Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll follow up with questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on my Member’s statement.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he in fact is familiar with the Canadian Education Association and the Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning and if any of those programs that this organization has awarded, if he’s looking at ways to better our education system through these programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the national awards that have been recognized throughout the Northwest Territories, and I’ve been trying to get some more information on that since the Member addressed that information to me. We are doing what we can as a department to recognize those talented individuals or organizations in the Northwest Territories. We’re working with those organizations to make some sort of recognition and even go further beyond that. Mahsi.
I mentioned that the East Three gardening program in Inuvik is doing some great work and they want to do some more innovative thinking in terms of how they’re going to grow veggies and create produce for lunch programs in Inuvik. I want to ask the Minister if he’s familiar with that program, have talks with the East Three staff and look at how they can support them so they can purchase these materials and continue to build on their national successes that’s been recognized so we can help them and support them in getting the materials that they need to continue with this program and the successes that they’ve shown.
Obviously, ECE supports healthy foods in our school system. The growing program, obviously, we’ve heard just recently, as well, and we believe and support innovative thinking. How can we have those vegetables in our school system as possibly part of our lunch program? So, we’re open to those ideas. I have to work with the local DEAs and DECs, if they’re acceptable to that initiative. I need to sit down with my counterparts and see where we can go from there, but this is a brilliant idea that we should carry forward.
This program has helped students engage. It’s helped with attendance. It’s given them nutrition so that they can excel in school work. They’ve got a really great program that I don’t think has to be reinvented, and it’s something that’s unique and brought forth from the local people and is something that can be forwarded to the schools.
I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d be willing to work with the staff who developed this program and take it out to the regions and to the schools so they can develop their own programs and have the success that Inuvik has shown and has been recognized nationally. Will he be working with the schools to create some type of framework that they can take into the schools, as well, and help other schools in the success of attendance, healthy eating and education?
When we talk about healthy foods, obviously we provide funding towards this initiative as well. Approximately $650,000 we distribute on an annual basis for healthy eating programming in the Northwest Territories. We give the funding directly to the schools, so it’s part of their initiative. There is already funding in place. My department will be working with the organization on how can we best move this forward as well. We have to keep in mind that we have to deal with all the schools across the Northwest Territories as well. Then again, there is funding in place already, and we will continue to more forward working with the school boards.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I ask the Minister whether or not he would review the funding policy in terms of this healthy nutrition program so that students in regions that have a higher population will get more funding so that they can feed a higher percentage of the population in the school? Will he review that based on population size?
As I indicated earlier, we’re open to some ideas on how we can generate funding, based, obviously, on students. Currently, it’s based on students. Those are discussions that we need to have with the local organizations and also the DECs and DEAs as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.
