Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Support for apprentices is a key part of the Government of the Northwest Territories’ plan to maximize opportunities for Northwest Territories residents and contributes to achieving this Assembly’s goals of healthy, educated people and a diversified economy. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment, along with our partners and apprentices, celebrate the success of the Northwest Territories apprentices and journeypersons during the Northwest Territories Apprenticeship and Occupational Certification Week, February 7th to 11th.

The department supports training and...

Mr. Speaker, we need to gather information from other departments and business sectors as well. We need to hear from the people. We have done that in the initial stages. We collected information and data from them and heard their concerns and heard their ideas, as well, and suggestions. That is how we came forward in the House here. That is important information that we will continue to collect from the general public and also interdepartmental areas as well.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since we introduced the minimum wage increase we have had a deliberation with the potential business partners and also the communities. As we legislated in the House, April 1, 2010, $9 and then April 1, 2011, to $10, those are discussions that we had. There were a lot of positive reactions on these initiatives. We haven’t heard much on the negative side of the minimum wage increase, but we heard some business sectors in Yellowknife and surrounding communities that had some nominal impacts where they had to hire certain individuals on those wages. But those are the areas...

Mr. Speaker, I have to follow up on a specific or detailed information what the Member is referring to. I will get back to Members on the status of our findings and provide that information to the Members. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the Member is correct; those are the areas that we, as a department, work with other interdepartmental as well on the stats collected on statistics. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, the information that we receive will be helpful as we move along. Based on the consumer price index and the cost of living, we continue to monitor that. Once we increase the minimum wage in this fiscal year, the following year, we need to find ways of how much we can increase or status quo at that time. This is an area that we will need to discuss further within my department and with other departments as...

Yes, those are the information that we take into consideration. The Members share a lot of information with us and we do seriously take them into consideration. We have made some changes to the Senior Fuel Subsidy on the threshold based on the recommendations from the Members as well. The income security framework we made some changes in 2007 and that does reflect on the high cost of living, especially those remote communities that are limited with job opportunities. We do what we can with the program in the enhancement of the communities.

I agree there are limited opportunities in the small and isolated communities. We do what we can to make programs more effective in the communities. The review the Member is referring to is ongoing. There are always changes happening, but it has to meet the vision and guiding principles that are fair, equitable, and needs of the communities. We have changed the programming and this was an area that we could certainly look at as well.

I’d like to acknowledge my constituency assistant up in the gallery: Madelaine Pasquayak.

Also Verna for her hard work over the years since I came on board as a rookie.

I’d also like to acknowledge a couple of Pages here, acknowledging all the Pages who have been doing great work. Most importantly are my Pages: Magdalene Steinwand and Sharon Lafferty, who are here with us doing awesome work.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m not going to repeat what the Member for Yellowknife Centre had to say. There are a lot of things that he touched on that are working in the Northwest Territories; the facilities we have in the Northwest Territories and the benefits of living in the Northwest Territories, the amount of benefits that we have here in the Northwest Territories.

Just touching on something that Mr. Bromley alluded to, the UCEP, the INAC funding is there. The free horse, the programming that’s there for the Northwest Territories that do not qualify for Student Financial Assistance. They are...

Yes, that does play a role in our program deliverance. Also, when we review the programming, it does take it into consideration as well. The income security area, when we review the programming, we also take into consideration the high cost of living in the community. Food, clothing, and incidental benefits are adjusted by community and family size as well. Those are the discussions that we’ve been having over the years and we’ll continue to have that.