Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This government is committed to finding new ways to make it easier for NWT residents to acquire the skills and training they need to get jobs and to connect employers to trained and qualified employees.

The Department of Education, Culture and Employment plays a key role in this by focusing on fostering lifelong learning, skill development, training, and employability. That includes expanding opportunities for tradesoriented learning, while also enhancing our communications, service delivery, and way of doing business.

Today, I would like to tell Members about a new...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. To my right, I have my deputy minister, Sylvia Haener, and to my left Deputy Minister Olin Lovely. Thank you.

Any positions that were reduced within our department, we'll continue to follow up and monitor to see how that position that was reduced is affecting the program delivery as well as other staff in that area.

No. I just want to thank the Members for their questions, and I know there are a lot of concerns and a lot of issues out there in terms of infrastructure needs throughout the Northwest Territories. We try our best to meet them as we move forward.

Sitting as a Regular Member in the 17th, I understand some of the frustrations, but, in our current fiscal situation and with all the competing infrastructure needs, it's always a tough job to see where we put the dollars. But I appreciate the questions and just thank everybody for their support and the questions that they had. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As mentioned in those three factors in terms of job reductions, the main was what that risks and impacts on program delivery was one of those three, and we want to make sure that programs are being delivered, can continue to be delivered within that division, and, in some cases, picked up by other members, other staff, that are working within that division or that department.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair, and I thank the Member for his concerns and comments. That's, I think, the main direction for the Skills 4 Success Action Plan is to get out into the small communities. I know we've had Members who have brought those concerns forward of finding unique ways to increase the employment and the training and skill development in our small communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Going through such an exercise is difficult on our senior management. Obviously, we don't want to look at any positions being cut as affecting residents of the Northwest Territories, but we do look at the position based on those three factors. It's not based on the individual that's in that position, it's based solely on the position and using those three factors to identify should a job be cut that it will have the least disruption to the programs that they serve. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All schools that are on the list have gone through the Capital Planning Process. The efforts to get some retrofits, some additional space on schools that have changed from let's say a kindergarten to grade nine to a junior kindergarten to grade 12 and needed to be set as a priority for spacing issues. We are under a fiscal situation here in the Northwest Territories as are all other jurisdictions across Canada, and whatever dollars that we can get out of the budget, they want to use and put them in the areas that we see that meets the needs of the capital planning process...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The survey that I was mentioning and talking about earlier just in reference to junior kindergarten, but I think moving forward I think with learning centres and using the shared space is something that needs to be looked at moving further in terms of constructing schools or adding additions as well, especially in our small communities. We've got to be able to utilize the space the best we can.

As I mentioned, we did put in a proposal going forward to Heritage Canada. They responded to our staff, we're in dialogue right now, and we're looking at ways that -- they're asking for clarity on some of the questions that were provided. What we're going forward with is a schematic design that's built on our standards for capital projects from the government side. Any further developments I think needs to come from CSFTNO, and if the CSFTNO want to look at building more onto the school, then I'd encourage them to continue working with our department to find ways so we can support them to get...