Jackson Lafferty

I’m not sure how else I can say it, but there are documents and correspondence, e-mails that came to my attention from various stakeholders, and there’s a few of them. So we need to act on it. We can’t just ignore those concerns that are brought to our attention.

Again, it is during the life of this Assembly that it will be signed off. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did answer that, I believe, last week. The recommendation from the committee has been addressed to my attention. The package is before me and there has been some correspondence that came in from various stakeholders as well. Even after the fact, the committee established some recommendations. I did commit to this House that I will sign off the final document during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The whole Education Renewal and Innovation will obviously capture that. The attendance issue has been at the forefront of our discussion through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative in which we’ve engaged with the general public over the years since 2010, and we had a forum on education renewal. The poor attendance, obviously, is a symptom of underlying issues where students are disengaged in our school system.

Examples of our ERI that I can share with the Member, one of the focuses is student well-being through safe and caring school practices and also providing...

As I stated in this House, I did make a commitment to reach out to those operators and the stakeholders and that’s exactly what we’re doing through the Premier’s statement. The review, obviously, will go beyond the 23 communities and engage the education authorities, licenced daycare centres, day homes, Aboriginal Head Start programming and stakeholder groups. We also have to keep in mind there are parents we have to engage with, as well, and the general public over the coming months. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Those are discussions that we had just a while ago about the title, Junior Kindergarten, versus potential other names. We are going through a comprehensive review, as the Premier indicated. We do have some time to discuss those matters. Right now we are currently delivering into 23 communities. The title, obviously, is Junior Kindergarten, so those are just some of the discussions that we need to have as a department and with the communities as well. Mahsi.

Any funding that Health and Social Services can provide to us is greatly appreciated. At the same time, it is an interagency meeting that we need to have with the Department of Health and Social Services and my department because we talk about the school community counsellors and also counselling and healing. There are separate pots that we provide, as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, to Fort Liard and other communities. Yes, I did commit to working with the Department of Health and Social Services. They have been our partner along the way and they will continue to do so.

That $537,000 to the Dehcho Divisional Education Council, they decide where the money should be expended, whether it be in Kakisa or another small community. It would be up to their discretion to deal with that. These are just some of the positions that have been highlighted, such as Fort Liard, Fort Providence, Fort Simpson, Jean Marie, Kakisa, Nahanni Butte, Trout Lake and Wrigley. Some of them are half-time positions, three-quarter positions based on the funding that has been allocated to them. But again, at the end of the day, it will be up to the district education authority, working with...

Mahsi. When we talk about those areas of academic studies, whether it be regional schools or even technical schools, obviously we have to work with the community of Deline. Even through their school boards as well. As you know, there has been self-government arrangements being discussed and eventually these educational authorities will fall under them as well. So we’re very much looking forward to working with those parties as we move forward, discussing the future prosperity of educational facilities in the Sahtu region. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Yes, we’ve just completed the Sahtu feasibility study, the needs assessment, I should say. Based on that, it will give us a tool to work with for analyzing training institute requirements for the Sahtu region. There is a process that we still have to go through, as well, but this is just a preliminary discussion that we’ve been having. We involve the stakeholders and they provide us with a needs assessment of the community. Now the next step will be focusing in those areas where the information has been provided to us and how can we work with that. So we will be working closely with the...

Mahsi. Those are just some of the options that we are currently working with. There are some best practices in other larger centres, as well, that can be carried out to the smaller communities. Whether it is positions in the communities, again, we contribute directly to the district education councils and they decide how many positions should be hired and what kind of positions should be hired. But yes, I will take that message to the DECs and work with them to identify these key areas. Mahsi.