Jackson Lafferty

This is a particular area of interest for us. We are open to what the Member can share with us and the public-at-large on how we can improve in our programming. We did commit up to $100,000 last budget to focus on the drug campaign. That’s why we’re driving this awareness in Hay River next month. That’s just one milestone that we’re doing. There are others that the Member is referring to that we can certainly look at. I think the input from the public is greater interest for us, as well, to initiate certain initiatives.

This particular program is quite unique and the cost factor itself is approximately $800,000 to operate. It does consist of classroom and library resources, mostly level books. They are the key to success literacy program and make it possible for teachers and students to track their reading achievement progress. Those are the specific areas, $800,000, which also covers the literacy coaches in those communities.

I, too, truly enjoyed the tour of the South Slave with the Member. I believe it was a real successful South Slave tour. I can certainly highlight some of the key initiatives that have been undertaken since 2006.

Just over 50 percent of the South Slave students met or exceeded the standards of the Alberta Achievement Tests for grades 3, 6, and 9 after the second year, for the South Slave students reading at or above the Canadian norm this year, 2009. We are making a huge improvement in this area. In 2008-2009, South Slave students were at 71 percent, at or above the Canadian average. Also, 2009...

Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate Education Week, I would like to draw attention to an important tool that is helping many Northerners receive important trades training in smaller communities. I’m talking about Aurora College’s Mobile Trades Training Lab in the Beaufort-Delta.

In 2008, the college worked with Education, Culture and Employment, the Government of Canada and partners in aboriginal governments and industry to secure the lab. It offers a 900 square foot shop that is fully self-contained with its own forced air oil furnace heating and power generators. It also comes equipped with an...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right is Ian Rennie, legislative counsel, legislation division. To my left is Mike Reddy, senior policy analyst, policy and planning division. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am pleased to be here today to speak about Bill 10, Exemptions Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for its review of this bill.

The Exemptions Act is used when one person owes money to another. It limits the types and amount of property that can be seized or garnisheed by a creditor as part of the enforcement process. The current act was enacted in 1948 and is now very out of date. The amounts of money and categories of property that can be kept haven’t changed since then, other than a change to the amount of wages that the debtor...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

That is exactly what we’ll get out of the Beaufort-Delta Education Council. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Again, it is at the Beaufort-Delta Education Council level. Again, we provide funding to them to provide teachers to the students. We provide operation maintenance to operate the schools, to look after the students based on enrolments. That’s what our funding is based on and if the students happen to drop out of school for some reason, then it is the responsibility of the Beaufort-Delta because the funding is allocated to their board to deal with those matters at hand. As the Minister responsible, I am responsible to make sure the act is in place where the board of education is...

Mr. Speaker, when we toured the schools in the South Slave region, we did tour Fort Resolution as well. At the same time, we were told by the education council in the South Slave district that all schools, I believe there were eight schools that had one literacy coaching in the schools that as a pilot project that they were doing since 2006. Mr. Speaker, we are looking at that model and we want to deliver that in other jurisdictions as well. It’s a very successful project and we’re very proud of it. We’re continuing with the program this year using our internal resources, and next year it will...