Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier I made my statement on profiling the Aboriginal Head Start Program so I wanted to follow up with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As I stated, the Aboriginal Head Start Program has been in operation for the past 20 years, and it's a federally funded initiative, so I wanted to ask the Minister: what is the status of the Aboriginal Head Start Program within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Early childhood is an important aspect of the work we do here within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment as well as working with the Department of Health and Social Services to make sure that our children get the right education, the right start to a long life and a very prosperous future. Working with that are groups, whether it's daycares, day homes, Aboriginal Head Start, we take all that into consideration when we're supporting them. We have supported Aboriginal Head Start for the last few years and will continue to support them and work with them to make sure that the programs that they're providing is meeting the needs of the community. We do have eight communities that are providing Aboriginal Head Start in Northwest Territories and I was also very glad to be in Fort Providence this past fall and witnessed the graduates, the ones that went through that Aboriginal Head Start Program.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. Recently we passed a motion in this House basically positioning the department to contemplate the idea of an implementation plan to move forward on the JK initiative. How will the Aboriginal Head Start Program be part of the JK Implementation Plan?
I know we've heard those concerns of the implementation of junior kindergarten; the impacts it will have on daycares, day homes, in particular on this question Aboriginal Head Start. We have consulted and we have engaged with the eight Aboriginal Head Start staff and managers. We have been meeting with them on a regular basis. On August 24th we had the Public Health Agency of Canada come and speak with the managers as well and inform them that funding will not be affected going forward with the implementation of junior kindergarten. It is in our mandate to provide early childhood programs, quality early childhood programming, in the Northwest Territories, working in collaboration with our partners and I think working together we can do a great job. I think some of our communities are offering junior kindergarten as a half day and Aboriginal Head Start as a half day, so students are getting a full day of early childhood programming, particularly the four-year-olds.
Mr. Speaker, my question is the Aboriginal Head Start Program surely has amassed a lot of experience and expertise in terms of running program directly benefitting children in small communities. What lessons can be learned from the Aboriginal Head Start Program as Education, Culture and Employment moves forward with the implementation of the junior kindergarten?
When we're providing program services in the Northwest Territories, we always engage and consult with our stakeholders moving forward. Aboriginal Head Start has been very successful, and they focus on the culture and identity of the people of the Northwest Territories, and that's something that we're really implementing within our education system from JK to grade 12 and beyond and we want to make sure that some of their best practices and around the curriculum that we're developing is working closely together.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
