Jackson Lafferty

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...

We’ll definitely provide that information.

Mr. Chair, as you know, it is in archives. I’m not sure we have the actual cost factor here, but is on an agreement of $1 million a year. The following year says $20,000 incremental. Then based on that, storing those artifacts, plus three staff, we can certainly provide that detail to the Members. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, the consultant, again, has been engaged with the college. Our view is to present to standing committee and we can get their input, as well. Into if there are challenges or issues or concerns that may be brought to our attention, and reintegrated that into our findings. We want to present that on the 11th and have a report, documentation, obviously, tabled in this House, if that is the wish of the committee. We want to present and then share feedback from standing committee on the actual draft report that the contractor would have heard. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. I would just like to thank the Members for their comments. There are a lot of important comments pertaining to this budget and a lot of areas for long-term strategies as well.

First of all, there was a discussion on Sachs Harbour boarding and so forth. I believe part of the discussion that we had regarding e-learning is that is the way to go now. There’s been a question whether there will be an investment in eLearning and why we didn’t see it in the budget. This is a brand new area that we are exploring. I’d like to see us invest in those areas the next business planning...

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.