Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, part of the planning process will be to work closely with PWS. It is the responsibly of that department to look at the infrastructure itself, if it needs to be taken out of the ground when it’s thawed out. Those are discussions that we need to continue having along with the Dehcho Education Council, with the superintendent, and keeping the board members informed of the progress being made and also the Member in that respective riding. So we’ll continue to make that progress as we go along. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment assumed responsibility for administration of the Public Housing Rental Subsidy on April 1, 2006. Leading into the transfer, some specific goals were put in place for improvements to the program in the overall context of the income security framework.

A lot of hard work has been undertaken and we have met with some success. We are pleased to report that Education, Culture and Employment has strengthened the Public Housing Rental Subsidy Program over the past four years and have developed new tools including a policy and procedures...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, February 3, 2010, I will move that Bill 10, Exemption Act, be read for the first time.

Again, that type of discussion needs to happen at the district education council with our department, identifying funding or resources within our department and also within the board department. We’ve already allocated funds for this school year operation, and those eight students or other students that Mr. Krutko is alluding to, we need to look at their status. The funding that’s been allocated to Inuvik, certainly they will lose that if the students are back in Tsiigehtchic. We need to adjust in those areas as well. The board needs to make those decisions as well. I have to respect those...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are looking at various options on how we can enhance our services in small, isolated communities such as Tsiigehtchic or Sachs Harbour and Ulukhaktok and other communities. Part of the ongoing discussion we’re having with the education council is identifying those resources. There is also the enrolment issue. We’re dealing with an enrolment that is going down, and that doesn’t help in small communities. So, certainly, those are the strategic thinking that we are having with our departments and with the community organizations. We need to find a solution. One solution is...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it gets very complicated where we’ve allocated funds based on where the students are enrolled. So we do provide the funding. We do provide the service to those eight students the Member is referring to. It’s just a matter of choice that the students are back in the community. Again, the decision lies with the Beaufort-Delta Education Council to make that decision, and the district education authority. If they are exploring options of extending high schools, those are discussions that need to take place as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for asking that question. I think it’s important to highlight that initiative that we’ve undertaken, the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. We were given indication last year sometime that enrolment was down and there were challenges with identifying students, where they’re at with their grades and so forth. So, Mr. Speaker, that area has been identified and we have a committee that’s in place that had several meetings already and they’ve made recommendations to our department.

On providing additional funding to the school boards...

There were no problems. There were challenges that were before us. We worked with those challenges. We continued to improve the program where we met some challenges and we continued to improve in those areas. Right now we’re talking about transferring. I think we’re at that stage where we will be providing more information to the standing committee on a going forward basis on the detailed information. But we faced some challenges. We resolved those challenges, and we continue to improve our program. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Just for the record, it’s not 14 positions that were transferred. When the transfer occurred in 2006 it was $1.3 million, not $1.5 million. That consisted within that of 10.75 PYs, not 14 positions. I just want to make that clear. But this is still in the planning stages. We just announced within the budget announcement that these programs would be transferred back to the Housing Corporation. Those logistics, the details of it need to be worked out still. We’re in the planning stages. We will be consulting with the standing committees on a going forward basis. We need to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Literacy skills are the foundation of a happy and successful life. On Wednesday, January 27th, families from across the Northwest Territories celebrated Family Literacy Day.

Throughout the Territory, there are many people who are dedicated to helping others in all areas of literacy from numeracy to computer skills. I want to thank the NWT Literacy Council and all the literacy coordinators, aboriginal language instructors, teachers, mentors across the Territory for their commitment. These people make every day a literacy day and I encourage all Northerners to follow their...