Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize 2012 Education Hall of Fame inductees here with us in the gallery. First is Helen Kitekudlak from Ulukhaktok, Betty Barnaby from Fort Good Hope, Chris Baron from Behchoko, Angela James from Yellowknife, Margaret Thom from Fort Providence, Kevin Antoniak from Fort Smith, and Dr. Curtis Brown from Fort Smith. Congratulations. Thanks for joining us here in the gallery.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. This particular program, I need to find out more clearly from the schools if they deliver through CTS programming, because it does deal with a safety aspect of it. When you deal with trades, they take WHMIS, they take First Aid and CPR. If it’s not there already, I’m sure they’ll be more than willing to accept that particular programming as part of an accredited program. That’s an area that will be of interest to us, because we need to prepare our students, especially when they’re going into trades programming. Even in the industrial or even the workplace, they definitely...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe there is a common understanding that all of these specified items have been integrated into our discussion with the ASA, Early Childhood Development Framework and even a couple weeks ago we had the agencies that came out to talk specifically on ages zero to three with more emphasis on that. So those are areas that we’ll continue to integrate into our programming, whether it be Early Childhood Development Framework or ASA, Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, because that also captures early childhood development within that as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m pleased to advise this House that a ceremony was held today to celebrate the tremendous contributions that people across the territory have made to education.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment allows the Education Hall of Fame to recognize that we all play an important role supporting the education of our children. It reflects the valuable contributions that educators, volunteers, board members, administrators and other community members make.

Mr. Speaker, for this year’s celebration, nominations poured in from every region and seven people were chosen...

Madam Chair, this is an area that I do believe the school boards are somewhat flexible to offer those programming. I know for a fact that I can speak specifically for TCSA. I usually go to their school because they are in my constituency, teaching them in the school and they can feel the beat of the drum during lunch hour and hand games demonstrations, so they are doing what they can to promote more of that in the schools. The school board has their own ways of dealing with these different programming. This will be shared with all of the school boards so they are aware of what we are...

When we talk about some areas that we could identify some funds so we can improve let’s say the child and family centres, if we can allocate the funding then we identify those from the different pots of funds.

Within Education, Culture and Employment, the almost $300 million budget, as you can see there is so many different pots that we can access from. There are areas that may not be exhausted all at once and then we can certainly access those areas of funding. So those are some of the discussions that we’ve been having within my department, because I told my department that this is important...

The quickest answer is yes. The K to 3 Dene language curriculum, there is a program that has been worked on for the teacher recommendation guide as a guide for them. The K to 3 small territorial pilot is on the way since February of 2012, after a pilot in-service with the teachers and Dene language specialists. It is in the works. We will continue to update the Members on this progress. Mahsi.

We are monitoring ATIP requests on a weekly basis. The ATIP, there is a guideline and criteria that’s in place. We are following through on that. That is my understanding from my department on dealing with those requests that are coming in. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I’ve already committed to some of the Members that we are reviewing the inclusive schooling program dollars that are going to the school boards. This is an area that needs more detailed discussion, as Mr. Beaulieu alluded to. Those are areas that we need to have with the school boards, the parents, the teachers, the leaders, our department and various NGO departments as well.

It’s not an easy said and done. This involves a lot of discussion that needs to take place.

I’m also in agreement with Mrs. Groenewegen about what she has stated where individuals being left behind not...

Mr. Chairman, the difference is a multi-year agreement for K to 12 school programs covering fiscal years 2009-10 to 2012-13 was signed on March 30, 2010, I believe. Maybe if I can get Mr. Devitt to just give us a detailed breakdown of the difference. Mahsi.