Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We’d like to see all of our communities have access to cellular service. I think it’s improved quite a bit in the last couple of years. As far as what we’re trying to do, we would obviously work closely with those that are providing the service, have them inform us as to what their future plans are. Thank you.
Thank you. The overall idea in terms of the goal that the departments are undertaking is to establish an overall and a long-term 911 system here in the NWT.
What immediate steps has the department and this government taken to ensure that there is at least a sequence of events that will happen before we get to a 911 system? Mahsi.
Improving our telecommunications was one of our challenges when we first had the discussion on 911. Since then, telecommunication has improved quite a bit. We have had a report commissioned. The report is done and we are looking forward to having some time before committee to give them an update on some of the work that we are doing and some of our plans going forward. Thank you.
I would like to thank the Minister for his reply. The Minister has stated that there have been some improvements and there are other parties that are involved.
To what extent have discussions been undertaken with companies such as NorthwestTel that have a community responsibility to ensure communities have sufficient and at least adequate cell coverage? Mahsi.
We will have discussions with all those that provide the service to see what their plans are and see where we can go from there. Obviously, as I stated before, telecommunication is improving across the Northwest Territories. It is getting to a point where you go out on the land now and you still have cell phone access, so that part of it is improving, and once we do that work we will take the next step in the work that we are doing around the 911, the update that we are giving to committee on our way forward. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Could the Minister ensure by this spring hunt that those communities that have limited cell coverage out on the land, that efforts will be made to increase the services? Mahsi.
That is not our call as to improving the cell phone coverage. Obviously, that is the providers’ plans. We can work with them to see what their plans are and we give committee an update on some of the work we are doing. If we have conversations with providers, we can pass some of that information on to committee. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Influences on the Quality of Life of the Older Adult in the Northwest Territories.” Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that on Monday, March 9, 2015, I will move that Bill 49, An Act to Amend the Deh Cho Bridge Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters: Bill 12, Employee Benefits Services Pension Plan Act; Bill 36, Health and Social Services Professions Act; Committee Report 10-17(5), Standing Committee on Government Operations Report on the Review of the 2013-2014 Annual Report of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of the Northwest Territories; Tabled Document 188-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates 2015-2016; Tabled Document 205-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 5, 2014-2015; Tabled Document 206-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015; and Tabled Document 207-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 1, 2015-2016, with Mr. Dolynny in the chair.
By the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 10-17(5), I here authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider business before the House.
Good afternoon, committee. I’d like to call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 188-17(5), NWT Main Estimates 2015-2016, with the Department of Education and, time permitting, Public Works and Services.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We’ll commence after a short recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I’ll call Committee of the Whole back to order. I’ll ask Minister Lafferty if he has witnesses he’d like to bring into the House. Minister Lafferty.
Yes, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Thank you.
Minister Lafferty, would you please introduce the witnesses, for the record?
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. To my left is deputy minister of ECE, Gabriela Eggenhofer; to my immediate right is Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of corporate services; and to my far right, Dana Heide, associate deputy minister with ECE.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Eggenhofer, Mr. Lovely, Mr. Heide, welcome back to the House. Committee, we last left this department on page 66 of the main estimates. Education and culture, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants and contributions, $209.153 million. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a few comments. Under the healthy food for children and youth, the $650,000, I made a statement in the House and asked questions of the Minister earlier this week about the East Three gardening program and the success that has been had in terms of engaging our youth, increasing attendance, as well as providing an opportunity for students to learn something that they’re not really accustomed to doing in terms of agriculture and the work that they’re doing and how it spills out into the community where they contribute to soup kitchens and other feasts.
I was wondering if the Minister, in future budgets, would be looking at this program as a framework where we could build into other schools, especially maybe some of the remote schools where they don’t get all the fresh fruits and vegetables, and even some of the unique ideas that they’re going to be pursuing here in the future.
I just want to ask the Minister if he’d be looking at contributing to that program and taking it out into the communities as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Moses, Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe this is a great idea and we need to start talking not only with Inuvik but other regions as well. The more healthy food that we can have into our school system, the better for our children to learn. Having dedicated resources towards this type of initiative, obviously that would be considered as we move forward. Mahsi.
You know, this program, coming from one of the highest communities in the Arctic, was recognized nationally from right across Canada out of seven recognized programs. I read them all. They’re all really great, innovative projects to enhance education in the youth, and I think that not only the growing program but I think that the department might need to look at this Ken Spencer Award through the Canadian Education Association and see what programs we can use to implement and get a better way to educate our youth.
Would the Minister also be willing to look at that as an option? Thank you.
When we talk about bringing the agriculture programming into our school system, I need to work very closely with ITI since they have that portfolio. But by all means, this is an area that we need to explore further, to see what’s out there in the regions, in the communities, and present that idea to the school boards as well. So, most definitely this will be our topic of discussion. Mahsi.
I’ve spoken to the coordinator over the last couple of years on the success of that program, and I was mentioning that it would be great to take it out into the communities. His expertise, working in the North, working in the schools, and the climate and environment that he does work in has been successful. He did mention that he’d be willing to, if the funding was there and the framework was there, that he would work with other schools and help purchase equipment. You know, do the proposals and get the program in the schools. I think it would be great if the Minister could follow up with the staff on that and support him in the successful program.
Just one other quick question here was on the literacy funding. I see there’s $2.3 million contributed to organizations to deliver literacy programs, and we do know that there are high rates of speech pathology within the Department of Health and Social Services of clients and working with children who need to have better development of their speech.
Can I just get an idea of what kind of literacy programs are being delivered in the communities, because that’s quite a bit of money going into these programs. Thank you.
Obviously, literacy is one of our top priorities within our department. We’ve heard over and over from committee members that we need to focus on developing literacy programming and having partners involved. So, this is involving NGOs from across the Northwest Territories, working with Aurora Collage as well, and again NGOs, to deliver various programs from K to 12 equivalent courses and having the NWT Literacy Council actively engaged in this, as well, because they represent all the communities as well.
I believe that more investment in this area will be seeing positive results. We have seen the results already and we want to continue that trend and work with our true partners such as the NWT Literacy Council and NGOs across the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Continuing on, grants, contributions and transfers, I have Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just a quick question here under the education authority contributions. It’s been brought up a number of times in the past, the home boarding issue in Tsiigehtchic. We’re constantly finding ways for parents to find people in Inuvik that their children could stay with when they reach Grade 10 level for three years. What is the department doing to make sure that we have good homes for these students to stay in while they’re going to school in Inuvik?
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. This is not the first time that this has been brought to my attention. Not only Inuvik but other regional settings, as well, even the Sahtu and other places. This has been brought to our attention where we need to have a secure residence for our students that are attending at the regional high school level coming from the small, isolated communities. We need to have a suitable place for them to study and to have shelter. We work very closely with the DEAs and DECs to make that a priority for them, because we want every child to be successful as part of their education programming.
It is the district education authority and also the district education council, we provide funding to them and they provide housing or residences available for these students, and we support them at that level. We will continue to support those areas and, again, work very closely with the authorities.
Just on another issue. Under the Aboriginal languages broadcasting, a couple Members mentioned last week they had a huge storm up in our region, and while we had that, wind took out the antenna at the Tsiigehtchic radio station. Is there funding available for cases like this to get the local radio station up and running to help out the community in a case like this?
Again, the Aboriginal broadcasting, even at the local level is very important for the community and also my department. We’ve heard Mr. Blake’s challenge. There have been some issues with the tower. We are working with that. We do have program funding, but we don’t necessarily have infrastructure funding. We’re seeing what’s the best solution addressing this within my department and working very closely with the community, and we will continue to update the Member on this particular matter because we want it up and running again along with others such as CKLB and important Aboriginal broadcasting across the North.
I’d like to ask the Minister, do they have a list of who accesses this funding? Does it all go to just one station or how is it set up? Is it based on communities, regional centres? How is this set up?
It’s by community. Obviously, a community has to access and apply through the application process for funding. The funding is available, it’s just a matter of a community applying for it, so I would highly encourage those communities that have not applied to apply for the funding that’s available for them.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Continuing on with questions, education and culture, grants and contributions, I have Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I had a couple of questions on this page. I see the Early Childhood Worker Grant Program is increased over last year, and I’m happy to see that. How has the uptake been on that so far this year and what sort of increase does this mean for workers? I know that early childhood workers’ salaries are typically much lower than the value that we put on them, so I support this program. I’m just wondering about the update and how that’s working.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Since we introduced the Early Childhood Worker Grant Program we had just around 200 applicants from across the Northwest Territories and we’re almost at 100 percent in the approval process. It’s been very, very successful to date even though it’s very preliminary. But over 200 applications came in and most of them will be approved, so we should be close to, if not 100 percent, close to 100 percent. We’re very happy with the progress that we’ve made on this particular matter.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Committee, before we continue, I’d ask Members to please check their phones and their iPads. I’m hearing some background noise and ringing. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the Minister for that information. I’m glad to see an expansion of that. It seems like there’s an obvious need for it and I appreciate that. On the other hand, I see a reduction in the grants to early childhood programs of almost $800,000 and I’m wondering why the drop there. I know the Minister is aware that Members put this as a very, very high priority, this area for investment, and yet we seem to be going the opposite direction in terms of our net investments in early childhood.
