Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I give notice on Friday, May 25, 2012, I will move that Bill 1, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the first time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Once we leave here I’ll gather the information from my department and the parties that are involved, the regional groups. Hopefully within a week or two from now, if we can get our hands on the Safe School Policy, if it’s in place, then I’ll provide that to the Members.

There has been some uptake on the application process. As the Member stated, it hasn’t been very successful to date. We are exploring those areas. We explored that area as an option and we are also exploring other areas where the Shelter Policy review would capture some of the discussions we’ve had in the 16th Assembly. Now we’re into the 17th Assembly, how to deal with the housing shortage in the communities, especially for staff or professions that we need to take care of.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

...reality, that’s what happened here. The community of Behchoko wanted a public library, so community members worked together to find a solution. The solution was to provide public access to the existing library at the Chief Jimmy Bruneau School. CJBS has always found ways to be innovative and creative.

Hours of operations are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Monday to Friday, and evenings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. This is exciting news for the community of Behchoko and a great opportunity for community members...

The Member is correct about the high importance of this particular subject. Early childhood has been in the forefront in discussions at the regional forums. At all forums I have attended, that has been at the forefront of the discussion. We need to focus on the unborn child. The children are one year old or six months old. We need to start from there. So with this particular piece of work before us, as I stated, it’s been finalized within my department. The plan is to initiate that through our business planning process, the discussions we are going to be having with the standing committee, I’m...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Most definitely. That is our goal and objective. We want this Mine Training Society to survive the March 31st deadline. It’s going to happen. We have industries lined up already. We have the federal government that is agreeing to initiatives and we need to continue with this ship that we built. We need to continue to advocate with the federal government. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

There is a program in place with the federal government and it’s to replace ASEP. Now the acronym is ASET. It’s a program that individual Aboriginal organizations can access funding for, for training. It’s a bit different from what the Mine Training Society has done for a number of years. We’ve argued that with the federal Minister Diane Finley, but they’ve already had their mind set on this ASET program. We’ll continue to discuss our initiative pan-territorially. It’s been very successful, Mr. Speaker. The Mine Training Society has been leading the way through industries when it comes to...

As much as it hurts, I have to take this as notice.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I need to follow up with the Member’s statement. I’ll definitely follow through with my department where things are at within the WSCC about the tribunal. I’ll definitely follow up.

I totally agree with the Member that we need to safeguard our teachers and professions in the school. I know there are some policies in place at the regional and community schools about zero tolerance on staff abuse. The Safe School Policy, I need to look into the status on that, if it’s been completed, if it is a Northwest Territories-wide initiative. I’ll get that information and the recent update and provide that to the Members.