Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, it was a decision of the 17th Legislative Assembly, so it was something that came out of the initiative from the Department of Education at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The money that was allocated during this government to implement junior kindergarten was $5.1 million. We are currently working with education boards to see how we are going to roll that out with the enrolments of students and families putting their four-year-olds into the school system. Junior kindergarten itself will not have an impact on inclusive schooling. As we mentioned before, the four-year-olds will be in the school system, so they will have access to extra resources, extra supports throughout the entire school.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. During the Budget Address this government did commit to fully funding junior kindergarten, and based on questions around inclusive schooling, Aboriginal language culture-based education, as the Member has mentioned. Our department continues to name those funding levels. So inclusive schooling is self-funded. What we are funding, it is actually above what we are legislated to do. The Aboriginal culture-based education, we are continuing to fund those as well. When we are talking about the implementation of junior kindergarten, we took into consideration a new funding...

We're always in consultation with the executive and the staff over at the Aurora College, looking at their programs and how we support one another and some of the tough decisions that do have to be made. Any students who are looking at going into a social work program or any program that is post-secondary, we have career development officers in our regional offices, employment transition officers. We also have career guidance counsellors in the schools, and our CDOs are actually going and working in the schools, and that's an emphasis that we did put on them. So there are many areas that we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I, too, would like to recognize and welcome all the delegates for Daughters of the Vote. We do have two participants from Inuvik, who knows, might be taking over the Member for Range Lake’s position here. Ms. Alyssa Ross and Ms. Raven Firth, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the proceedings as well as take a very good understanding role in the work that we do as the 19 legislators of the Assembly.

I'd also like to recognize Ms. Sandy Lee, Ms. Jane Groenewegen and Mr. Tony Whitford for all the work that they've done in this House and I would also like to thank the...

Currently we've got information out there to all parents who are enrolling their four-year-olds into junior kindergarten. We're getting information out to the board chairs. We're meeting with superintendents to see the rollout of how junior kindergarten is going to look in 2017-18 school year, so we're working with the stakeholders to make sure that it's a smooth transition.

Obviously, we've still got to wait for some numbers of students who are being enrolled. As you do know, it is an optional program for schools, and they also have the option of a half day or full day, so some of the things...

Actually, Alberta is moving away from the standard 125hoursperfivecredit high school courses through their own high school redesign project. As Members know, we did have a meeting with Minister Eggen from Alberta to discuss those changes to the curriculum. Alberta is a shift away from the standard of 125 hours of instruction for fivecredit courses, where students who are involved in the project can now complete courses in less than 125 hours and/or take more time if it is needed. It is based on what the students need. The NWT has always been flexible in this area, part of the education renewal...

I personally have not engaged in that meeting. We did have staff meet with the Canadian Public Health Association of Canada. We invited Aboriginal Head Start staff in on that meeting to talk about the federal funding, and that wouldn't be affected. Currently, we do a joint junior kindergarten/Aboriginal Head Start program coexisting in some of our communities where they're both providing half-day services so families have that opportunity to have full daycare, quality early childhood programming for their kids.

As I said in the House yesterday, we're sending out packages to all the parents across the Northwest Territories. With the Aboriginal Head Start staff, our department has already been engaging with the staff. We made trips to Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, K’atlodeeche First Nations, and had those initial discussions and talks about implementing junior kindergarten for the 2017-18 school year.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned, we do have that Skills 4 Success document that we are reaching out to organizations as well as in the high school to look at all jobs, all programs, across the Northwest Territories. We still continue to support our students throughout the NWT with our Student Financial Assistance programs at whatever institutions that they want to go to. We have career development officers, employment transition officers. We have guidance counsellors in the schools who work with students to develop and go along the career path that they choose. We continue to support...