Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. Yes, it’s been two years that we’ve been pursuing this Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative since the Member raised this issue. We know that it’s important, and it’s not just the Member, all of the Members have been raising the issues about the success of our students, and that’s the very reason why we’re here, Mr. Speaker. We’ve visited all regions, and we’re finalizing the package, and we will be meeting in a couple of weeks for the final go-round with the leadership to say this is what we’ve heard, this is what we want delivered, what do you think. That is key messaging that’s...

Mahsi. That’s the very reason why we’re doing the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative forums in all regions. The Beaufort-Delta was, again, very successful, one of the successful outcomes. We had all of the leadership involved, the educators, the parents, even the youth to talk about their experience. They talk about what they want to be when they graduate and so forth, and that the leadership, the DEA, the chairpersons were there discussing the importance of supporting our students and developing plans of action. That’s what is going to be before this House and I’m looking forward to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did already commit to meeting with the committee and we can meet whenever the committee is available to discuss the ASA, and also the Early Childhood Development Framework integration, and the dates and so forth. I’ve committed to meeting with the committee. Mahsi.

Those parties that the Member highlighted will definitely be involved with the Early Childhood Development Framework. Their input will be valuable. The Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative does highlight the early childhood and also child care area that consists in the schools and also at home, too, where parents, again, grandparents, they were the ones who forced that upon us to say we need to focus on those individuals that are not born yet, that are in the womb, and talk to the child. That is advice that we are receiving from the communities, from the regions. We’ll continue to push...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, one of the four key initiatives that we’ve been delivering through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is early childhood and child care. So those are the areas that we’ve been tackling at the community level. It does consist of a variety of parties, such as the IRC, Dene Nation, the NWT Metis Nation, Native Women’s Association, NWTTA, Literacy Council, Aurora College, superintendents, DEC, DEAs, our department, early childhood and school services, and the Early Childhood Development Framework is coming, but the ASA, the Aboriginal Student Achievement...

In Lutselk’e we have a dedicated half-time position client services officer. This particular position deals with various cases on the client files. Adding more duty to that individual’s duties may be a challenge to some degree. Another area we can look at is the regional staff being visible in the community as much as possible. They are responsible for Lutselk’e and Fort Res. I can look at that angle, how we can deliver with the resources we have from the regional perspective into the community. I, again, will work closely with the Member on this.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That’s one of our intents as a department, and I believe that is the GNWT’s intent to deliver programming at the community level as much as possible, whether it be at the regional office, at the local office. I’ll continue to work with the Member on the areas of challenges that we may have. Our goal is to effectively and efficiently deliver those key programmings into the communities.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When this committee was first established, our representatives were on there, my Department of Justice and also the Department of Health and Social Services. In the beginning there was a lot of discussion across a broad sector of what’s going to be happening, the programming in the Northwest Territories and Yellowknife. One of the key messages that came back was the potential conflict of interest that may have been perceived where departmental staff were sitting at the meeting with all the discussions and decisions that were being made. It was very uncomfortable for them...

Mahsi. I believe we are listening to those voices. We listen to the MLA that is sitting here, Mr. Jacobson. He indicated the importance of supporting our students, the importance of having these students continue with higher education, and we are pursuing that through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. These are important works that are coming from the expertise at the grassroots level. We want to hear the people from the Beaufort-Delta region and that’s what we’re doing.

Also, the Beaufort-Delta education, they have all of the records, all of the attendance, the students that may...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular issue has been, as the Member indicated, brought up in the House and we did approach BDEC, the Beaufort-Delta Department of Education, Beaufort-Delta Board of Education. We’ve been working closely with the board on identifying key aspects of the students: are they missing school or having challenges while they’re in school, where they’ll be staying. We provide funding to BDEC on an ongoing basis, on an annual basis.

Mr. Speaker, also the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, the meeting that we’ve had, the last one in the Beaufort-Delta was a very...