Jackson Lafferty

In fact, we’ve been doing that since we started talking about the JK and other early childhood development areas. There has been some funding issues because of enrollment. It’s not just JK. We need to focus on how we can improve the enrollment issues and challenges that we’re facing within the communities. My department is committed, through the education renewal, that we need to talk about formula funding for the student enrollment in our education as part of a contribution, so this is an area that we will continue to push forward.

We will be continuing to contribute to the school boards to establish this type of programming in the communities. As I stated in this House, I did commit that if it’s beyond 16 to 1 ratio on the teacher ratio basis, then obviously there will be a difference of a new funding formula towards those organizations and towards the school boards. These are the commitments that I have made in the House and I will continue to live up to it. It’s 16 to 1, and anything beyond that we will provide additional funding to the school boards.

Mr. Speaker, I do not want to dismiss those individuals who are in the education system at this point. There are some individuals who have 20 or 30 years of experience working with early childhood programs for all these years. I certainly do not want to shut the door on them. They should have the opportunity. That’s the reason why we’re providing all this training over this summer and also in the fall, so they can be prepared to roll out the Junior Kindergarten in 22 of the 29 communities that we’re establishing this fall. In fact, one additional community wanted to deliver that on top of the...

I didn’t say I didn’t support those individuals who are in the field of early childhood such as the Head Start program. We do appreciate their feedback, the feedback they’ve given us over the years. We, as a department, although it is a federally funded program, we at the GNWT, ECE, work closely with them as well. So providing feedback from them, it was based on that that we developed curriculum. When there’s a survey in the communities and also research concluded that the curriculum created is appropriate for four and five-year-olds in the Northwest Territories.

Mr. Speaker, this particular...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker…[English translation not provided.]…

I’d just like to recognize and also welcome Education Hall of Fame inductees that are here with us for 2014. They are as follows: first, from the Beaufort-Delta Region, Lorna Storr. Lorna Storr is with us today. Welcome.

From the Deh Cho region, Martina Norwegian.

From the North Slave region, Liz Baile.

From the Sahtu region, George Cleary.

Not with us here today, but Celine Marlowe is another one from the South Slave region.

Also here with us as Minister’s Choice Award is Valerie Carter. Mahsi and welcome. Congratulations.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, that Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the third time. Mahsi.

When we talk about a 10 to 1, it could be upwards of $10 million to $20 million that we could be faced with our fiscal constraints at this point. The fiscal reality is that I don’t have access to $20 million available to me, so we have to be creative and innovative with our existing programming and our existing funding. That’s what we’ve done. We’ve reached out and this is an area that we feel that we can move forward on. We’re still under the PTR 16 to 1 ratio, and if it’s anything beyond that, I committed in the House that there will be funding provided to those individual school board...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We introduced junior kindergarten through the work of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and a lot of research has been done. This is an area that has been earmarked as a success, focusing on early childhood at age four. Based on the feedback that we received, even just as late as a week ago, out of the 29 communities we have 22 that registered to enter into the establishment of junior kindergarten in the Northwest Territories. In fact, one just came in just the other day from Aklavik. Aklavik wants to join as member 23 out of 29. It’s over 70 percent that are...

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. I am pleased to introduce Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. The purpose of this legislation is to raise the maximum aggregate of the principal amounts of all student loans that may be made by the Government of the Northwest Territories.

The maximum aggregate principal amount of student loans that the government may lend under the Student Financial Assistance Act is currently set at $40 million. The amendment proposes to increase this amount to $45 million for the fiscal year 2014-2015 and thereafter. This change is required to allow the...

Mahsi. Aurora College Board of Governors does work with the students. We deliver the best program we possibly can in the Northwest Territories, along with our partners further down south at various institutions. We’ll continue to make that a success. Mahsi.