Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provides a better quality of life for some of the most vulnerable residents of the Northwest Territories through its Income Security Program. I’d like to speak today about a significant improvement that is being made to the Income Assistance program as well as two very important initiatives that are underway.

Starting in April 2015, income assistance clients will receive more money for food and incidental expenses. These benefits will continue to increase each year for the next four years. The increases to these benefits will...

Mr. Chair, the pilot project we have done with Child and Family Resource Program into the communities, again, has been successful and this is building on that. Obviously, the Child and Family Resource Program is part of the Early Childhood Framework, the 10-year action plan and developing a 10-year framework and then a three-year action plan geared towards that. It is a continuation of the programming. This is one of the areas that Health and Social Services has been a partner. We are allocating healthy family programming based on the needs of the communities that have been identified. With...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Part of the reason why we’re transferring the funding to the Healthy Family Program has always been part of our discussion when we went through the Child and Family Resource Program that was initiated and has been successful to date. It was of the opinion that we need to put money into the programming, so that’s where the Healthy Family Initiative is earmarked. We are transferring, so it is in the works. Health and Social Services has always been our partner on this approach. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Over the years we’ve been working with the federal government on having an identified Older Workers funding program. We just signed off an agreement with the federal government just recently in April 2014 for a three-year agreement. It is being spread out to the communities and it is those individuals who are 50-plus years of age, 55 years of age and older that can access this funding. So far we’ve implemented nine of the NWT communities as a start, Tuktoyaktuk, Fort McPherson, Inuvik, Aklavik, Ulukhaktok, Deline, Hay River, Fort Smith and Behchoko. I will just remind you...

It’s by community. Obviously, a community has to access and apply through the application process for funding. The funding is available, it’s just a matter of a community applying for it, so I would highly encourage those communities that have not applied to apply for the funding that’s available for them.

Taxing them is a different subject. There is funding available to us. As I stated, it’s not only Chevron. There are other companies that came forward. A basic example would be the multiplex and others. I think, in my view, we need to take advantage of these potential investors. As I stated before, there will be plenty more that will be up on the horizon and we need to work with them. We need to work with all stakeholders across the Northwest Territories. Any opportunities that they provide to us as a true partnership, then we need to take advantage of those opportunities.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is not the first time that this has been brought to my attention. Not only Inuvik but other regional settings, as well, even the Sahtu and other places. This has been brought to our attention where we need to have a secure residence for our students that are attending at the regional high school level coming from the small, isolated communities. We need to have a suitable place for them to study and to have shelter. We work very closely with the DEAs and DECs to make that a priority for them, because we want every child to be successful as part of their education...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When we first talked about iPads for new parents, we sought out potential investors, key partners on this very important matter. There was a request by Chevron. The funding is available to purchase iPads. It’s not only Chevron. We have done this with others from the private sector, the business sector, as well, over the years. My view is that it’s an investment into our overall educational system where there are key partners.

As the Minister of Finance stated, our financial situation now is very tight within our overall territorial budget and we have to explore these areas of...

When we talk about bringing the agriculture programming into our school system, I need to work very closely with ITI since they have that portfolio. But by all means, this is an area that we need to explore further, to see what’s out there in the regions, in the communities, and present that idea to the school boards as well. So, most definitely this will be our topic of discussion. Mahsi.

Mahsi. It’s not actually positions. It’s full-time equivalency. If the enrollment is down it goes back to the school boards and they decide where. It’s up to the school boards to decide how many teachers or janitors or teacher assistants to be hired. So, it’s based on the actual overall budget that we provide to them. Maybe if I can get my deputy to elaborate a bit more because she’s involved with the FTEs and enrollment. When the enrollment numbers go down, my team has to work with all the school boards. Mahsi.