Jackson Lafferty

I think the Member touched on it; parental involvement and community involvement. It has to be monitored at the community level as well. The school can only do so much. The education council can only do so much as well. As a department, we can do what we can to make a very successful program. So there are all these partners actively involved, Mr. Speaker, but we do have ongoing... We are currently discussing what the Member is alluding to, such as a Mentorship Program where elders could be involved. So those are the initial discussions we are having to date and the outcome will be this summer...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, with this particular area, it has been our intention that we need to have a thorough review of the community justice programming. We do have coordinators in place, not in every community. Some communities don’t have it, but at the same time there are some communities that are performing really well with the Justice department with the court services. I think there are nine without coordinators. Mr. Chair, we continuously have discussions with… Shirley Kemeys-Jones is the one in charge as the director and in constant contact and dialogue with the community to make...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Through the new initiative, we’ve had several meetings on the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and they’ve made some recommendations to our department and we’ve implemented those particular initiatives. Although it may be small, it’s a start. We provide funding to each of the school education councils, so they can deal with enrolment issues, enrolment challenges. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, we’ve provided a laptop to the grade 12 students and now we’re looking towards next year of providing possibly to grade 11 students and other initiatives along the way that will...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When this was brought up at the standing committee, we did share with them that we are working on a children’s lawyer. So it would be like an advocate for children in the Northwest Territories. So those are the areas that we’ve been talking about. I guess the children’s lawyer will give the children a voice in legal proceedings that certainly affects them and by also protecting their rights. So I think it’s similar to what Ms. Bisaro is referring to, maybe a different title, but that piece of work we’ve been focusing on and we’re making progress in this area. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, according to the Education Act there are so many days that students have to attend in a year. But at the same time, we continue working with educational councils and also the education authorities. On-the-Land Program is very important to us as a department and also to the communities. They’ve worked into part of their curriculum development where it could be classified as taking an On-the-Land Program. The Tlicho community is a prime example that we’ve used as a model in other jurisdictions. Other regions are taking on the initiative as well. Mr. Speaker...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I totally agree. This First Nations policing, it’s a different agreement than the police contract we have with the RCMP “G” Division. We currently have a 70/30 shared agreement, 52/48 agreement. So it is a big difference. As I stated, we’re currently in negotiations with the federal at that level and Mrs. Schofield is part of that and the ADM is also part of that. So those are the ongoing discussions that we’re currently having with the federal government and, of course, we’re pushing for whether it be more funding or resources that we desperately need here in the Northwest...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad the Member raised a good point there. That is one of the areas that are part of the discussions that we’re having with the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. Ongoing plans are to have a package ready by this summer. We haven’t really talked specifically about the semester itself, and the Member alluding to maybe a particular program or courses could be in line with maybe a shorter version or difference factor. Those are the areas we need to explore. We are always open to ideas, as I stated in the House on previous occasions. I think this is an area that we...

We don’t have a timeline to whether we have a police detachment in all communities. Of course that is our wish as well, to have detachments in all communities, but we have to continue to work with the federal government. They are the ones with the resources, the funds to cover the infrastructure and with our department we provide 70 percent of the cost factor, so we like to do it the sooner the better. But sometimes we are still waiting for the federal government to give us an approval, especially with the Gameti and Wrigley detachments. It is a slow pace but at the same time it is coming...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is my department has discussed with other jurisdictions, other organizations, but they are having continuous dialogue on where we can improve our services. Those potential positions that Ms. Bisaro has alluded to, we’re continuing having discussions in that area. That’s my understanding. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, first of all, the Wrigley detachment, this has been in the works for the last couple of years now and it’s still there. We’re still committed. I’m glad that the MP is doing part of the job representing the Northwest Territories at the federal level. We continue to do that continuously every time we meet at the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting. Wrigley and Gameti have always been addressed at every meeting that we’ve gone to. So we’ll continue to do that.

Mr. Chair, we have a joint discussion that’s ongoing with the Housing Corporation and also the...