Jackson Lafferty

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.

Mr. Speaker, through our contribution to the district education councils and authorities, we provide funding as part of our contribution. It’s at their discretion whether it be spent on a food basket or early learning breakfast in our school system. We, as a department, are working very closely with the school boards to have those students ready to learn in our school system so they’re not coming to school hungry.

Some of the schools have been very creative, having a breakfast program in our school system, and we provide funding towards that as well. Not just my department but there is Health...

That is obviously part of our goals and objectives, to keep Members informed on our progress of our review of the 23 communities where JK is being delivered over the coming months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated in this House, we do have a steering committee, a dedicated team that provides support to these 23 communities and we’ll continue to provide that through my department just based on the announcement today. Those are the communities that we need to focus on. Whether the option of continuing or not, as the Premier indicated, that’s a decision that we’ve made, and at the same time, those are some of the reviews that we’ll be undertaking, as well, throughout the next eight months that we have. So that’s what we’ll be focusing on. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] We have Bobby Weyallon in the gallery. I would like to recognize him in the House.

Within our Government of the Northwest Territories, we’ve been talking about, just recently, the wraparound, the services. That has been in discussion. Obviously, this will be a topic of discussion that the Member alluded to when I meet with interagency and other departments here when we talk about the funding itself. Yes, this will be, obviously, part of the discussion that we’ll be having.

Yes, we’re fully aware of that process itself. We had to construct these renovations into our school system before school started in September and before the JK started. So the only opportunity we had was over the summer while there were no students in the school system. That was the only opportunity that we had and we needed to move forward or else we would have been challenged with the space and the infrastructure, delivering Junior Kindergarten in these three particular schools. Mahsi.