Jackson Lafferty

No, I’ve already made a commitment. So I’ll definitely do my part with the Minister of ITI and also the NWT Arts Council that we provide funding to. Mahsi.

The two positions are based out of headquarters servicing Hay River library services such as the library order clerk and library technical services clerk. Two positions. Mahsi.

Madam Chair, this is an area that we have been monitoring closely since it first came up. Currently we don’t have capital funds to build or have an establishment for those types of facilities, but we do provide funding through the NWT Arts Council and working closely with ITI because they do have other sources of funds as well.

Within my department, we provide funds to various organizations. We can provide this organization through the Members as well. When it comes to capital, we haven’t allocated funds to offset the costs for capital infrastructure on this specific topic.

Mr. Chair, we have been fortunate that we haven’t seen much of a deficit within education district authorities. Yes, I realize that health and social services is a very challenging area and that they have been in deficit every now and then. Again, we have been fortunate that we haven’t encountered a substantial deficit in this area. That is being closely monitored by my department, working closely with the district education authority and the district education council as well. We will continue to address those matters. Every time we meet as board chairs, we discuss this. We will continue to...

Mr. Chair, there is a separate pot of funds here, as has been identified. NWT Arts Council contributions to artists and cultural groups to support and encourage creative artistic projects in the visual, literary, performing and new media arts in the NWT; and other new northern arts programs, that is contributed for northern theatre arts, northern literary arts, northern film and media arts and arts mentorships. Those are the distinctions between those two pots of funds. We can certainly look at this area if there needs to be a combination. We need to find out why they are separated. Maybe...

Mahsi, Madam Chair. To my left is acting deputy minister of ECE Gloria Iatridis, and to my right is Paul Devitt, director of business strategic services within ECE. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, my understanding is that there have been discussions to that degree with the district education authority. There have been a lot of talks in making some changes when it comes to K’alemi Dene School in Ndilo having their own DEA. Those are discussions that we have been having. I believe there is a community survey that did occur that was provided to our attention. We consulted with other DEAs in Yellowknife, as well, especially with YK 1. We can provide more information to the Members. Mahsi.

I understand where the Member is coming from and I do agree that we need to focus on the very early stages in children’s lives. That is what we’re focusing on. Maybe it’s different terminology that we’re talking about here, but when we talk about the – and Member Bisaro also raised that issue – where having qualified people. That’s why I addressed the two year on-site, the child development care diploma that deals with ages zero to three. Indirectly or directly, it does impact on these individuals in a positive way. This is just the beginning of what we’re pursuing as part of the framework and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government agrees that early childhood development is important and also it is one of the priorities of this government. I would like to thank the Members for raising the significance of the early childhood development, because Education, Culture and Employment has already made it a priority and is researching the best way to proceed.

ECE is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services to revise and renew the existing Early Childhood Development Framework for Action. The chief medical health officer has recently been identified to lead the...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. There have been some slight changes in the funding to various district education authorities. It all comes down to formula funding. The enrolment’s been down so that means some of the organizations are getting less money due to that fact. But we are closely monitoring that and working with the DEAs. Attendance is a big issue right now. It’s a challenge how we can rectify that. We will continue to work with that, but the explanation is due to enrolment.