Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government believes NWT residents can reach their potential and be healthy, educated people, free from poverty. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment continues to work with industry stakeholders to improve the opportunities for training, education and employment across the Northwest Territories.

In 2011 the department held its first Labour Force Development Symposium, which was used as a platform to introduce the first NWT Labour Force Development Framework – People, Partnerships, Possibilities. It is a tool for working together towards...

Mr. Speaker, the information I have is they received $125,000, but I will double check with my department. The funds should be flowing to the organization to start implementing their establishment. I can assure the Member that I will follow through with this and get back to the Member. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

That’s correct. Dr. Andre Corriveau is the lead when it comes to dealing with the experts, the stakeholders. He also led the team, the group, during the engagement with the community, general public. It is part of the framework that has been over a decade. There haven’t been any changes. So that is before us and that is what I was referring to. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] Mr. Speaker, I would like to make an announcement. At seven o’clock there will be an award given to four people here, and they are going to be receiving a Jubilee Award and it’s one of the top honours to receive.

The first one is Mr. Wah-Shee. He has worked for the GNWT. He was also an MLA and a Minister. He is now working with the Tlicho Government and has done lots of work for the Tlicho Government. He also started the Indian Brotherhood in the past, and he has worked on many things in the North. I want to make it known that he is one of the persons that...

Mr. Speaker, my understanding is that, of course, my department is working closely with Ndilo and also Tulita, and dealing with the family resource centres. With Ndilo over the past several months, they have been working on establishing a child and family resource centre and will be getting implementation. We have been diligently working with them. My understanding, also, is that $125,000 funding has been allocated last fall. Those are just some of the initiatives that have been worked on, but I can provide the latest update to the Member from my department. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The recommendations and the report should be available within the next few months. I was hoping to deliver that by the end of March or early April. That’s the target, in a draft format. Then in the May-June session, I would like to table the document. That is the target date.

I’m working closely with the Minister of Health and Social Services, Mr. Beaulieu, on this particular piece of work. It’s a very important document that’s before us and we had a lot of input from the general public of the Northwest Territories, the stakeholders, the elders, the parents. It is a document...

Mahsi. We did look into Alberta and southern jurisdictions, their student financial assistance. Again, our program is much better than what they provide. I’ll give you an example.

As I stated on March 12, 2009, the limitation of $50,000 for a loan limit in other jurisdictions. Ours was $47,000. We increased it to $60,000 so at least we can service a master’s student. So we are improving our program every time and, again, with the recommendations that were brought to my attention from the general public, from the students, from the parents and also from Regular Members, we will be following...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the question was first raised in this House, I did respond to the Member’s question, reflecting on our program comparable to other jurisdictions such as Alberta. At that time I did state that we have the best program to subsidize students in the Northwest Territories, comparable to the information that we had at that time. With that, I did commit to this House that we were looking at an overall review of the SFA program and I’m glad to say that we have done that.

The review is before us and I’m going to be tabling that document today, and it does reflect on what we’ve...

We do try to avoid, as much as we can, on the delay of payments to those clients. We understand that the power bill, the utility bills and other food sources, that is our priority, to issue those cheques on time. But there are times when we are challenged with providing documentation and so forth.

Again, as I indicated, we are going to have a dedicated individual that deals with those matters. The requests that come in, I specifically instructed, after the question was raised in the House, that this is an urgent matter. We need to deal with it especially now that winter is here. It is a...

Mr. Speaker, healthy behaviours and healthy choices are fundamental to a good education and superior quality of life. Schools offer a significant opportunity to educate young people about healthy lifestyles and to foster healthy behaviours. In the Northwest Territories, schools play a strong central role in health promotion. While we develop the programs that foster these healthy behaviours, we must first understand what our young people think about their health, their challenges and their choices. The Health and Health-Related Behaviours Among Young People in the Northwest Territories is our...