Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Currently we have eight different projects on the go, I believe it is eight different communities as well. We can provide that information. Mahsi.

We do have counsellors at the corrections area as well. Also just working with those individual clients, the inmates, upon their release, rehabilitation development stages. We do have a team that refers them to the outside link. Once they leave the facility, we just don’t ignore them; we have contact with the community they’re from to see how they’re doing and if they’ve moved on with their lives. Not only that, we try to set up as much arrangement as we can with the client services department as well.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This particular area, of course there’s always been a request for additional funds to deal with the special needs in the schools, but we do provide funding to education councils. This is an area that we’ve been looking at how we can improve in those areas. So, Mr. Chair, yes, it has been brought up in past chairs’ meetings along with other concerns for other opportunities that they’ve given us, and this I’m sure will be another topic of discussion when we meet with the chairs again in April. So it’s one of those ongoing discussions that we have in order to improve our...

Mr. Speaker, this Assembly is well aware of the damaging effects of drugs on our communities. Drug dealers prey on the most vulnerable among us. They target young people who think bad things will never happen to them. They go after people with mental illnesses who are struggling just to get through a day. They knowingly sell drugs that are laced with other drugs to people who already have addictions. They do this on purpose, so they have more people to sell to. And if this weren’t troubling enough, we know more deadly drugs such as crystal meth is already here.

The substance abuse problem is...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. That’s correct. It’s always been attached to the enrolment funding. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. There is a decrease in enrolment, as we all know, in the Northwest Territories. So there’s a decrease of 2.7 percent in enrolment for September 2008-2009. Mahsi.

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me the deputy minister, Dan Daniels, to my left, and, to my right, Paul Devitt, director of strategic investment services. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Early Childhood Program delivery is, of course, our first priority as a government and also with my specific department of Education, Culture and Employment. I do not have the breakdown of what the Member is referring to as a deficit, but we are investing more money, as you know, within the budget that will be before us and that we’ll be discussing further on the huge investment that we’re allotting for that particular area of early childhood. So we’ll continue to invest in those areas, because this is a prime example of a worthwhile investment into a system.

Mr. Chair, the library issue has been brought to our attention. We had the discussion with the superintendent of the Dehcho Divisional Education Council and there was supposed to be a meeting set up this month in the community. There has been talk about the school, the Thomas Simpson and Bompas Elementary School to accommodate a library program. So they do have the capacity right now. Those are the discussions. There is talk about structural engineering submission for review on both schools and the location of it. So, Mr. Chair, there is supposed to be a meeting scheduled and we’ll certainly...