Hand games have become a popular form of games in the communities, the traditional games. We as a department sponsor to some degree in association to hand games. We may not directly sponsor the hand game tournament.

As you know, I’ve been to a lot of hand games in the past and I guess one can see it as gambling, where money has been dispersed left and right. The perception is out there and we have to be careful as a Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We support the cultural preservation and what can we do to support that. If youth are getting involved with various hand game...

Mr. Speaker, there was a commitment made with two communities, Gameti and Wrigley. We did hire those officers out of the GNWT budget. Now we are waiting for federal infrastructure. We made a commitment. We followed through with it. I understand where the Member is coming from. I will follow through with the ‘G’ Division and the chief superintendent as well.

The important part is the Member also raised that there should be community meetings with RCMP and the chief in council. I fully support that as well. I will be sharing that with the chief commanding officer and other areas that the Member...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We can definitely provide that information. I do have it here. There is a number of licensed early childhood programming. Overall, in total there’s 124 and I don’t have a breakdown of the communities at this point, but we can provide that as well. The number of licensed early childhood spaces in the region overall is 1,855. So this information we can share. I don’t have the specific communities, but I do have the regions. So I can share this with the Members. Mahsi.

That information we can certainly provide the list of names of organizations. Part of the discussion that I was referring to in general comments was the Aboriginal organizations that also deal with the Head Start Program. Those are some of the areas that we’ll be consulting with.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I was just trying to get confirmation on that. I think there was a slight increase, not much, but a slight increase in enrolment. I think we are making some strides in that area where Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, a census was taken a year and a half ago. There’s been a recommendation that came forward for us to provide additional funding, which we’ve provided to the school boards to deal specifically with enrolment issues and concerns, and they’ve done what they can as a school board in their schools and in their community. I think that captured a slight...

Mr. Speaker, I can’t say today, but I can certainly find out from the chief commanding officer to see what the status is with the communication dialogue. Also the Member raised the issue in the past about sharing some resources as well. There have been talks about mobile units, radios and so forth. Those are areas that we are exploring as the Department of Justice with RCMP ‘G’ Division. Mr. Speaker, I will follow through and I will inform the Member of the status. Mahsi.

That funding that we have, again, is available to all communities in the Northwest Territories. What the Member is referring to is the program, the subsidy program. We do provide funding already. Maybe we can share that detailed information with the Members.

The information that we have, or the program that we have is to subsidize part of a mortgage and also the rental of the premises. Not only that, but the oprational maintenance of the facility itself. So out of that they hire people in the communities. So, Mr. Chair, again, this could be part of the Early Childhood Development Framework...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Yes, that will be covered, what’s been outlined.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We have to look at the whole system to see what we have, and I am sure we do have some information and we will have to gather that information and we will share with the Members. Mahsi.

We’ll provide the information since we started that programming through the NWT Arts Council. We’ll provide that detail. Mahsi.