Alfred Moses

Yes, I do.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again focusing on attendance, has the Minister worked with the DEAs and the DECs to find a position within the schools for any students, because attendance rates are pretty serious here, 80 percent in the small communities. Is he working with the DEAs to look at creating a position for any students who are continually missing school on a regular basis to find a way to interact or make phone calls to the houses so that those students have that contact with the school and develop that relationship? Is he working with the DEAs to develop something like that? I know...

I understand the well-being of the students as well as the teachers is very important to the department.

One of the things in the document talks about well-being in terms of safety, nutrition and making sure that our students are fed before they go in the classrooms, and that’s another ongoing issue. That in itself can be an incentive for students to go to school first thing in the morning, is a breakfast program.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he has any funding for schools to look at creating breakfast programs in the schools. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to talk today about our attendance rates in our schools across the Northwest Territories. Recently, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment tabled and brought out this new Education Renewal and Innovation Framework document, called “Direction for Change.” Actually, when we look through some of the statistics, one of the reasons we’re taking a new direction in our education system is because of low attendance.

In 2011-12 the NWT average for student attendance was 84 percent and it was even lower in the smaller communities at 80 percent. That’s, on...

Thank you. I have our Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. David Brock; and from the Department of Justice, Mr. Ken Chutskoff.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I have some opening remarks. On behalf of the Board of Management of the Legislative Assembly, I’m pleased to present Bill 33, An Act to Amend the Elections and Plebiscites Act, No. 2.

This bill includes a number of changes to our elections legislation that were recommended by the Chief Electoral Officer and the Standing Committee on Rules and Procedures following their respective reports on the 2011 General Election.

These changes will result in:

a new advanced voting opportunity for smaller communities;

changes to the vouching rules, so that a voter can vouch for...

Mr. Speaker, I recently had a meeting with Canadian North and talked about some of their programs that they’re running in some of the northern communities specifically around attendance and around best marks. They have really good incentives to get the academic grades that they need but also just making it to school.

Is the Minister familiar with this program that Canadian North runs and is he willing to also partner up with such an organization to look at getting some type of incentive program for student attendance? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One of my colleagues just made a good suggestion here that when we do seize some of these assets, that if we sell them that we can start building some compounds to store them, so that might be an option here.

I would just like to ask the Minister, in terms of seizing property, has the Minister looked at doing any types of freezing on businesses that run illegal activity, freezing either if it’s a hotel or maybe a restaurant, has he done any of that type of freezing in terms of the Forfeiture Act? Thank you.

The assets that would be seized, I know that storage has become an issue, but we also have some departments that have big compounds that might have storage space that we can use.

Would the Minister, seeing that is an issue he said has been brought up in discussions, would he work with other departments, such as Public Works and Services, Department of Transportation and possibly MACA, to see what kind of storage space they have in their compounds to utilize those for such property that would be seized? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Karen Wright-Fraser and I’d also like to recognize all of the Culture and Heritage Award recipients and their guests. Good job, keep up the good work, and also Mr. Charlie Furlong. Welcome, everybody, to the House and I hope you enjoy the proceedings.