Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. What I can say today is that it is happening with the Board of Governors when they’re meeting at each campus, they allow opportunities for students to express their concerns as well. As the Minister, I continue to work with the Board of Governors, like the school boards across the Northwest Territories, I work with them.

So we need to build on our relationship that we have and I will continue to do so. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The first time the question was raised in this House I did instruct my deputy to follow through with the president of the college to provide the e-mail address on their website for the general public to have access to them. So, based on that, it should be in the works. If not, then I need to follow up on where it stands. But that was the last discussions we had with the college. Mahsi.

As I stated, we’ve done a variety of research across the North. That also includes the daycare operators and early childhood workers as well. Based on the results that came back… We provide funding to the daycare operators, whether it be the mortgage, whether it be other areas of subsidy for them to operate, whether it be day homes, even at daycare facilities.

The early childhood workers, as I stated earlier, are one of the lowest paid wages across the country but more so in the Northwest Territories, and this is one way of attracting more individuals to pursue early childhood worker...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we first introduced the grant, the staff grant with the stakeholders across the Northwest Territories, we did our research. We found out that we have one of the lowest paid workers, early childhood workers across the Northwest Territories. We want to give them incentives for them to pursue higher education, even as far as certification, diploma degrees and even masters’ programs so they can come back to our organizations and work for us. We wanted to provide some incentives, so we have had research done and talked to a number of stakeholders. Those are the results we...

Sorry, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, I will move that Bill 45, An Act to Amend the Workers’ Compensation Act, be read for the first time.

Mahsi. I will be sharing that with the Board of Governors. If this is an area that they can possibly build on their meetings that they have had on a rotational basis into their campuses, an open door policy perspective. So I will be sharing with the Board of Governors. Mahsi.

The information that we’ve compiled, obviously with consent from the clientele as well as the survivors and even the families of the survivors, obviously we have work if we can release those names. But surely, I’ll be working very closely with the Member if we could allow that to happen and then provide that information to the Member.

Mr. Speaker, all children in the NWT deserve the best possible care, nurturing and support, so that they can develop physically, emotionally, socially, culturally and spiritually. When these supports are in place right from the start, children are more likely to grow up to become healthy, productive members of their communities and society.

The departments of Health and Social Services and Education, Culture and Employment continue to work in partnership to ensure that there is increased access and participation in early childhood programs, enhanced quality of early childhood services and...

Mr. Speaker, my department is willing to do that, provide the detailed information on these particular mini iPads that will be distributed to new parents. We’ve done a lot of research not only on these mini iPads but on the overall Early Education Development Framework. The action plan we’ve developed over a three-year period to deal with the 22 recommendations. This is part of the recommendations that have been brought to our attention, that we need to provide tools and resources and that’s what we’re doing. So we’ll provide that information, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This ECD, Early Childhood Development Framework, overall does fall within that. We will be distributing iPads to new parents so they can have a tool that they can use with their newborns or children as well. That information was part of the action plan that we talked about last year, as well, and the money has been identified.

There are around 500 mini iPads that we’ve initiated as part of the overall plan. The overall cost of the iPads is around $160,000. These are some of the ongoing costs that we’ve identified.

We’ve also had, within our department, individuals that have...