Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Last week I spoke in this House about the lapse of aboriginal funding for ‘07-08 and ‘08-09 to the tune of hundreds and thousands of dollars. And, at the same time, this year I supported a proposal by the Deh Cho Friendship Centre for, I believe, it was a $40,000 proposal to create an aboriginal South Slavey CD-Rom to help the community and help the region to work on our language. That proposal was refused, Mr. Speaker, saying the money was spent. I find it hard to believe that lapsing almost $1.4 million the last two years and now we are saying we don’t have money to fund unique aboriginal language proposal. I would like to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment will he seriously consider this proposal and why is he saying there is no money for aboriginal language, given their past record? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we do take all applications seriously as they go before us. We do provide funding to all the education councils where they distribute to all the schools. The aboriginal funding we get from the federal government, we offset the costs from our perspective, as well, through the GNWT expenditures. The funding has been allocated to the schools and we usually tell the folks, if they ask for funding for specialized projects, they should approach the local language groups first. Language centres, we provide funding to them, and those are special projects, so the money has been identified for them to expend into the region. So we will continue to work with them, Mr. Speaker. The language groups have expertise around the table from the community perspective and they give us advice on where the money should be expended. Mahsi.
It’s curious to note that the letter was signed by the Minister saying there is no money in his department for aboriginal language proposals such as this unique one from Fort Simpson. So who is lapsing the money then, Mr. Speaker? Is it the Department of Education, Culture and Employment? Is it our divisional council? Who is lapsing the money? Thank you.
It consists of Education, Culture and Employment, the education council, the teaching and learning centres, the aboriginal groups we sponsor. The funding that has been allocated to them, yes, there may be some lapse due to the deadline constraints and projects may not be completed. So it does vary, Mr. Speaker, on a case-by-case basis. Clearly, those are areas that I instructed my department to review the overall funding allocations for aboriginal language from a cultural perspective, because we need to maximize the funding we produce to the Northwest Territories to the best of their ability on special projects such as what the Member is alluding to. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Time for oral questions has expired; however, I will allow the Member a supplementary question. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Perhaps I should commend the French language groups, because their funding does not lapse, Mr. Speaker, but aboriginal funding does. I’ve got unique proposals that don’t want to be supported by this government or even given a second chance to say there is money that may be lapsed, we’ll use that. Can the Minister commit to look at potential lapsed funding and look at the unique community ground-based proposals such as this? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I did already commit that we are going to look at the overall program delivery and the funding we did distribute to the communities. Those are the important factors that we need to consider. I would encourage the Member, and also the Members, to deal with those individuals at the teaching and learning centres. They have the funding and the funding application comes into our department, as we usually ask them to contact the local school boards or teaching and learning centres about the funding that’s been provided to them. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister’s letter of refusal said no, and to reconsider applying next year. I would like to ask the Minister if he can reconsider this proposal, write back to the organization and say potentially we may have an opportunity this fiscal year. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, for those letters that we receive, it’s not only one letter; there are other letters that could be in the millions of dollars of requests for big projects. They are all important projects and we can’t pick one from one region versus another region. That’s why we have the language groups that deal with the funding that’s been allocated to them. So, Mr. Speaker, I will continue to work with the language groups.
Like I said, we are reviewing the overall structure of how we allocate funds. There is always room for improvement on how we can provide those services more effectively and efficiently. Mahsi.
