Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was on the literacy tour in the South Slave with the Minister. I think that all indications are that if the students were attending school better than 90 percent of the time, we would probably be higher than functional grade level, actually. Would the Minister look at re-profiling some money to address the absenteeism issue with the district education authorities, from the department to the district education authorities? Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, again, from the information that the Minister does have in the department, does the Minister agree that the more education a person has, the greater the potential a person has for employment and higher income?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize my mother, Annie, and my sister Louise.

Mr. Chairman, just switching gears for a second here and recognizing that library services in this area are really intended for community libraries, I am interested in if some sort of program could be put in place where this function, this task or activity I guess, could be expanded to support the library in a school. Right now, in Lutselk’e, there is no library and there is apparently a very good library in the Deninu Kue School in Fort Resolution. However, there is no library at all in Lutselk’e. I think it’s essential. Again, recognizing that this is a community library area and I’m not...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I think those are all good initiatives. Is any of it going directly into supporting... The issue I have in one of the daycares is location, like to somehow bring the daycare into or close to the school. The other issue is staff complement. They are not able to support as many preschoolers as they would like to because they don’t have the money to hire the staff. So just a direct question if any of that funding is going directly into daycares.

Thank you, M. Chairman. Just a couple of questions I have here. I notice that the early childhood development budget has gone up quite a bit, quite substantially, actually. I am wondering if the Minister could advise me if there is any of the extra money going to support daycares in Tu Nedhe communities of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. I talk about the students and even the absenteeism and then I get information from the schools and I am aware that kids going through a good daycare program have better success early when they start school, better success K to 12, especially better success in...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have given my opening comments on the opening remarks by the Minister. I was thinking we were moving into the period for questions at this time.

Mr. Speaker, aside from the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and more money being put into SFA, is there anything specific, anything strategic that’s happening with the district education authorities and the department to address the issue of absenteeism? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment questions on my Member’s statement on absenteeism. This is not an opinion. I’m seeking from the data that the Minister has access to, if the Minister agrees that there is a direct correlation between absenteeism and graduation rates.

Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about school absenteeism in the smaller aboriginal communities. Mr. Speaker, our dedicated educators in the smaller communities are continually faced with the challenges of getting students to attend school on a regular basis. There are many factors outside the school that contribute to this very serious problem. On this front, I know that community education councils in these communities are doing the best they can to address the issue. However, Mr. Speaker, there are many other community...