Norman Yakeleya

I like the way the Minister has said it. I appreciate it. I hope the regions have an opportunity to be part of that by requesting or the Minister looking at it and say we could do it here or here and ask the various boards if they feel strong enough, or they can look at where the language could be developed and we could go out there and ask about that program. I thank the Minister for that. It’s a good start. I’m happy to hear that.

Just to conclude the curriculum, I would like to ask the Minister if he would strongly work with his colleagues and the Department of Health and Social Services and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to ask the Department of Education here to talk about special projects that are happening in the communities. We’re looking at the curriculum and one of the things that Mr. Beaulieu and I, when we went to the Sahtu, talked about was the importance of addiction and wellness and health. In the schools, our high school students don’t seem to have a curriculum – and I stand to be corrected – on drugs, alcohol, pregnancy, violence, health. Just on health itself in general. I want to ask the Minister if there are any plans within his department to start introducing...

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Minister and staff for coming before us.

Madam Chair, the points that I want to make are the pace at which we’re educating our children in our small communities. Our communities have a high number of young people and I was in somewhat of shock and dismay when the Alberta test results came out and they showed the education. It gave me a snapshot picture of the education in our smaller communities and in our education system, the department. We are funding our schools, yet we are not as up to par as we think we are.

In our schools I think there’s got to be a...

I look forward to the day where the community and the Department of Justice can sign a joint letter saying this is what we want to do and this is where we could help our people.

In the letter it talks about the inmates coming back from the institution and coming back to the communities and ending up doing nothing. They want to do a program on the land, because they believe that there they’ll learn about responsibility and respect through the community. I want to ask the Minister when, between now and the business plans, that the community of Colville Lake can see his officials going to Colville...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Justice. I want to ask the Minister of Justice, when we had our meeting in Colville Lake, the people in Colville Lake wanted to ask the Minister how can his department, where can his department find some creativity to work with the people in Colville Lake on the reintegration program. They have young inmates that are incarcerated, that come back to the community, and they want to do more than just ship them back to the community after they’ve done their time at the correctional facility. When or how or where, what can the Minister do to...

I’m going to close off with the schooling, because it is important. That is where we send our children for the good portion of our day to get real education. Part of that is offering in the different schools in my region, maybe other communities also, an opportunity to practice and learn about their own music. For us, to be Dene music, it would be fiddling. Different cultures have a different field of music. That music is very powerful and music is very powerful in my culture. Music is also very good for math. Math is really good with music. Is there a strong curriculum in music that we can...

The Minister has made reference to a very important topic in the history of the people of the Northwest Territories and I want to applaud him and his staff for producing a residential school curriculum for the people, for the students, and I look forward to the Minister providing me with some information on the health curriculum that’s needed in our high schools. We could have that discussion at that time.

I want to continue on with the curriculum and I want to ask the Minister is there’s any thought about the department looking at a Dene Kede language curriculum that would be important for our...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to lend my support to this motion. It speaks about the functional grade level that the Alberta Achievement Test showed us sometime in March. It talked about the grade levels in our small communities, that we are measured at a lower grade level than the larger centres and that in the small communities students were graded or measured lower than, far too low than my expectations compared to the regional centres and Yellowknife. That is totally unacceptable and if the social passing has some contributing factors to those low score levels, than we need to make...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Thursday, May 31, 2012, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that notwithstanding Rule 4, when this House adjourns on May 31, 2012, it shall be adjourned until Monday, June 4, 2012;

And further, at any time prior to June 4, 2012, if the Speaker is satisfied, after consultation with the Executive Council and Members of the Legislative Assembly, that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier time during the adjournment, the Speaker may give notice and thereupon the House...

Could I ask the Minister when can the community of Colville Lake and the Department of Justice sit down together and look at a community reintegration program and have them come forward possibly for the business plans to look at where there’s going to be some dedicated resources and dollars put to work. Maybe this could be a pilot project for the other communities in bringing back the communities to a more responsible role other than just being a disturbance to the community.