Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I have often talked about the Education Renewal Initiative in this House and have updated Members a number of times as to its progress. In our discussions last year, Members said that unless children actually go to school it does not matter what programs and supports are provided. Members encouraged us to create a school attendance advertising campaign and, Mr. Speaker, we have acted upon that advice.

Mr. Speaker, our school attendance rates are not where we want them to be. Students must strive for 100 percent in order to give themselves the best chance to learn. A student who has...

Our system is not broken. We still provide funding. We still provide subsidy to those Northwest Territories clientele on income security, and we will continue to do. We always make improvements as well.

Again, I have to reiterate, in 2007 we made substantial changes to our food programming and we will continue to do so. Again, in 2015 we’re going to have another increase. I’m not sure. The Member is referring to a feasibility study. These are the changes that we heard and we’re moving forward on the changes from the recommendation of the general public. We’re making changes to our policy every...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My department provides income security to those individuals who are in need of subsidy, we’re not failing those people. We’re providing subsidy to those individuals. When the Member talks about Manitoba, the Mincome, in 1974 they subsidized 1,000 families with monthly cheques. At that time the federal and provincial governments collectively spent $17 million in 1974. Just imagine the cost factor today.

This is an area that my department will do what we can to provide the basic needs to those individual clients based on their needs. There has been a request for an increase in...

There are all kinds of websites that have been established within my department. We’re working with the school boards. There are some websites that may not be suitable for various reasons and it’s been highlighted. What the Member is referring to is gearing towards that as well.

So, we are, again, working with the DECs and DEAs to capture that, and if it’s a concern, then we need to address it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Each school is provided with the tools and supports to develop and implement the most effective and relevant safe school plan for their school and also the community, and there’s also an evaluation monitoring mechanism. With every program that we’ve established, we’ve initiated, there’s a MEA, monitoring evaluating accountability aspect to it because it’s very important that we evaluate how our program is operating. So, this is one area that we continue to push forward with the school boards on an annual basis. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod and the Honourable David Ramsay will be absent from the House today to attend the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women National Round Table in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

There’s a variety of stakeholders involved with these types of discussion. One of the areas that the Member is alluding to, mandatory counselling, has been brought up. We’re fully aware of that, and even the superintendents of school boards are aware of it, as well, and how can we mitigate that into our current code of conduct measures.

So, these are ongoing discussions that we are currently having with the school boards. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we first talked about the safe and caring school legislation, there was discussion about a territorial school code of conduct being established in all schools. So those are just some of the discussions and engagements we’ve had with the school boards. They are moving forward to developing their own code of conduct within the school establishment. That has been in place.

There has been a lot of discussion happening at the school level. We are hoping in the beginning of the 2015-16 school year an overall code of conduct will be established. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Ms. Lea Lamoureux, principal of Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah, on being recognized as one of Canada’s outstanding principals for 2015.

She is the most recent in a long list of Northwest Territories recipients who have been recognized for their dedication and passion for teaching our students in the Northwest Territories.

The Learning Partnership recently announced Ms. Lamoureux as one of 40 exceptional educators from across Canada. Through her leadership, Kaw Tay Whee School is now a vibrant learning environment, connecting families and the community of Detah....

We are being challenged in the Northwest Territories. We know that NWT students are graduating from high school significantly below the Canadian average. We’re fully aware of that, and our system is not meeting the standards. The whole Education Renewal and Innovation will definitely capture that. We’re fully aware of that and we’re developing tools to capture that as well. Along the way, it’s a three-year mandate, a three-year action plan, and we will be keeping the standing committee up to speed while we’re making changes along the way.