Charles Dent

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, like the Member, am interested in ensuring that we have adequate programming space for all our students in the Northwest Territories, and one of the first things I did after becoming Minister was to take a look at what we had in terms of leases and where we might have opportunities opening up. So I asked the department when the lease would be expiring on Northern United Place and finding out that it was coming up in a few years, directed that they work with the college and Public Works and Services to do an examination of what we should be looking at, whether it...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, what I could do is if the interest of the committee is travel, what I do have is I have a listing of travel broken out for the whole department, and perhaps I could just run through that listing. This wouldn’t be under this task then, this would include all of it, so you get the total travel budget all at once if you’d like, you can tell where it is coming from. But I could break it out for the committee all at once here, and that might be the easiest way to do it.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The curriculum should reflect the local culture and history all the time and it can. What we can do in curriculum development is make sure the suggestions are made for specific things to consider when dealing with curriculum.

The issue of treaties has been raised by other people. I think it’s one there is a real interest in seeing there be something mentioned in school about treaties and it would certainly be appropriate in the social studies course. At the current time the curriculum for kindergarten to Grade 9 social studies is under review, and we can make sure...

I take the Member’s comments and would agree with him that museums are an important aspect of life in the North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think Mr. Pokiak is talking about two different issues. One of the issues is whether or not children are all at the same grade level if they're in the same grade. It's not uncommon that you have differences. For instance, in a Grade 4 classroom you will have some children who are reading at a Grade 2 level and you may have some children who are reading at a Grade 6 level. The teachers can typically deal with the different groups they have. Some kids will need extra help and some kids will need extra challenge. So it isn't unusual to have in a classroom a...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Our government doesn't actually spend any money on delivering that kind of program. The programs are available through Aurora College, and the federal government contracts with Aurora College for the delivery of those programs. So the programs are available, but they're paid for by the federal government.

I'll keep that request in mind, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, please, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, this doesn’t replace the registration with their professional organization if that is required to practice a profession. What it does is the credentials are checked and then assessed against a Canadian standard, and what you get is a certificate that says yes, you meet the standards, then you could submit that to the professional organization and they would then review it and determine whether or not to agree that you should be able to practice. For instance, Alberta Opticians recognize the standards and are willing to accept them. It is a fairly extensive...

Yes, Mr. Chairman. In fact, that’s what I said. There hasn’t been any growth in the students The number of students has actually gone down. There has been a reduction in the number of students. Almost $2 million of that is due to salary increases.