Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area has been successful in the Northwest Territories. The former ASEP has been producing a world-class, skilled workforce in the Northwest Territories and transferrable skills onto other provincial jurisdictions as well. We want to continue with the process, as well, since it’s been very successful.

I did meet with my federal counterpart in Ottawa when I was there in December, and we talked about this specific topic, the Mine Training Society, where it’s going and that March 31st is the deadline, sunsetting. Leona Aglukkaq, at that time, spoke about a pan...

About the publication, again I need to follow up with WSCC. They are arm’s length from our government and they have their own board of governance. There is also a tribunal board that we deal with as well. I need to find out the status of where things are at with the Member’s statement.

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. This particular program at the University of Saskatchewan is a veterinary program. As I stated, there is a student that’s attending. We sponsor 1,400 students and we’re talking about one seat that’s $25,000, and just imagine – we have huge numbers – the cost of that, and on top of that there’s additional costs as well. But it is needed. We’ve seen some articles in the newspaper, as well, in the Northwest Territories and other parts of the country and we do have veterinarians coming out, as well, to work in the Northwest Territories and other parts of the provinces. So we’ll continue...

The answer will be yes. We are gathering all of the information. We will provide those to the board chairs as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, there are various school boards that have policies addressing bullying. I don’t have the specifics of those policies before me, but each school board has their own jurisdictional policy that deals with their students in that region in the communities. I can provide that information once I get my hands on them. Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That is one of the overall plans. We noticed there was an article in the South Slave Journal highlighting various programming, which highlighted me, as the Minister responsible, to work closely with the principals and the school boards, which we’ve done in the past and will continue to do, as well as working with Municipal and Community Affairs, working with Health and Justice. This is a collaborative approach when it comes to the wellness of all children of the Northwest Territories. That is our overall mandate. Mahsi.