Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, yes, definitely we are open to those ideas. We will be sharing that with the standing committee and also Caucus. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Member is referring to 2009-10 is the last government’s budget. At the same time, the transparency and accountability is our foremost priority for this government. We do table those documents as well for the general public to be aware of what our expenditures are as Cabinet Ministers, the Premier and also Regular Members that do tag along to let’s say various meetings that happen in other parts or jurisdictions. We do invite them. They are part of the discussion that we have at the territorial level as well. We will continue to press that issue, where transparency is a...

Mr. Speaker, obviously, the safety is always our first priority. We will be looking into this. If there has been a plan in place to deal with these 10 stalls, there are more vehicles, what kind of other arrangements are being made? That is information that I need to follow up on the latest status. I will be sharing that with the Member. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, again, I do agree there needs to be better communication dialogue from my department with the school boards, and most especially the teachers. Those are areas that we are going to improve on. We will continue to work constantly and be in contact with Pearson, where we got the product from, and the eight boards lead to find solutions to these technical issues and challenges that we’re faced with. I’m very encouraged, in spite of all the obstacles and challenges that we’re faced with, that teachers, school boards and the department recognize that PowerSchool will be an incredible tool for...

The training for PowerSchool attendance and grade book occurred at the beginning of the school year. My department worked with the school boards, as we do on any new system, to coordinate a half-day training for every teacher in the Northwest Territories. This is an area that we’ve embarked on. It’s a new system. There’s also a request for a second tier of training. We are in the process of training that’s been rolled out to the school prior to report card writing so that teachers would have additional training. So there is additional training that’s been requested and we have provided that.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the visitors in the gallery here. I would like to recognize, first of all, Mr. David Mitchell, the president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum. With him is Vice-President Jill Baker, and also project coordinator Ryan Conway. Our visitors are from Ottawa. Accompanying them is David Brock, Chief Electoral Officer.

I would also just like to recognize the students that are here with us, along with Arthur Osborne, an instructor with Aurora College, as part of the Business Administration Program. He has brought his Introduction to...

Mahsi. I do agree that we need to have better communication dialogue with clientele, and we are improving in those areas. We will be providing training for the client service officers starting at the end of this month, early next month, having all of those client service officers across the Northwest Territories come in and provide training to them on best customer service satisfaction. That’s our priority and we’ll continue to improve in those areas. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Client service officers work closely with the clients and we try to avoid most delays as much as possible, but there are times where we are challenged with the clientele producing valid documents, such as bank statements or other sources of income. At times we have to wait until we receive that documentation. So part of the process is we want to expedite the process, but at the same time we require those documents, according to our policies and legislation that we have in place. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, this particular area that we table those documents, Ministerial travel, we do have staff travel as well, deputies or EAs that are required at these meetings. We can obviously discuss that further with the standing committee and also Caucus, because the Member is referring to MLAs’ expenditures as well. We need to discuss that with the standing committee, maybe Caucus. We are open as a government, as the Executive, to produce any document that is required for the general public if that is the wish of the Regular Members. We are more than willing to work with that. Mahsi, Mr...

Mr. Speaker, as I stated, this is news to me, as well, as the Minister responsible, but I will be looking into this further in Fort Liard, the status. What is the initial plan, if there is a plan in place? How can we resolve that issue? I will definitely follow up after session today. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.