Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, again, we do provide these apprenticeship programs in the campuses that we have here in the Northwest Territories. We do support them 100 percent as much as we can. This particular student has a great opportunity to take the program in April. The Member is referring to March. There is one in April that is close to home, close to the family that can certainly take on the opportunity. Those students are taking on other courses. There are other courses down south as well that they can take on, but the fee structure is different in the Apprenticeship Program that we have in place...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

We talked about 90 or 95 percent yesterday, but after hearing the Members, I will rank it up to 100 percent. Mahsi.

Yes, there is flexibility where if a program is not being offered at our campuses, we send students down south such as we did with this individual on his second year. So we continue to promote that. But we do have to keep in mind that we do have campuses here in the Northwest Territories that we need to sponsor and support. It’s our true northern campuses.

Mr. Chairman, this was brought up as well. We provide funding to facilities or establishments to offset their costs of their mortgage or start-up costs or operation costs. Not only that but, as I stated, we are exploring options because enrolments are going down. Not only the schools, but also, if it happens to be a child care area, it is also based on the enrolment of attendance of the children or in establishment. We are also looking at that. It has been brought up in the House here, exploring options of attendance versus the operation costs. At the same time, we are looking at some...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do fund all students as best we can; the 1,400 post-secondary students that are out there and the apprenticeship students that are out there. I think we have to keep that in mind that this particular campus that we’re talking about, it’s also geared towards apprenticeship because, as I stated, we’ve invested so much already and we continue to invest in upgrading our facility so it’s one of the top of the line courses that is being offered. At the same time, other students are taking those post-secondary programs as well at Smith campus and Inuvik campus or Yellowknife...

Mr. Chair, we take into consideration what the Members throw at us. We appreciate that and we can have that as an ongoing discussion that we have, but we have to keep in mind that this is basic food and shelter. If we start providing and paying phone bills, whether it be $32 or $260, are we going to pay for gas to go to the clinic, as well? One can argue that it’s a necessity and as an emergency factor, but this is a basic program subsidy that we provide through the Income Support Framework Agreement that we have. Mr. Chair, we have to keep that in mind, that we do provide subsidies to all...

Mr. Speaker, there again, I need to look at the file. There are processes within our GNWT system, within Justice, but we need to know what happened along the process. What kind of options are available through our department to assist those individuals? Of course, there is the court avenue that the Member has alluded to. That might be an option, but they can be dealt with in a manner that satisfies both parties, those are options that we need to look at. We need to look at the case file. I am not aware of this case file, but if the data can be shared with us, we can certainly look into it...

Mr. Chair, if the Member is referring to those seniors that are living on the highway, if they own the home then they’ll clearly qualify for the program for the seniors home fuel subsidy. But with the policy itself, it is policy driven and we can clearly look at other options that the Member is also referring to. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The particular investigation, of course, is under the RCMP “G” Division. At the same time, there are avenues that individuals can pursue. One of the avenues that is always open is the Public Complaints Commission. That is an avenue that we encourage people to apply if they are not satisfied with the outcome, whether it be an investigation at the local level, at the district level or even at the headquarter level. But those are just the avenues that we usually send them to first at the local level and then, if they are not satisfied, then the Public Complaints Commission is...