Jackson Lafferty

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.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular issue has not been brought to my attention, but I definitely will check with my department on what the status is on this particular issue or challenge that we are faced with. Mahsi.

I totally agree that we need to have a better communication plan and dialogue with the teachers and school boards. That’s what we’re doing as we speak. The PowerSchool implementation team is comprised of staff from my department and also the board from each of the eight regions. It is a coordinated effort, and also the team works together to roll out the PowerSchool tools and information to all teachers across the Northwest Territories. Also, the boards are encouraged to provide PowerSource access to every teacher at the beginning of the school year. That is a coordinated effort by the school...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With any new changes and new system, it will take some time. It’s a learning curve during the transition period.

The data transfer occurred during the summer months when the school board and staff were unavailable. We had no choice but to replace the former electronic student information system that’s been placed upon us as a department. The work of transferring data fell to the staff of my department at that time, and they worked long hours to ensure its integrity.

We are confident, as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, that the PowerSchool is an excellent...

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.