Alfred Moses

I am not sure if the Member knows, but, in previous governments, I have done a lot of work with youth in every position that I have had. We have a lot of smart youth out there and strong voices that represent their cultures, their languages, represent their people, and I am more than happy to reach out to the schools as well as some of the Indigenous governments that allow youth to participate in their daytoday business. We will be reaching out and finding ways to connect with our youth and getting their input in terms of looking at the possible development of a youth council for the Northwest...

I do know that we do have youth participate at the national level, also bring concerns forward at the territorial level. In a lot of our schools, they have school councils as well. I know there are some of our Aboriginal groups who have youth that sit on national and international councils that bring concerns forward to the national and international level from their respective regions, even the territory, itself. That is something that we'd be willing to take a look into.

As I said, it is something that is important. I have known some 18-year-olds, 19-year-olds who have run for seats in this...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's great to see all the youth in the gallery here today. I do believe that we have some youth from the grade 6-7 Weledeh classes. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly. I hope you had a good tour this morning.

I also believe we have some exchange students from Quebec who are here. Welcome to the North and welcome to Yellowknife and the Legislative Assembly, as well as students from William McDonald. This is Education Week, as I have mentioned, Mr. Speaker, and I'd like to thank all the educators for all the work that you do. Mahsi cho.

As I mentioned, once this report comes out we'll see how some of our dollars have been spent and whether or not we've had organizations or communities that have accessed federal dollar spending. We do have unique ways of how we partner within our departments, but that is something we'll have to take a look at. I know, because there was such an influx of the $3 million on top of the $1.2, we want to make sure those funds were spent, that we did create employment, that we created jobs in the communities, developed projects in the communities, and I want to see how that report looks. Moving...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do appreciate the work that the rural and remote community has been doing since it got together and started working with the Regular Members and Ministers of Cabinet. As well as the increase of the $3 million in the 2017-2018 operations budget, I can let the Member know, and I did make a statement earlier in the session that, from April 1, 2017, to December 31, 2017, we had created over 400 jobs in every region in the Northwest Territories. I have not got the updated stats from this year, from January 1st to present, but I am sure that it has increased as well in...

Every education authority works with their schools to develop their school-year plan. As such, with any supports that are needed, the administration will work on looking at providing those supports. I know there are schools that actually have tutors that go in after school hours. As well, I know there are a couple of schools here, in Yellowknife, that have evening classes that allow students that might have missed the morning or might have missed the day to come into school in the evening and catch up on their school work. There are definitely innovative options out there to help students...

Earlier I mentioned the "Right from the Start" early childhood development action plan that we have. That was based on best practices. We worked with our stakeholders, and we worked with the Department of Health and Social Services to develop that. When it comes to early childhood development and the importance of it, we are always looking at best practices throughout the country and other jurisdictions, but that action plan itself was based on best practices at the time.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Some of them are changing from a fuel allocation to a monetary system that will ensure that seniors receive their full benefit. We are also looking at expanding to seniors who are in rental units and looking at, obviously, the income thresholds, for one, and looking at modifications to how communities are allocated to specific zones, but as I mentioned, we are still in that review process and hoping to get those enhancements passed through in the new fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As this foundational review is coming to completion and we will get getting that report, the accountability framework will be guided by some of the feedback that we have also received through this foundational review. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, one of the main objectives of the Educational Renewal process was to improve student outcomes throughout the Northwest Territories. We have had a lot of initiatives in terms of making that happen. We are also looking at system-wide accountability.

As you have heard, we do fund over $150 million to the education authorities. We want to make sure that they are providing the programs, the courses, and services to the students in their respective regions, and we continue to work with our superintendents, our education authorities and board chairs.

It is something...