Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize a Page from Yellowknife South, Carson Asmundson. He’s been here a few times before, and I also want to recognize all the Pages that are here today. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Welcome everybody here in the public gallery today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. We’re having somewhat of a theme day today on how we’re going to grow our population, retain and grow our population here in the Northwest Territories. I’ve been kind of talking about that pretty much since the beginning of session on a day-by-day basis. I didn’t have a Member’s statement on that today, but I do have some questions.
When we talk about raising the population and we talk about what this government can do, we’ve been very focused on how we can get NWT residents into the public service, but not everybody can work for the Government of the Northwest Territories, not everyone can work for the government. We also need to think about people who have skills and interests that would lead them into working either for small business or for big industry, or working in the private sector in general.
I’d like to ask the Minister of ITI what initiatives that he’s aware of have been undertaken by the GNWT to work with the private sector to enhance their hiring capacity of Northerners. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories has the Come Make Your Mark Campaign and I know the Member spoke of working in partnership with industry and businesses across the Northwest Territories and that’s integral, and thus attracting 2,000 people here over the next five years is something that we have to continue to do. Through the Come Make Your Mark Campaign, we had partnered with over 60 businesses and organizations around the Northwest Territories in our efforts to promote the Northwest Territories as a place to live and work and we will continue to focus our efforts on that partnership model. Again, it’s very important that that happens. We also have been in steady contact with the operating diamond mines here in the Northwest Territories. Work continues to focus our efforts on how to attract people to live here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
That’s very interesting to hear. I personally was not aware that the Come Make Your Mark program had worked with 60 businesses. On an ongoing basis, I’d like to ask the Minister what is the vehicle for continuing that liaison with the private sector when it comes to recruiting and retaining people in the North. Thank you.
It would be through that campaign, and we do need to focus our efforts on that campaign, again, working with the operating mines here in the Northwest Territories and the fact that we are going to require a workforce if we are going to open seven to nine new mines in the next decade, we are going to need more of a workforce here. So it’s important that we continue to work with the mining industry on efforts to get people to live here in the Northwest Territories through the Cabinet committee of Employment and Economic Development chaired by Minister Miltenberger. We are begging, again, a dialogue in earnest with the mining companies to see what we can do to attract people to live and work in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
It’s also been mentioned in this House, suggestions to the government of where we can hire summer students from university who can then get some experience in the area that they’re studying in, but I’d like to ask, and again, that works really well in the public service, but I’d like to ask the Minister what is in place right now for the government to partner with the private sector so that the private sector could also have the ability to identify the post-secondary students and so on who could come to work in their businesses. There used to be a program, and I’m not sure of what the status of that is now, where the government would actually cost share part of the wages for summer students. I’d like to ask what the status of that program is. Thank you.
Workforce development falls under the mandate of Education, Culture and Employment, and certainly the Member is right. I think going forward it’s incumbent upon the government to work together, all the departments, all the Ministers and this government to come up with a game plan. I’ve heard many Members talk about our young folks that are out at school and trying to get them back here to the Northwest Territories and not lose them to opportunities in the South. That’s something that’s very important to me and I know it’s important to the government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, I understand that any such a program would not fall under the Minister’s mandate. That would actually fall under Education, Culture and Employment, but I’d like to just ask the Minister is he aware that there still is an ongoing summer program where the GNWT partners with the private sector to create employment for students? Thank you.
Thank you. Last summer the Government of the Northwest Territories hired over 300, I believe, summer students. We have had programs in the past and I believe they were partially funded through programs through the federal government, but I could get that level of detail for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today many have spoken about creating some real solutions here on making the NWT a more attractive place to stay, and especially for our own future, and that future is our own students. Our NWT students are clearly not returning to the North, as we’ve heard, for a variety of reasons and I think it’s an important thing to bring forward here.
There are many questions as to why and where we should start to look at this issue. So for today we will start and I’d like to start with the Student Financial Assistance Program. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
We have seen small increases and minor changes over the years for our post-secondary students to access the basic grant or what is referred to as a non-repayable benefit of our SFA program.
Can the Minister indicate if his department recognizes our current shortfall of competitiveness and is willing to consider a full review of the SFA program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that there are challenges within our Northwest Territories, along with other jurisdictions, as well, but as the Member indicated in his Member’s statement, we have one of the best SFA programs throughout the country. We improve our programming every now and then, changing our existing policies and enhancing through the review. We just conducted a review of SFA and part of the recommendations brought to our attention was some of the challenges that we’re faced with. So those are the discussions that we need to have as we move forward.
As indicated earlier, I believe it was yesterday, that within our income support at that time, but SFA reviews are always undertaken and if we need to further re-evaluate our situation, we need to do that. I’m working closely with the Department of Health, other departments and re-profiling all the data that’s available on the students so we can have that compiled information and attract those students back to the Northwest Territories. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister indicate how his department and the Department of HR work together to try to find new ways of enhancing our student financial program, especially within the recruitment framework of the Department of HR? Thank you.
We recently had a meeting with a newly established committee in the employment development area and that’s my portfolio as well. So I have to work closely with HR where once we identify these students – obviously we can’t mention names because of confidentiality – we can, based on the area of the studies and the year that they’re in, working closely with the Human Resources department, what kind of jobs are available for a fourth year student or if they’re completing their diploma programming, if we can slide those individuals – there was a discussion here about direct appointments, enhancing the direct appointments. Those are the discussions that we are currently having with all of the departments that are here today. Mahsi.
Thank you. I appreciate the Minister’s comments on that. The basic grant or the non-repayable benefit of the SFA has a wide range of thresholds. In some cases this threshold creates a disparity between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students who qualify for SFA funding.
Is this Minister committed in seeing that the disparity of thresholds are minimized for a more fair and transparent process? Thank you.
Part of the process of why it was established as different and diverse programming that we have, the threshold in various regions in communities is to attract those individuals into small, isolated communities. Most students that are graduating are university, post-secondary, college. So we can attract those individuals to the remote communities where they are very challenged because of a lack of job opportunities.
There are a variety of ways of dealing with the remissible loan in other venues that we have, but that’s the very reason why we want to attract those individuals into the small, isolated communities.
Again, there needs to be a review of that through these departments that we’ve been talking about just recently, but that’s the discussions that we’re going to be having. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the Minister offering his comments and thoughts on that. Earlier today the Minister indicated, and just now, that they are working on a review within a framework of a number other departments.
Can the Minister indicate to the House here when Members on this side of the House might be able to see the findings of this review. Thank you.
Like I said, we had one particular meeting with the newly established committee and it’s very preliminary at this point. My department is compiling all of the information on those particular students, over 1,400 students that are out in the post-secondary and their fields of interest and the year they’re in and compiling that with the HR. They have their own data. It is quite a large amount that we need to work with. So, once all that information is compiled between the departments, we will be presenting to the standing committee in due time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions will be for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. I’d like to continue on with students, but I guess I’m a little annoyed with his statements today in the House about the junior kindergarten being funded by the pupil-teacher ratio. I guess my first question is where this 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio came from, because that’s not what I’m hearing in the community. The community wants more teachers, more assistants. Where does this number come from?
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This ratio 16 to 1 has always been there. It’s part of our legislation. We’ve been working with that with the school boards throughout the years. At the same time, we’ve been providing an additional $11 million so it can be based at 13 to 1 on the average throughout the Northwest Territories. It is through the legislation that was passed through this House, so that’s what we continuously work with throughout the years.
It’s not that I don’t support junior kindergarten, it’s the fact that how many times can this government use pupil-teacher ratios as an excuse to download more things to the DEAs.
When will there be additional funds added to the DEAs so that they can implement these programs that they keep downloading to them?
As I stated in this House earlier, through our engagement with the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, early childhood development, the discussions that we’ve had, engagement with the general public, and education renewal and innovation, we’ve been hearing from the general public, the parents, the grandparents, the educators that we have to think innovatively within our department. We have to think strategically how we can deliver the most effective programming in the community schools. That’s one area that we felt the PTRs, which under legislation are 16 to 1, so we figured we can access that through the work with the education authorities. This is an area that we are currently accessing to provide the quality junior kindergarten programming into our school system. It will benefit those 10 communities that do not have licenced child care programming. Those are just some of the areas that we’ve been told by parents to pursue it, and we are pursuing it.
Again, I am not against junior kindergarten. I am just wondering that this money and the fact that we have these hardworking teachers and people in our public education system that are trying to do the work but they keep getting downloaded that more and more things have to be done with less money, but they’re strung out already.
When are we actually going to increase the budgets and figure out the formulas to these DEAs?
Through the education renewal innovation we are going to look at the overall formula funding for our educational partners as well. We’ve been discussing this at the early stages back in 2007 until today, how we fund the school boards, how we fund the school programming, and based on the needs of the communities. This is an area that we’ve been told that we need to seriously look at formula funding to our school system. Currently it’s based on enrolment, and now we’ve been told why couldn’t it be based on base plus and go from there. Those are some of the areas we are contemplating with our education partners. Once we develop an action plan over the summer on education renewal, those are some of the highlights that will be addressed through the business planning process.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Yes, I guess, Mr. Speaker, it’s hard to get some of the questions answered, I guess. I just don’t understand how pupil-teacher ratios can keep being the excuse for more programs being added to these schools and district educations without any additional money. I’m just wondering when the department will actually get some more money into that area.
We have to deal with the overall GNWT funding that’s been allocated to the school boards. With that, obviously, there is a surplus of over $8 million. Somehow we need to think outside the box and strategically how to best invest into our educational system. It is GNWT funding overall, and as we go through the business planning process, this means that as we go through, we’ve identified several areas of interest investment such as we did with the wage top-up. Over $511 million that we’re going to move forward with the new money once the budget’s approved here. Every year we go through this, and I, as the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, will continue to push what’s best for the children of the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I kind of broke rank with my colleagues, but I wanted to ask the question to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs in terms of explaining the role of the Government of the Northwest Territories in working on the Dehcho Land Use Plan. The reason why I ask that is I think this government has a public interest to ensure that things are progressing at the same time milestones are achieved but, at the same time, explain to the public in terms of the involvement of the GNWT.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Member for the question. As a government we are very supportive of land use plans. We have land use plans with the Gwich’in, the Sahtu, the Tlicho, and we’ve been working with the Dehcho on the Dehcho Land Use Plan. We’ve signed a bilateral terms of reference with the grand chief where we have been working together without prejudice to find ways to resolve some very complex land issues, and we’re very supportive of the Dehcho Land Use Plan going forward. As I said before, every time I meet with Minister Valcourt I press the need for appointing a Minister’s special representative for the Dehcho, and also a federal representative for the Land Use Planning Advisory Commission that’s working on the plan. We fully participate, so we’re looking forward to having a Dehcho Land Use Plan very soon.
Part of the ongoing process of negotiations was the concept of the Dehcho resource management authority where a regional structure will be established involving all people within the Deh Cho. On that basis, I know it would be a critical piece in terms of how it is that the land use plan could stand and at the same time be implemented and become operational. I wanted to ask the Minister if that indeed is the case that all parties are striving towards.
I don’t want to be talking out of school here because we’re still going through different processes. The Dehcho are going through their process; we’re going through our process. But I think we just have to be careful here. We are talking about such an authority, but I think we have to make sure that the understandings and definitions of what that authority will be are consistent. I can say that we are discussing that.
In the past this government has been very supportive of regional councils that involve municipal governments and First Nations governments, and I know that the Northwest Territories has regional district administrative centres throughout the NWT, including the Dehcho.
Can the Premier explain how it is that perhaps that could be very consistent and almost a parallel process with First Nations’ aspirations towards self-government?
As part and parcel of self-government negotiations, I think wherever we are negotiating, governance is a discussion that we have in any negotiations that we have, and I think the leaders in the Northwest Territories have been very creative, and I think that as we see more and more self-government agreements are negotiated I think we are going to see much more of that.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
My last question is: Would the Minister agree that regional administrative centres could become regional self-government models?
