Jay Macdonald

Député de Thebacha

Circonscription électorale de Thebacha 

Jay Macdonald a été élu député de la circonscription de Thebacha à la 20e Assemblée législative des Territoires du Nord-Ouest. M. Macdonald a été élu au Conseil exécutif de la 20e Assemblée.

M. Macdonald est né le 26 juin 1964 à Hay River, aux Territoires du Nord-Ouest. En tant que Métis, il a des racines profondes dans le Nord canadien, et son parcours a été marqué par diverses expériences qui ont enrichi sa vie personnelle et professionnelle.

La famille de M. Macdonald s’est installée à Fort Smith en 1970. Il a exploité avec succès son petit atelier de réparation de moteurs, fournissant des services essentiels à la collectivité et s’imposant comme un entrepreneur fiable. Simultanément, il s’est plongé dans les subtilités de la gestion des installations de loisirs, en supervisant les activités de l’aréna et du terrain de golf de la ville.

Pendant les 13 années où il a occupé le poste de directeur des services de gestion forestière à la Division de l’environnement et de la conservation du gouvernement des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, M. Macdonald a fait preuve d’un engagement inébranlable en faveur de l’environnement. Le rôle qu’il a joué pendant 12 ans en tant que coordonnateur du programme de parent d’accueil pour le Programme de leadership de l’Arctique de l’Ouest témoigne de son engagement envers la jeunesse. Pendant cinq ans, il a été parent d’accueil afin d’offrir un environnement stimulant aux élèves de Lutsel Ke qui fréquentent l’école secondaire PWK. Cette expérience a permis de mettre en évidence sa compassion, et a contribué de manière significative à l’épanouissement scolaire et personnel des élèves dont il s’occupait. S’appuyant sur son expertise de compagnon-technicien de petits équipements. 

M. Macdonald a passé 13 ans à la tête d’une concession Polaris et a servi d’instructeur pour l’entretien des petits équipements, la gestion du carburant d’aviation et les disciplines logistiques dans le cadre du Système de commandement d’intervention. Son engagement envers la collectivité va au-delà de ses fonctions professionnelles. En tant que bénévole dévoué, il a été président et entraîneur de l’équipe de hockey mineur de Fort Smith, et s’est efforcé d’encourager les jeunes et de leur inculquer les valeurs du travail d’équipe et de l’esprit sportif. Il a exercé ses talents d’entraîneur sur la scène nationale en dirigeant l’équipe des TNO lors des championnats nationaux de hockey autochtone.

En tant que représentant de la Nation des Métis de Fort Smith au sein du conseil d’administration de l’association scolaire de district locale, M. Macdonald a contribué à l’élaboration de politiques pédagogiques qui reflètent les besoins particuliers de la collectivité. En outre, il a été membre du conseil d’administration et président de la Commission de l’apprentissage et de la qualification professionnelle des métiers et professions des Territoires du Nord-Ouest, rôle lui ayant permis de militer en faveur de la reconnaissance et de la promotion des métiers spécialisés. L’engagement de M. Macdonald en faveur du bien-être de la collectivité est également confirmé par sa participation à diverses activités et événements locaux. Qu’il s’agisse d’être entraîneur au niveau amateur ou d’une autre forme de bénévolat, il a toujours œuvré à la création d’un tissu communautaire dynamique et cohésif.

En dehors de ses engagements professionnels et communautaires, M. Macdonald a une vie de famille bien remplie. Marié à Karen, il est fier papa de trois enfants et grand-père attentionné de trois petits-enfants. Pendant ses temps libres, il s’adonne à des passe-temps qui reflètent son amour du plein air et des vastes paysages nordiques comme le golf, la pêche et le jardinage.

Committees

Member Jay MacDonald, Minister MacDonald
Thebacha
Bureau

Yellowknife NT X1A 2L9
Canada

P.O. Boîte
1320
Ministre de l'Environnement et du Changement climatique
Ministre

Déclarations dans les débats

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So with the supporting child inclusion and participation program, the Member is correct. For those more familiar with a JK or a K to 12 system context, it is roughly analogist to inclusion where the ultimate purpose of the program and the funding is to support in this case licensed programs to be able to more effectively support children who may have exceptional needs of some kind or another.

In terms of how the program is broken out, there is an opportunity for support for community programs, such as family and tot programs. There is also a stream within it that focuses...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. And the Member is correct in remembering that this was a priority, I think, of two years ago. At the time, ECE, ITI, and Department of Finance, collaborated on looking at what type of valuable art existed in the possession of various departments, what options there may be, and who roles the various departments could play to support inventory and ensuring that highvalue art was protected and maintained for the future of the territory. The Department of Finance determined that their systems could encompass tracking those artifacts or those art pieces. And as the Minister...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister indicated, the revenue study was not able to be obtained. So the department is in the process of breaking down what had previously been a substantial plan to prepare to renovate the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre. We are planning to break that into smaller segments that may be more feasible. The priority being the NWT Archives and replacing that space and enhancing it going forward. So our intention is to advance that as part of the department's needs assessment and ultimately the capital planning process for the next cycle. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. And certainly lots of experience with Northern Youth Abroad. They're an excellent partner, and they have been for many years both here in the Northwest Territories and in Nunavut as well. Other than their core programming, which I think most of the Members would be quite familiar with, ECE, with the development of northern distance learning, has partnered with Northern Youth Abroad on what's called a postsecondary bridging experience. So we really rely and leverage their expertise with working with youth, organizing youth to travel. And they take northern distance...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. And the Minister's absolutely correct. The Canadawide agreements that were negotiated by all 13 provinces and territories late in 2021 all focus on creating roughly equivalent a national early learning and child care system which is modeled off of the Quebec model. That system is generally focused on licensed facilities and, at least the initial focus of effort over the initial five years of that agreement, is to roll out that system. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you, Madam Chair. Family day homes are treated in the regulations, Child Daycare Act standard regulations. So it's how they're licensed. They're licensed for three space types. They can have two infants, four spaces for preschools, and two for out of school spaces. So, really, there's a limit to the number of children that they can have in care. And that's really what differentiates them from a centrebased program which has another set of space and supervisory requirements. And, again, because the current Child Daycare Act is really focused on child safety, wellness within the context of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 144)

Thank you Chair. With respect to this additional funding, one of the things that we determined was that we needed to support the various heritage centres to be able to plan to undertake any type of capital enhancements to their facilities. So in addition to the typical operational funding that we have been providing to them prior to receiving this additional funding, we've provided each of them with what we refer to as infrastructure planning funding.

So that's intended to support them, to help them come to us or to the federal government with a clear sense of what their needs are. So each of...

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe for the 2021 year for Skills Canada, we provided them $91,000. That was a little bit more than our typical allocation. We provided some additional federal funding to them during that year. So the difference is just going back to the typical amount. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So when it comes to literacy funding, ECE generally tends to utilize that through contribution agreements to third party partners. So there are an array of those across the territory. I'll use the literacy council has an example.

So sometimes that funding is for delivery of or development of resource for literacy. Sometimes it's for delivery of training, things of that nature. So there are a host of different ways in which we utilize those dollars. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Debates of , 19th Assembly, 2nd Session (day 101)

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the small community employment item is a mandate item for this Assembly. So with that in mind, there is an interdepartmental working group that works to pull together information from each of the departments about what they have been doing, what they're doing now, as well as to look at what can be done better going forward. So part of that work is inventorying of programs. There's been the development of a new resource to provide to communities about the various opportunities that exist across government, as well as mapping to look at programs and how they can be...