Norman Yakeleya

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Can the Minister list all the post-secondary educational institutions that enable our northern students to do their practicum in the North?

Also, can the Minister provide a work plan and implementation schedule that would show how the Grande Prairie College and our Education department help our northern students begin their work experience placement in the North?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Would the Minister look at future planning to implement strong bush camps in the Northwest Territories rather than continuing pouring dollars into a concrete facility that just seems to recycle our people over and over again and nothing is changing? Would the Minister look at implementing some strong bush camps that would possibly help the justice system?

Some time ago I understood the number to be around $90,000 per inmate per year. I’m not too sure how much that has changed. The reason I ask this is I want to ask the Minister about the number of inmates at the North Slave Correctional Centre, the population there.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister if he could share what type of arrangements or what type of barriers that Grande Prairie has put up in terms of not helping the student to get to the North to do her practicum. What are some situations that his department is looking into?

When these students enter into post-secondary institutions and take on the career of a teacher or teacher’s assistant, has the department notified the students ahead of time about their practicum and the requirements we need? To also let them know ahead of time that it’s not possible to come back to the North to do their practicum, such as this student in Grande Prairie that was disappointed that these things couldn’t be worked out ahead of time? Can the Minister notify me if these things are told to students entering into the teaching professions?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about the practicum issue I talked about. I want to ask the Minister if there are any ways he’s working to arrange for students in the Northwest Territories to come back to the Territories to do their practicum once they complete their courses in southern educational institutions.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to the review in the springtime and having some further discussions. I want to ask the Minister in terms of going forward in this area here, Mr. Chairman, it seems that we are spinning our feet here in terms of getting help for people in our communities. I recall an old lady in Colville Lake that talked about having a program on the land. It has been about seven years now since I have been in the Assembly. It is very difficult for this government to put a program on the land. We spend about $2 million a year in Nats’ejee K’eh and we see that every year we have a...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, February 14, 2011, I will move the following motion: I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, that this Legislative Assembly strongly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories revise the school staffing funding formula to ensure that all schools with at least 10 full-time equivalent students enrolled in grades 10 to 12 receive funding for at least three secondary teacher positions.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, colleagues. I want to ask the Minister about his statement that he’s very proud of the Sahtu. In the last four years the funding level has not changed once in the Sahtu for the on-the-land program in the Sahtu. It’s been in the...(inaudible)... Costs have increased with the program. Will he look at putting this into a permanent program with the inflation costs of running the program? Because right now it’s something that is desperately needed in our region. Would the Minister look at that?

I want to ask the Minister about the programs that they offer at the North Slave Correctional Centre or any other correctional facility in the Northwest Territories. It seems like we’re having people enter back into the system. Once they come out, they come back to it again. It’s been said in the House here that we seem to be recycling some of the inmates and it seems like we’re not giving enough resources to rehabilitate them properly so that when they get out, they stay out. I want to ask the Minister of the type of dollars that are committed to programs to help the inmates while they’re in...