Merci, Monsieur le President [Translation] I would like to also welcome representatives today, the Francophone National School Boards; particularly I want to welcome Mr. Allain Laberge and Madam Yvonne Careen, General Director of the Francophone School Board. Thank you for being with us today. [Translation ends.]
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President, my wife, she's sitting in the gallery today; it doesn't happen very often, but I certainly appreciate her presence today. I'd also [Translation] I'd like to say welcome to all the students from the Allain St-Cyr School and all the teachers. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation ends]
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. In the public gallery today is my constituent Josee Clermont. Madame Clermont is the directrice generale of college nordique here in Yellowknife and I welcome her and all our guests to the Assembly today. I'd also like to recognize Steve Budgell, my friend and neighbour who is in the fourth year of the nursing program at Aurora College. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to recognize two pages from Detah: Joseph Charlo-Lafferty and Brianna Nitsiza. Also, Mr. Speaker, I'd like to also recognize Mary Rose Sundberg, also from Detah, that's our interpreter today. Marci cho.
Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to welcome everybody to the gallery today but in particular I want to take this opportunity to recognize, because it is Small Business Week, small business owner and resident of Yellowknife North Mr. Etienne Croteau, a small business owner for a company named Flavour Trader. Welcome to the House. Thank you.
[Translation] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have some questions for the Minister of Education today, but I want to speak English. [Translation ends.] I do this in English, and I did want to give the Minister a fair heads up as well. Earlier today I spoke today about the Francophone community's lack of support for the new ministerial directive on student enrolment in French first language schools. Can the Minister of Education explain why he did not collaborate more closely with CSFTNO and APADY and share a draft of the ministerial directive with these organizations before it was finalized and released? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the consultation period we heard from many stakeholders. We had public engagements here in Yellowknife as well as Hay River. The information that we received, our jurisdictional scan, as well as looking at our policies we thought we were moving ahead; that the ministerial directive was good in the way it was presented. It is better than the 2008 ministerial directive. There is improvements and we did get consultation and engagements with community groups here in Yellowknife as well as Hay River. Moving forward, we thought that was a good process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I do appreciate the response from the Minister and his work on this issue. Unfortunately, in the Yukon their directive was released just less than a couple of weeks later and headed that territory off in a much different direction, and a more collaborative one. So we had received communications from CSFTNO, a letter dated September 6, 2016 with comments on the directive and requesting changes to it. So will the Minister commit to reopen those discussions with CSFTNO and APADY and find a more workable directive?
CSFTNO were part of the consultation processes, the engagements. As I mentioned in my Minister’s Statement earlier, we did get three applications that under the new directive they were allowed into the school under the acquisition portion and, as I mentioned as well, that both schools are both French first language schools are under the utilization rates, and actually we're building on the one here in Yellowknife that will address the enrolments and the utilization rate there. We actually went above and beyond in terms of putting two classrooms on top of that to address the enrolment rate should more admissions go into the ESC in future years.
I appreciate the efforts of the Minister, as I said before, but I don't think he actually answered my question. There's been communications now from CSFTNO, specifically about the ministerial directive with corrections to the jurisdictional scan that was prepared and raising comments and concerns around the directive. Does the Minister actually intend to respond to that communication and has he opened up further discussions to improve and set that directive off in the right direction again?
Thank you, and I apologize to the Member. I just gave the information in terms of why we're not going to revisit the ministerial directive, because the enrolment rates were low, a lot of engagements and consultations went on already. In terms of the continued work forward and the letter, we did have to translate all the jurisdictional scan information, we got that done, and we will be responding to CSFTNO and APADY with our response as well.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad to hear that the Minister does intend to respond to the letter from CSFTNO. But if I heard him correct, I think he said that he's not willing to reopen the directive. That would be extremely unfortunate, Mr. Speaker.
So I just wonder then, how does the Minister propose to develop a better working relationship with APADY and CSFTNO for French first language education in the NWT so we don't end up back in the courts? That's what we all want to avoid. So I think the community's pleading for some flexibility to get us more towards what they have in the Yukon. Can the Minister provide some assurance to this House and the public that he's willing to re-examine the directive and get us off in a better direction? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
That's where we don't want to end up again, in the court house and then have a court order against the government. We did get that court order, we appealed it, CSFTNO appealed it, we're going with what was in the court order to provide what was needed. As I mentioned, we are going above and beyond to add those two new school rooms. A lot of engagement was done. I do believe that we're building a stronger relationship with the French community throughout the Northwest Territories to address some of their concerns.
I committed, when I took this position, to review the ministerial directive, I did that. I think it's better than what it was when we first started this government. When we get to those utilization rates and to prevent us from going to the court room, as I said, they're below utilization right now, then perhaps we can look at revisiting it then.
Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. [Translation] Today I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and this question will be in French. The construction project of the Allain St-Cyr School is going forward and the Minister is negotiating with the Minister of Heritage Canada to get more funding. The Minister of Education is only asking for additional funding, twinning funds to expand the size of the gymnasium from 404 square metres to 456 square metres. The Minister of Education says that the rest of the construction can wait and can be built in another phase. The francophones have been waiting for over 10 years almost for the second phase of the construction at the Allain St-Cyr School. My question, wouldn't it be wiser to ask for additional funding from Heritage Canada to meet the needs of the francophone community during the same construction project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Translation ends]
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department has been consistent in ensuring that our obligations under our capital standards are being met across the Northwest Territories and that any construction over and above these standards must be met with 100 per cent third-party funding. We have 49 schools in the Northwest Territories, we've got to make sure that we're providing education to all students, all 8,300 students across the Northwest Territories.
The Member is right, we did put in a proposal to Heritage Canada. They haven't even done a callout, we're ahead of the game, we're asking them, looking at what we can get provided moving forward. But anything above and beyond what our standards are for building capital in the NWT has to be 100 per cent funded from a third party and we are following what the court order has said that we had to build. As I mentioned, we're putting two new classrooms on top of that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
[Translation] Given that Heritage Canada could pay up to 50 per cent of costs for shared spaces like a gymnasium, home economics, and given that Heritage Canada can pay up to 100 per cent of community spaces, such as the pre-kindergarten, daycare and offices for organizations, why does the Minister of Education not take advantage of this opportunity and to ask for additional funding right away, so to finally meet the needs of the Francophone community? [Translation ends]
As I mentioned, we did put in a proposal going forward to Heritage Canada. They responded to our staff, we're in dialogue right now, and we're looking at ways that -- they're asking for clarity on some of the questions that were provided. What we're going forward with is a schematic design that's built on our standards for capital projects from the government side. Any further developments I think needs to come from CSFTNO, and if the CSFTNO want to look at building more onto the school, then I'd encourage them to continue working with our department to find ways so we can support them to get to that next level. But right now, we are meeting our obligations under GNWT, under our policies to meet the regulations under capital infrastructure investments.
[Translation] When will the Minister of Education make its application to the Minister of Heritage Canada for the complete construction project? [Translation ends]
Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, we've already submitted a proposal, it's ahead of the game. Heritage Canada hasn't asked for callout for proposals. We're hoping to hear something by January or February where those discussions have taken place. Any further opportunities that myself and my department can have in engaging and discussing these matters with the Minister of Heritage Canada to come to a solution that's happy, that'll make everyone happy, I think. We'll take those opportunities as soon as we can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
[Translation] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister of Education can share those application letters with the francophone community and with the other Members here before January-February. If we can see those applications, that is can everybody here and up there see those applications? [Translation ends].
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure we can share with the APADY and CFSTNO, and even though we did put in one proposal to see if we can offset some of these costs, it doesn't mean that we couldn’t put in another application when they do that call out afterwards. But what we did put in, in discussions with CFSTNO, in some of our initial meetings, we want to see what results come back to us in January-February. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh
Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education questions on my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to review the Income Support Program in small communities, Employment Support Program, to look at the feasibility of transferring budgets to make the Small Communities Employment Support Program more substantial. Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I know when we went through the business planning process for main estimates for 2017-2018 we had some really good discussions on some ways and unique ways that we can get people back into the workforce through our Income Assistance Program, and the Member brought a very interesting concept forward and it's something that the department can look into. Obviously, you don’t want to have people relying on income assistance rather than finding ways to get them into the workforce, into training and skill development and becoming a more active member of society. So we are looking at those and looking at other options, and we have some decisions to come forward with we will bring it forward to committee and Members. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, some programs that are being delivered sometimes comes with some pre-requisites that individuals would at the end of the training have to have full-time jobs, and in our small communities there's no full-time jobs available for the most part. I'd like to ask the Minister if he could review the Small Communities Employment Support Program to remove any barriers that may prevent the program from being easily accessed.
We're always looking at reviewing our programs to make them more efficient and more effective for the residents of Northwest Territories. The CSCCS Program wasn't fully utilized over the last few years. I believe we had over 300 people who took part in it last year and got trained and skill developments. Myself, I just recently went to a labour market FPT meeting down at Quebec City where we're looking at getting more incremental dollars that might be able to offset some of those costs, but we can review it. The dollars have been fully utilized. Maybe we can do a better job of promoting it and getting information to the Members to share with their constituents, but that is a goal is to get residents in our small communities trained in skill development, and that's where our Skills 4 Success Action Plan and Strategic Plan is very critical moving forward in this area.
Mr. Speaker, many of the job and employment opportunities I speak of would be projects at the community level, various projects that the community could carry out as part of employment. I'd like to ask the Minister if it would be possible for the Minister to work with his department to direct the client service officers to work with the communities to look at all possibilities of employment in small communities.
CSO is a very integral part of our department when it comes to income assistance and programs. They do a great job in providing information to our clients, as well as our Career Development Officers, and we're just finishing up a one-year pilot program with Employment Transition Officers that actually go into the communities. Some of our Current Development Officers also go into the communities to provide education, training, information on resume writings, skill development and other areas in terms of literacy and numeracy to help people find jobs who apply for training workshops and finding those kind of things. So, yes, our staff is already kind of doing those things.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister work with other Ministers in Cabinet to utilize other government programs. I spoke of other government programs that can, I guess, create employment in the small communities. So can the Minister commit to the House to working with other Ministers in order to look at all the employment possibilities at the small communities? Thank you.
Yes, I will commit to doing that. I chair one of the education training and youth committees, and I want to make sure that it's on the agenda and that it is a priority especially for the small communities where it's needed most and finding the unique and innovative ways to get our residents educated, trained and also into the workforce.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Mr. Speaker, with the construction season for highways coming to an end, as we heard in the House yesterday, Mr. Speaker, with that in mind, can the Minister of Transportation explain how the department maximizes its involvement of northern businesses?
Masi. Minister of Transportation.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Transportation uses every opportunity to maximize northern involvement in residents and delivering programs and services to upgrade and maintain all the highways in the Northwest Territories including the Liard Highway. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
