Alfred Moses

Thank you. I will go to my assistant deputy minister to answer that one. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I had mentioned, we are in those discussions with YCS on how we deal with the situation. At those rates, we can't commit at that time. Yellowknife, as a whole, has some schools that have high utilization rates, but we also have schools that aren't meeting some of those high rates. We are trying to find a solution here in Yellowknife to accommodate all the students as well as staff.

Yes, all I can say to that question, and you said it perfectly, Mr. Chair, that is a hypothetical question, we do not know what the outcome of this bill is going to be at the end of today, but I can let the Member and the Members know that, as a government, we are committed to providing early childhood programs. We developed an Early Childhood Development Framework and Action Plan in collaboration with the Department of Health and Social Services. We are working with schools, education bodies, to address those. We have made increases to our early childhood program funding, and we are working...

Currently there isn't a timeline set in place. Obviously, we have to make sure that we do have appropriate time to go through the schools, with the staff, and have that idea of which classrooms are used for instructional hours and other classrooms that might be used for storage or other areas of use that were put forth by the school and together, collectively, decide which classrooms should be used for instructional classrooms, and identify that utilization rate. I don't have a timeline, but I will make sure the department comes back with something. I will share that with the Member.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First and foremost, this government has set out a mandate in the 18th Legislative Assembly to provide early childhood programs throughout the NWT. This will, however, significantly change how we roll out junior kindergarten to our communities. All education authorities are well into their implementation efforts into junior kindergarten and making it a reality in every school come this academic year, in 201718. The 20 communities that currently run junior kindergartens have been doing it very well, and it has been received there very well and are highly successful.

I can't...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has made a commitment in its mandate to close the skills gap by strengthening the apprenticeship program. Later today, I will be tabling the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Strategy 2017-2022. Mr. Speaker, this five-year strategy outlines how the Government of the Northwest Territories will strengthen our apprenticeship and occupational certification program. Since the program began, there have been approximately 4,700 apprentices certified, and today there are more than 400 men and women...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. When we did commit to fully funding junior kindergarten, we did base those on projected four-year-olds from the previous year, and we already are committing to the 12 to 1 ratio of how we fund junior kindergarten. Those numbers were put in for when we said we were going to be fully funding JK, and that announcement was made during the budget address. Thank you.

Currently no, but I can assure the Member that in the 2017-2018 school year, the school in Fort Good Hope, Chief T'selehye School, has agreed to come on board. It is a great opportunity. We are seeing some very good successes in all the schools that we are providing e-Learning. It is an opportunity to have schools in the small communities be able to obtain and have access to higher academic courses that will get them prepared for post-secondary education.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, NWT students who do meet the required courses graduate with an NWT Senior Secondary Diploma. The NWT has set its own criteria and standards for a high school diploma, and although similar to Alberta's graduation diploma, it does have some differences. We are working with Sahtu communities to ensure that we work on supporting and having access to some of these core courses for the students in the communities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, we can provide that information to the Member, as well as share with the Member when we do come up with a date to sit down with leadership in the Sahtu to look at addressing other education concerns and work on successes and how we can work together to address some of these education concerns.