Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share the Northwest Territories three-year baseline results of the Early Development Instrument referred to as the EDI results. The EDI is a population-level tool that measures children’s ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations at school entry.

The EDI measures five areas of a child’s development, including their physical health and well-being, their language and cognitive development, their communication skills and general knowledge, their social competence and the child’s emotional maturity.

Mr. Speaker, the EDI focuses on the outcomes for...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories 2013-2014 Annual Report on Official Languages,” and a letter to Mr. Bob Bromley, dated November 4, 2014 regarding a statement in the House on the safety in junior kindergarten.

I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2013” and “Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal Annual Report 2013.” Mahsi.

As I stated earlier, there are a variety of programs, subsidy programs that we provide to, whether it be training or small community employment programming. Not only that, there is a substantial amount of funding that we work with through the federal government, and that is Canada’s Job Fund. Those individuals that do not qualify for EI, those individuals, as the Member indicated, are in desperate need of sort of like a training that fall through the cracks. This particular program is geared towards that. Part of the focus of the federal government, obviously, is to train those individuals and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The pre-employment program and other programs have been very successful to date. There have been some changes in programming. Right now we are looking at the employment success through adult and post-secondary education and skills training. Those types of programs that existed before will definitely be captured in part of our review process, because we are engaging the key partners and also the stakeholders in the Northwest Territories on how best to deliver this particular program. We are re-evaluating our position on these skills and training programs.

Mr. Speaker, one of the areas, obviously, is the Small Community Employment Program that has been established by this Assembly. It has been very successful to date. They’re providing funding to employers so they can hire those individuals who are interested in various skill set positions. Not only that but there is other programming, whether it be apprenticeship training programming.

I just signed off with the federal government, as well, on Canada’s Job Fund. The funding is available to the employers through my department to identify those individuals. Once they’re trained, they should have...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, first and foremost, obviously, is to congratulate all those apprentices throughout the Northwest Territories. We are very proud of them, and obviously, we would like to see more of those individuals successfully completing apprenticeship certification and journeyman ticket holders. Part of specifically the training division, apprenticeship, is improving employment success through adult and post-secondary education and skills training. That area is being re-evaluated so we can capture four key areas of categories. That is to better understand the current and future...

Again, the infrastructure that we’re discussing here today, it is the ownership of YK1. They own these schools, aside from Sir John Franklin High School. The decision lies with YK1 to decide what to do with that infrastructure based on the feedback they get from the parents. I realize that enrollment is down. We, as the GNWT, continue to contribute to their O and M costs on an annual basis. We continue to do that.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, we did not direct the YK1 to establish a steering committee, or the committee that is looking into the infrastructure in Yellowknife. It was YK1 that decided on that.

When we met with them back in 2013, prior to March, March was the deadline that we needed to act on with the Commission scolaire legal action. So we passed beyond that. Now it’s up to YK1 to decide what to do with their infrastructure. We’re obviously concerned about the low enrollment and the best utilization of those facilities.

Those are discussions that we’ve been having since 2012, 2013...

As I stated, there are a variety of programs within my department and it’s also on our website as well. I can provide that detailed information to the Members on what is available for those individuals that want to be trained. I stated there is a Canada…(inaudible)…Labour Market Development Agreement, there is the Apprenticeship Training Program and small community programming that we provide to the communities, the employers. We will continue to push that forward, but I will be providing those to the Members. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The engagement process obviously started back in November of 2010 when we met with the board chairs and superintendents to discuss this matter in the preliminary stages at that time. There was also a letter directly to the board chairs, as well, the DECs, in January of 2011. So within the next few months from there. There’s also a proposed approach that was discussed with the board chairs and the superintendents as recently as May 2014 and there was no opposition to the changes.

Just last month, a month ago, I also met with the South Slave because they brought up some concerns...