Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to announce new services from the Department of Justice to help families in transition. These services are the first steps in longer-term project design to create an effective and accessible family law framework for more choices for families.

For many people, the court system works well, but it’s only one option. It can be expensive and time consuming. As Members know, mediation offers parents an alternative. They talk to each other, work out their issues, like where the kid will live, visitation, financial support and how they will continue...

Our goal is definitely to look out for the children at hand. We want them to succeed at life. Certainly throughout the North that’s our goal, the primary goal; to look after those children and their well-being and so forth. Certainly this area that the Member is alluding to, we continue to have the discussion on again improving our program. On a going-forward basis, those are the discussions we will be having during the business planning process and having dialogue with the federal government and FMB on improving our programs.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The funding we do provide, the contribution agreements to the daycare centres are to cover the operation and maintenance costs and also the rental costs and the mortgage. Those are the expenses that we cover for ongoing daycare operations here in the Northwest Territories. We do continue to provide the funding and whether it be the capital or base plus, that is the area of discussion that we can certainly have.

As I stated earlier, wherever we can improve our program, we are always keeping our options open. We are always improving our programs. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

I believe the Member alluded to the Early Childhood Certification Program through Aurora College. We do certify them in that respect. Whether it be the legislation to, I’m not sure what the Member’s referring to, but certainly those are the areas we need to continue to discuss. I’d like to hear more feedback from the Member on where he’s going with this. Certainly we’re open to ideas and suggestions within our department. As I stated earlier, we will be going through our next phase of business planning process, so we continue to look for options from the Members.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes, that Bill 4, Public Library Act, be read for the third time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Statement delivered in aboriginal language and then in English]

We have been celebrating aboriginal languages and cultures during the month on an annual basis. There will be a variety of things happening in different communities around the North such as radio contests, luncheons at community teaching and learning centres. There will also be aboriginal language materials on display and the luncheon here at the Great Hall on Thursday.

We recognize that languages play a crucial and essential role in the lives of the aboriginal communities in the Northwest Territories. It...

Certainly those areas will be captured in the renewing of our Aboriginal Languages Strategy. We will be consulting with the aboriginal stakeholders, the leaders, the parents, the community organizations. Those are the experts at the community level. The 33 communities that we serve we certainly like to hear their input on the challenges. What are the gaps? What are the root causes of the challenges we’re faced with today? We like to hear them out, because we certainly don’t have, as a department, all the answers. So we’re reaching out to the communities to say give us solutions to work from...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Certainly they are, for a number of years now, developing programs that meet the needs of the communities, whether it be the language, the programming, the cultural on-the-land program, taking students out on the land, and just immersion programs into the schools. Not only that, but we are developing some strategies to deal with our languages and eliminating the educational gaps within our schools in the Northwest Territories. So there are those two strategies in place. We’ve also just developed a strategy on literacy, 2008-2018, that deals specifically with the low...

Clearly this has been a challenge for us within the school system. We’re trying to tackle that issue. I think out of this strategy certainly that will be one of the key topics of discussion on a going-forward basis. How can we get around hiring elders in the schools without penalizing their pension? Those are the areas. The Member also gave us some ideas on how to get around the system. We’re clearly looking for solutions from the communities on getting around the system. Certainly that will be one of the primary discussions that we’ll be having, so there are no impacts on the elders and...

Certainly we’ve heard from visitors in the communities in the regions and coming from the Dene Nation meeting just last week. We’ve heard over and over the importance of preserving and revitalizing our language and enhancing our language. That is certainly one of the prime focuses of our Department of Education and this government. We will certainly do what we can to deal with those strategies. That’s the key message that we’re receiving from the communities. It is our priority to promote that even more into the communities and schools. We’ve certainly talked about using the elders. We have...