Wendy Bisaro

Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate that we may not have anything at this point and he is going to work towards something, but in the interim we have nothing. We put people into a job where they are required to deal with clients, particularly in Yellowknife where they are dealing with an extremely diverse group of clients. In the interim, until we get this training that we are going to do, what does the Department of Human Resources do to help our client service providers?

For a start, the RCMP wants their members to learn local culture, meet with chief and council and attend a feast soon after they arrive in the community. For our part, the GNWT has to do something similar. We have to recognize the diversity of the clients we provide services for. We have to then educate and train our service providers so they understand the diversity and the different cultures that make up our great territory so our service providers can understand why a client acts as they do and provide service that is as culturally relevant as possible.

If we don’t, as my constituents...

Thanks to the Minister. Everything I have heard is in the future. I’m looking for something that is going to happen a little sooner than the fall of this year, although I’m glad to hear that there will be something even though it is a small thing and it’s a pilot.

The people who come to our service providers are very often in pain, they are struggling, they are at wits’ end. If they are not adequately understood, we see the horrendous ramifications that we have experienced in the last several months, particularly here in Yellowknife. I feel that the Department of Human Resources should be...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Human Resources. I would like to follow up on some of the thoughts in my Member’s statement. I spoke about the diversity within our territory and the need for our service providers to have an understanding of the diversity that exists, of the different languages and the different cultures that exist within our territory. I feel that we as a government have to change our mindset and we also have to change our mindset as workers. What programs exist now that go to training our service providers to be culturally aware so...

I am really pleased to hear that our government, the Minister and other Ministers, are pushing this particular initiative. I agree with the Minister; it has been an extremely successful program.

I am a little bit concerned, though, if the federal government is putting a program in place that’s a little bit different. I know that the Mine Training Society is one group that has used a great deal of this funding for very successful results. There are several other organizations as well. So my concern and my question to the Minister is whether or not there is going to be any impact at the end of...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on a different topic this time around.

A year ago this House recognized that the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnerships Program was going to expire, and it is set to expire on March 31st of this particular year. We had a motion in the House. I know a number of Members, including myself, wrote to the federal Minister, requesting that the program be redefined and re-implemented. I believe the Minister followed up with the federal Minister of the day. I’d like to know whether or not he has...

Thanks to the Minister again. One of the other hindrances for getting and keeping teachers in our communities is their feeling that they’re not safe within the schools or within the community. I know that a number of years ago… Sorry. I should back up. Some of the boards and district education authorities do have a policy, a Safe Schools Policy, but we don’t have one across the GNWT. I believe in 2009 there was a memorandum of understanding between the teachers’ union and the GNWT to develop a Safe Schools Policy. I’d like to know from the Minister whether or not that goal has been...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would encourage the Minister of Transportation to take the pledge to leave the phone alone and post a sticker on his window.

My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and I would like to say that we heard a great deal about bullying yesterday and I think we heard also about the impact that teachers can have on their students. It was an excellent discussion, as I mentioned. One of the things that we struggle with is to get and keep teachers in the Territories and in our communities, particularly in our small and isolated...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It was an exciting visit to the House yesterday by the N.J. Macpherson Grade 5’s and I think we had a very successful Anti-Bullying Day in the House.

I’d like to remind everyone that next week is NWT Education Week. During the last 15 years, a very positive initiative has been run by the Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, Northern News Services and First Air. They have all partnered to run a teacher recognition program called Thank You for Making a Difference.

Every January through to mid-February, students...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. I appreciate the work the Minister is doing. He recognizes the importance, as do Members, of the ASEP program. So, will the Minister continue to fight, basically, for what we need for our Mine Training Society here in the NWT? Will he continue to do that with the federal Minister? Thank you.