Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, this week is Education Week and Aurora College Week in the Northwest Territories. It is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate education in our communities.

I would like to kick off the week by providing great news. The graduation numbers for 2007 in the Northwest Territories have recently become available, and they continue to increase. In 2007, 370 students graduated high school. We are now graduating over a hundred more students each year than we did five years ago. I would like to congratulate all of these graduates.

Our students are required to successfully complete diploma...

As you know, we are unique in the North compared to other jurisdictions. We are one of the jurisdictions that provide court circuits to the most isolated communities, as opposed to southern jurisdictions. It does cost us money to travel to these communities.

We do work with the judicial system where the court circuit, most of the time, uses scheduled services. As you know, some small, isolated communities do not have scheduled services. At times they have to fly in with chartered planes. The judiciary court schedule is based on the needs of the communities. That’s where the cost would come in...

Mr. Speaker, yes, it would be an honour to go visit Nunakput. We did arrange to visit the community, but due to circumstances, we couldn’t visit. We are planning to make arrangements to visit the community. Probably after session sometime we’ll make some arrangements to go visit the community. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the Member for asking that particular question. Yes, we are aware as a department. As the Members will know, it is a Territorial-wide issue. Housing is a real challenge for professionals living in the community, whether it be nursing, health workers, social workers and most recently the teachers as well. So we are aware of it, and we are working with the communities and the N.W.T. Housing Corporation to find some solutions to this whole ordeal of housing shortages for the professionals in the communities.

Mr. Chair, we can certainly provide more detailed information on the court circuits in the communities. There are communities that at times the judges would have to spend a night. But most times they don’t have accommodation or restaurants, as the Member indicated. We are working to the best of our ability with what we have, chartering to a community or on a regularly scheduled flight. Yes, certainly we can provide that information.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document, entitled Aurora College Annual Report, 2006-2007. Mahsi.

Document 16-16(2), Aurora College Annual Report, 2006-2007, tabled.

Mr. Speaker, we are working with different parties. We’re doing a pilot project in one of the regions. We’re doing design work and having the Housing Corporation guarantee financing as a third party because the G.N.W.T. does not get involved with housing. We are looking at options of how we as a department can get involved to find a solution to finding or building these units in the communities. We are looking for partners in the communities.

Just to let the Member know, my department staff has met with the Beau-Del board of education as well and also various parties from the Beau-Del area, and...

Mr. Speaker, I am certainly hoping to give notice of introduction of the bill later on this week. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we will be taking into consideration what is brought forward here today, because the act is still in the works. It has been presented to the Social Programs Committee, and it will be brought to the House. I can certainly take those suggestions into consideration, work with my department, and see if we can integrate that through our discussion paper on the act itself. Mahsi.

[English translation not provided].

Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to recognize Ms. Giselle Marion of Behchoko, who recently passed the N.W.T. bar exam. Ms. Marion is a role model among Tlicho youth. She has demonstrated to her peers that with hard work and perseverance, most dreams can come true. It is Ms. Marion’s intention to return to the North, to get back to her community. It is her wish to work with the Tlicho.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Tlicho Nation and the government of the Northwest Territories, I would like to recognize this young woman for her achievement. We are very...