Jackson Lafferty

This particular area has been a key point of our discussion. It took a bit of time to get here. We want to have somewhat of a perfect system where elders are in the schools, and how we can get around where they’re being penalized if we pay them and they get the clawback from their federal pension, federal old age security and so forth. That’s what we’ve been trying to work out. I’m happy to say that we’ve finalized that area and we want to deliver elders in schools as part of our team within the schools starting this fall school year. That’s our target date. I want to see the elders. Obviously...

Part of the education renewal I talked about in particular in this House, there are six different pillars. One of the pillars is the small schools, how we can provide further enhancing the programing into the schools and the funding formula attached to that. Obviously, there will be numerous discussions pertaining to that Aboriginal content. The smallest communities, when we talk about capital and programming and so forth, it’s all based on enrolment. I have instructed my department to look thoroughly about how we can improve that programming. We will be focusing on the small community schools...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

I’d just like to welcome the N.J. Macpherson students that are here, all the students that are wearing pink. It’s a great day to wear pink. And all the supporters who are here with us in the gallery as well, mahsi cho for coming.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me to my left, Gabriela Eggenhofer, my deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment; Paul Devitt, director of strategic business; and also Dana Heide, the new associate deputy minister in ECE. Thank you.

I am pleased to present the 2013-14 Main Estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The department’s operations expense summary proposes an overall ECE budget of $299.611 million, an increase of 3.6 percent over the 2012-13 Main Estimates. Of this amount, about $213 million will be paid out in contributions for the delivery of a range of programs. This includes over $183 million to support the operation of our NWT school and college education systems and another $15.5 million to account for the amortization of department facilities and other assets.

I would like to now...

I have given specific directive to the school boards on Aboriginal programming. The funding that we provide, we want specifically for on-the-land programs to deal with cultural and language preservation. Those are areas that we continue to monitor. We work closely with the school boards as well. Part of the residential school curriculum that we’ve developed has been very positive to date. It is very preliminary right now. We just wrote it out in October 2012. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback. That is reflecting on the northern perspective. There is also a social studies program that we...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we talk about the Education system in the Northwest Territories, it covers everyone in the Northwest Territories. The Aboriginal content the Member is referring to, I need to get the detailed stats on that. I don’t have it in front of me but I can provide it to Members.

Mr. Speaker, today is the official Anti-Bullying Day, a day celebrated during the last Wednesday of February of each year. I am pleased we are wearing pink carnations today, marking a day of protest against bullying. This action was started by two brave young men in Nova Scotia, David Shepherd and Travis Price, who gave away 50 pink shirts after a Grade 9 student was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school.

These two young men raised national awareness of a significant societal problem that does not just exist in our schools but is all too common in our society generally. It is a cancer that...

As indicated, this is a very complex document. The Board of Governors will be reviewing it next week in Iqaluit and they will be reporting back to me, and I will be meeting with the chair and the counsel. My colleague from Nunavut as well. That’s where it’s at at the present stage.

When I say communities, I’m talking about 33 communities that we service here in the Legislative Assembly. My department services eight school boards within the Northwest Territories, so I work closely with them.

Again, there are schools out there that are delivering First Aid and CPR and they continue to do that. When I say community, whether it be Yellowknife, whether it be Tsiigehtchic and a small community, you know, there are always, like, these different, various training programs from agencies that come in to deliver those programs. We, as a department, will continue to work with them...