Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. In September 2009 the current formula was approximately $666,000 for Phoenix. The proposed is... Right now the current would be $439,000. There’s a difference of just over $200,000.

Mr. Chair, this is an area that, like I said, we need to look at. We’re not sure if the Mine Training Society is going to survive the end of next year and we need to explore those options as well. We can look at it and see where it can take us. We haven’t really identified funding in this budget to allocate a certain amount of dollars towards this Mine Training Society because that wasn’t a part of the plan, but I realize there will be a motion coming forward and working with them and also the federal government, but I can commit in this House that this is an area that we need to discuss...

This was addressed in this House. There was ongoing discussion between the two departments. The discussion will continue to find what those options will be. As soon as we find a solution, we’ll definitely get back to the Members. I can’t really give you a specific date as to when, but as soon as we hear, that will be far more in advance than next year’s 2012.

This particular position, I need to gather more information from the college itself because this is a college position. I will take the opportunity to meet with the standing committee if they wish to do so. My office is always open to briefing the committee members. I will gather this information. Mahsi.

We are still working on the ASA forum to wrap up by May. So more than likely, we may not see it this fall because we still have to work with the budget process. The working group is from last summer and the fall. Definitely that’s one of the targets that we’ve been discussing at the regional forums. The Member has raised that issue with us and it is part of the discussion in the regions. Almost all regions have raised elders in schools, so definitely that will come out in the package, I’m sure. Mahsi.

I did state in the House that with the existing policies there have been some changes. Whenever an issue or a concern has been brought to our attention we’ll seriously look at it and if we need to make changes to our policy, then by all means we need to sit down and inform the Members that there will be some changes coming. This is an area that we as a department can also look at.

This is an area that has been targeted, but the groups had the recommendation of the people of the North. They highlighted specific areas. One of them was the cultural orientation, another one was the laptops, another one was to deal with absenteeism. We gave funding to the school boards to deal with those important matters at hand. So we’ve captured different angles and this is one of them. So the students are also benefiting from this particular piece of work that’s before us, Mr. Chair. The teachers need to get to know our cultural perspective, the language and the students. The students...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The Mine Training Society does deliver programs on behalf of the federal government through ASEP, Aboriginal programming. So there is a priority for Aboriginal, of course, because of the title and it is federal funding, but my understanding is that others can also apply for training programs, the Aboriginal Skills Employment Program. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This is an area we should look at with the college. Why some communities aren’t getting base funding, we don’t really have that detailed information with us as to why. I’ll commit to the Member that we’ll look at this area and get back to him.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area that we need to find out what’s happening. We did have a position in place but now it’s vacant. There is a toll-free number that people can access. We did send out notices and e-mails to all the relevant stakeholders to notify them that this is the contact information, contact person. So the information is out there, Mr. Speaker, but I will find out the situation about the concern that’s been brought to our attention. Mahsi.