Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 12, Securities Transfer Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill enacts a uniform Securities Transfer Act to govern the transfer and holdings of securities and the interests in securities consistent with legislation currently enacted or being enacted in all provinces and territories. The bill provides for consequential amendments to the Business Corporation Act, Personal Property Security Act and Seizures Act. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

As the Minister responsible for Justice, I continue to work with the standing committee and I certainly don’t want to run with the legislation without consultation with the standing committee. As a commitment from my perspective portfolios and also this government, we need to consult with the standing committee. I will continue to do so. I’m making a commitment to work with the standing committee on a moving-forward basis.

We do have dedicated staff within the department that we have specifically for early childhood. Dealing with the daycares, whether they meet the funding criteria that’s based on, the contribution agreement, we need to relook at the whole mechanism for a number of past years and where we are today. How can we move forward on how we can improve in those areas? Certainly we don’t want to see any disruption in the operation of a daycare establishment in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to discuss the various models that we can certainly deliver. We’ll do that and provide that...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The rent control is a separate issue that we’re currently talking about here. That area will definitely have, whether it be positive or negative, impacts. We realize that other jurisdictions do have rent control and we have reviewed that. We have investigated that. There are pros and cons. We can certainly share that with the standing committee if we need to move in that direction. The local contractors may not be able to build units if they can’t control the rent. So those are the areas that we seriously looked at. We continue to do more research in that area.

With respect...

I did highlight the additional funding that’s included to provide for base rent and mortgage expenses. That’s new programming dollars that we’ve offered to the daycare establishments. I would reiterate that we are continuing to work with FMB to work with NGOs in the communities because we need to continue working with them in this respect. The Member has talked about similar funding or contributions we provide to the schools based on enrolment. Those are the types of discussions that we’re having currently with FMB. Although it’s taken some time, we want to have a good model that we can...

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...

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...