Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to provide an update to the Legislative Assembly on Not Us, the Government of the Northwest Territories anti-drug campaign.

Addictions and the crimes they lead to have serious life consequences. This government has a focus on prevention by promoting healthy choices and lifestyles, and the role of personal and family responsibility. The Not Us campaign is unique. It’s community-based, so it’s different everywhere. We don’t tell people how it’s going to be. They tell us how it’s going to be. There’s no right or wrong way to fight addictions in your community. It’s...

Mr. Chairman, the policing services have been provided from out of Fort McPherson. I need to get more detailed information as to the specifics of where it is now. I will get that to the Member.

Mr. Chairman, this particular issue has been brought to my federal/provincial/territorial colleagues just last week. I did raise communities without detachments. We do have them in the Northwest Territories. Again, pressuring the federal government of the importance of it. We also talked about First Nations policing policy as well. It is all interrelated to the communities without detachments. We are...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I, too, would like to see more money. The Member is referring to millions that should be going to the communities. I do agree with that. If we can develop preventative measurements, preventive programs, that is what our vision is, I do believe, with the Members and also our department. That is the very reason why we are doing an overall review. With the outcome of the review, of course, it will take some investment to make some changes.

We want to have community members involved as well. We do have coordinators and community justice committees that are in some of the...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have Bronwyn Watters, the deputy minister of Justice.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. When it comes to capital for, let’s say, child care or a daycare, we do not provide capital infrastructure funding but we do provide O and M to cover the operational costs. We’ve had similar requests in other regions as well, but some other regions have been successful in obtaining some partnerships, whether it be the community First Nation or a corporation that forms a partnership with a certain organization. They’ve come to us to seek funding on the O and M costs. We’ve also geared them towards the federal area as well, because there are different piles of funding and...

We have across 33 community schools in all communities that deal with these particular issues. It is the principal in the schools and administration team that does that type of work through the custodial work. At the same time, I would encourage the MLA to also meet with the local school board to see what kind of planning is in place. They are fully aware of what’s happening here and there are plans in place for fencing and cameras for next year as well. We are doing what we can as the Department of Education along with Public Works. At the same time, the community plays an important role as...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Definitely the option is there for the Sahtu leadership to pursue that. We will need some sort of a Sahtu needs assessment as we move forward to next year’s capital planning project. We did already hear bits and pieces of the training centre at the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative while we were in the Sahtu, so it is in our discussions. Definitely if the Sahtu leadership want to push this further, then by all means they have the options to do that as well. But we do need the needs assessment.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the plan is that the local school board, the school is responsible for the maintenance of the playground, in partnership with PWS. So we do provide funding, the general pot of funding to the school boards, and they’re distributed to the teaching staff and janitorial custodial work. Part of the custodial work is also some of the contract agreement they have, is cleaning out the school in the summer, in preparation for summer, and also upon their return they go through the school system and do an overall cleaning as well. That is part of the contract we have with the...

I totally agree with the Member. We have to tackle it from all angles in all venues where we possibly can. Like I said, I am working with representatives from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs office. One area that we highly stress is scientific research funding through the federal government, so that is in the works and we have shared that information with our federal counterparts.

Just so the Members know, I am also the spokesperson for my colleagues, Nunavut and Yukon, when it comes to talking about the university of the North, so it has been a very productive discussion so far...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On October 17th to 19th in Yellowknife, Aurora College is hosting the Association of Community Colleges symposium on Serving Aboriginal Learners in Rural and Remote Communities. This event is an opportunity for aboriginal leaders, college educators, government officials and industry representatives to discuss strategy and best practice in aboriginal education at the college level.

Hosting a national conference with a focus on aboriginal learners is an honour for Aurora College. This unique conference attracts participants from smaller institutions with an aboriginal student...