Jackson Lafferty

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...

Mahsi. What I can commit to in this House is that I will be working with the standing committee to identify, as we move forward on the business planning process, which areas we need to highlight as a priority for this government. Also for the Regular Members, I want to share their perspective, because we have 18 recommendations. Unfortunately, we can’t implement them all next year or the following year, but we can at least capture two or three that we can move forward on. So I’m committed to doing that. I’ll be working closely with standing committee on a move forward basis. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Again, that information will be before this House as a public document, and as we move forward, those are recommendations to me, as the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, on Student Financial Assistance. So in order to start implementing those, we need to find the funds, and I need to work with the standing committee to find those funds and which are the priority areas. So I am committing to working with the Members across the floor to highlight and identify which of the recommendations we should be going after first, second or third and so forth over a short...

That is correct; we are going to avoid late payments. Those late payments in the past, again, it all depends on the case-by-case basis. It could be missing documents. It is a shared responsibility between clients and our department, the client service officers. The information I gather and also the training that is going to be happening at the end of the month is specifically to deal with the backlog, the satisfaction survey that has been conducted in the past, how client service officers deal with those clientele in a professional and positive manner. The process itself from issuing of the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to have the staff up to speed on all the processing and issuing of the cheques on time. That is one of our priorities. This has been brought to my attention when Member Bisaro first asked those questions. I then followed up with my department. There have been some challenges, but at the same time, I have instructed my department that we need to make this a priority. If we have a shortage of staff, whether it be on leave, we need to have a dedicated individual in the system who can follow up on all requests.

I did commit to this House...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Annual Report on Official Languages, 2011-2012. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is dedicated to providing relevant and necessary programming to suit the needs of our adult learners.

In May 2011, as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the GNWT and the mines, the departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Industry, Tourism and Investment met with our three operating mines in the North: BHP Billiton Ltd., Rio Tinto and De Beers Canada. They identified a need for financial literacy training for their staff and we responded. ECE set to work on identifying modules for the program, with research on best...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Statement delivered in an Aboriginal language and then in English.]

I’d just like to, first of all, congratulate Ms. Rosa Mantla of Behchoko for receiving one of the prestigious awards, I would call it Cultural Award, last night at the Aboriginal Sports Circle event. I’d just like to say 30-plus years of experience, contribution, commitment and dedication goes a long way. She continues her commitment towards these important matters for the Tlicho region. My congratulations to her for her continued interest and commitment, and for making us proud.

Mahsi. That particular area I need to look into with my department and I’ll definitely get back to the Members on the outcome of that. Mahsi.

Mahsi. When there is a staff shortage due to maybe illness or vacation and whatnot, we do have individuals covering those bases as well. Again, we try to avoid those delays. There are different unique circumstances that we’re faced with. I need to look into further to the clientele that the Member is referring to. If it’s not the documentation that’s due to the lateness, then we need to find out exactly what happened within the staffing area at that time and we need to avoid that. We need to be proactive and having those resources, client service officers in those communities, not only...