether it be the educators and community members, the grassroots people, the front-line workers. We’ve heard in the House that we need to listen to the front-line workers. So those are my expectations as Minister responsible. I want to listen to them and hear their input. And the time frame, of course, we’re hoping for late fall, early winter...