Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize some of the recipients of this year’s Culture and Heritage Circle Award here with us in the gallery, along with their guests as well.

First is Rene Fumoleau who is here with us in the Individual award category, along with his guest, Pat Braden. The Elder award is Camilla Tutcho with a guest of Tina Tutcho. Also, in the Youth category, Janelle Nitsiza with her grandma, Dora Nitsiza. The Group award category is the Foster Family Coalition of the NWT. Attendees are Nicole Garbutt and Mary Richardson who are here with us. The Minister’s Choice Award, of...

Mr. Speaker, I want to assure you that I have been listening carefully to Members during the recent debate around Junior Kindergarten. I also want to assure you that the Government of the Northwest Territories remains committed to the principle that focused, targeted support during their first years of life will help our children reach their full potential and become healthy, educated, successful adults. Our government has introduced Junior Kindergarten, a program designed to achieve just this result, Mr. Speaker, and has already rolled it out successfully to 23 communities.

I believe that the...

It all depends on the individual. If they are younger than 19, then we have to work with the Department of Health and Social Services. But there are various programs within our income support area, whether it be early childhood or other departmental programs such as emergency measures when it comes to MACA or the Department of Health and Social Services or my Department of Education, Culture and Employment. It is an interagency responsibility and also working very closely with the community organizations that deal with those matters at the community level as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are fully aware of the high cost of living in the communities and the income support does reflect on that as well. ECE is working to enhance benefits for clothing, food and other incidental expenses to ensure that clients receive adequate benefits to meet their needs and that we are current with the high cost of living in the communities. We are currently spending upwards of $16 million in income support alone, and there is also a seniors heating subsidy of $1.8 million, and the list goes on. Those are the subsidies that we provide to the communities, and we also keep in...

Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what’s happening. I’m just one part of government that addresses this with my federal counterparts. My colleagues around the table here also stress the importance of the high cost of living. When it comes to remoteness in our jurisdiction, we’re very remote with a high cost of living in our communities. At times federal Ministers and federal representatives are not fully aware of our situation. So it’s always a learning curve when there are changes in the federal government, but it’s a challenge that we always put at the table and we will continue to do so. Mahsi...

With our programming there are upwards of 1,600 caseloads within the Northwest Territories and on average 3,300 people access income assistance. We’re mindful of those individuals with dependents, especially if there are twins, even young twins. Those are some of the areas we closely monitor with client service officers. We need to have those individuals access our income support programming because it’s there for them. We do continue to explore those areas and having a program identified as part of education awareness on to the communities as well.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the survey will be to find out what the 23 communities, if there is any major issues that we may have missed out on from the parents, from the community organizations, even as far as the regional centres and also Yellowknife, just to share their perspectives. We may have missed out on various key initiatives that they may bring to our attention. I want to hear from parents as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we had over the weekend, how can we best reach out to those communities, and that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi.

When it comes to the delivery of Junior Kindergarten into the regions, the 23 communities, we’ve worked with them since day one, even as far back as October when I first met with board chairs first introducing Junior Kindergarten. This is an area where we, again, have to evaluate our programming for the 23 communities and what have we learned from them. It’s only three months into the delivery of Junior Kindergarten. It’s not, like, a year into the programming, but now we have to re-evaluate. So that’s where our situation stands. Again, it’s our DECs that we have to work with. Mahsi, Mr...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is the Member visited a community and there was one organization that may not be supportive of the JK, but there are other organizations in the community that we’ve been dealing with on constant occasions. Not only that but the school board that’s responsible for that particular community, we deal with the school board. So the DECs, the school board, make the decision working with us to deliver Junior Kindergarten into their community. That’s the avenue and the protocol we follow. The decision is from the DEC. Thank you.

It was the Finance Minister, our Premier and I who have stated that we are going to re-evaluate our situation. We still have time until the next delivery of JK into our regional centres and also to Yellowknife the following year. This is a situation where we are seriously looking at and also to share some perspectives from the 23 communities, the regional centres and from Yellowknife’s perspective. We’re doing what we can to reach out. Whether it be the taskforce that we established, the toll-free number, the website, we’re doing what we can to reach out to the communities.