Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, February marks an important time to recognize education in the Northwest Territories.

Later in this session I plan to update Members about Education Week that is being celebrated from February 22 through February 26. Across the Territory, there are many people who are passionate about education and training at all levels of our system. Their efforts don’t go unnoticed as their contributions are important for building success. On the front lines, teachers and college instructors continue finding innovative ways to teach course material,; support staff in our schools are helping...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 10, Exemption Act, be read for the first time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Truly I am part of the committee that has been established. This is certainly one of the highest priorities that we have within our education department, working along with the education council and the Dehcho education authority to improve the enrolment, the absenteeism that’s before us, and to make that a successful project in the communities. We are making progress and will continue to discuss that as a priority item.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There is a challenge that is before us on the enrolment issue. It impacts most of the schools in the Northwest Territories. Clearly we are making substantial changes in that area. There have been numerous meetings undertaken. On the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative that’s been undertaken since last April there has been discussion on how we can improve in those areas. We have an initiative whereby we’ve given funding to school boards, education councils, so they can focus on specific areas of initiatives such as, if I can share the South Slave region where the...

This could be one venue that we can certainly stress to identify funding, but at the same time there has been huge success in the South Slave region, of which the Member’s schools are part of. We want to use that as a pilot project where they are almost meeting Canadian standards. So certainly those are the areas that we will continue to focus on and would like to use as a pilot project for the Northwest Territories. We’ll continue to make those a success.

I agree this could be part of the discussion that the education council could have within their mandate. We have given them additional funding to what we provide on an annual basis, so that could offset the costs of dealing with absenteeism and the enrolment issues that we’re faced with as a challenge. We are making progress. As we started since September to today, we are making slight progress and positive steps. The enrolments are starting to climb again. Those are discussions that can easily be undertaken at the education council level.

We will continue to work with employment development officers in the communities; also with the organizations we’ll continue to work with. Whether it be client service officers, employment officers in the communities and the regions we’ll certainly be prepared to deal with the new initiatives that will be before us. We’ll be prepared as much as we can when the time comes.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for asking that important question for small communities. We are looking forward to debating this budget that’s before us. There is a new initiative in there that deals directly with employment in small communities. That will result in outstanding challenges or issues in the small communities of hiring, directly hiring summer students that are going back to school. Definitely, I’m looking forward to more opportunities to discuss the budget that’s in the process and this will surely shed some light into the small communities.

That is our primary target, to get people off of income support as much as we can, working with different programs that we’ve initiated within our Department of Education, Culture and Employment’s Ready to Work Program and just maximizing opportunities for income support clientele. If they could work, if they’re workable, then we like to fully utilize them in different areas. We do provide training programs for them to deal with the productive choices. So, Mr. Speaker, we can certainly provide the detailed information to the Members so they can share it with their constituents as well. Mahsi.