Charles Dent

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I was advised around noon, shortly before we began in the House today, that this was happening and asked whether or not it actually fit within the policy for income support. I am not able to answer that question right now. I have contacted the department and asked them to provide me with some advice on that.

Typically I do know that almost all forms of income that people receive are considered when the level of support from income support is being calculated. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to return to item 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am aware that some forms of assistance that are provided subject to treaties are exempt from calculation when we’re examining how much support to provide somebody on income support, but it is specified sources. That income has to come from a specified source. I’m not sure if the payments to harvesters are specified, and I have asked the department to look into that and advise me. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. On February 24th and 25th, I met with the Chairs of the NWT education bodies, including the Chairs of the divisional education councils, the Commission Scolaire Francophone de Division, the two Yellowknife district education authorities and Aurora College.

I discussed with the Chairs the comments and suggestions made by Members of this Assembly regarding schooling. I noted that Members expressed how important schooling is to the futures of our students and our Territory.

The Chairs and I discussed a number of issues including the importance of student...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, on March 31, 2004, the opening ceremony for the North Slave Adult Correctional Centre will take place.

This marks a significant step forward on modernizing the corrections system in the Northwest Territories. The North Slave Adult Correctional Centre will replace the 38-year-old Yellowknife Correctional Centre. The new centre will increase the ability of offenders to access appropriate programming to assist in their healing. The new centre will provide a safe and secure custody environment that supports rehabilitation.

I would like to recognize the work...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Good afternoon. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure today to recognize nine outstanding individuals who will receive the Language Leader Awards. These awards are especially meaningful as each of the award winners are nominated and chosen by their peers from the communities and regions. We need to ensure the grassroots work being done by leaders such as the people we are recognizing today continues. These people don’t just talk about the importance of their languages; through their daily activities and lives, they demonstrate how important their language is.

I’m...

Madam Chair, there may be a slightly higher cost to the boards over the $100,000. We're hoping that we can get them to operate for that amount. Remember we're just starting them in July of this year, so it's not a full year of programming. It will be close to that, we think. So the goal is to have most of the money going to programming and keep the cost of the boards as low as possible.

This $100,000 is reflective of what was transferred from the Legislative Assembly. That's the amount of money that the Assembly had in its budget to operate these boards, and when the responsibility for the...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, we have good schools in all regions of the Northwest Territories and we’ve had people who have gone on to become lawyers, teachers, professors, doctors from all regions. So our plan is to continue to support the schools in the Northwest Territories. There is no plan to develop any process to support students to attend schools outside the Territories.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The GNWT still holds the lease, so the lease is with the GNWT for the facility with NACC. But officials at the department believe that they are fulfilling all the requirements of the lease.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, to answer the Member’s first question, there is still $251,000 for the Literacy Council to maintain their program. Where that money is coming from is federal monies that we are going to be flowing through to them to allow their programming to continue. The federal contribution is carrying on for another two years. So even though the territorial money is sunsetted after three years, we did have some federal money for the same source of programs.

The Member had asked about what sorts of things had been cut. I had mentioned the language nests, the...