Jackson Lafferty

With any organization there is a budgeting process. We have to work with that. As the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we provide public money to these organizations. There is the accountability issue and transparency issues, so we’ll continue to support that.

Mahsi. When I met with the Board of Governors, I addressed all of those issues. Any issues that come to my attention, I address with them. We work out solutions. When it comes to the contacts of certain individuals, private e-mails of private individuals’ contacts, those are at the discretion of the board if they want to release that information. But they do have a website. All the contact information, phone numbers, e-mails, it’s all on the website. They even have a student representative as well. We are going to a June meeting in Inuvik and I believe the Member will be there as well.

So, we...

I just did commit to that. Sometimes when it comes to a review, it does take time, but we will provide that information to the Members. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we talked about rolling out the Junior Kindergarten, we wanted to work closely with the daycare providers and also the child care workers. We provided as much support as we possibly could to hear their perspective, and we took all that into consideration as well.

Yes. Of course, the people of the North are our most important resources, and first and foremost, we want to ensure that Northerners in the Northwest Territories have the skills and knowledge for their employment success. That’s our priority. We also recognize that there are growing pressures on the government, not just our government but the federal government, industries, business, to respond to the increase in the labour market demands due to changing demographics. Those are some of the important discussions that we have had with Jason Kenney just the other day as well. It’s important that...

Mahsi, Madam Chair. First of all, we’re not the lowest in Canada, and even the interest paid, it does go back to the general fund. But I will get Ms. Saturnino to elaborate, and she’s been actively involved in this, as well, with the remissible loans. Mahsi.

I agree that that is part of the process with early childhood development, the overall framework. When we talk about early childhood development, it is a mega piece of work across the Northwest Territories. Junior Kindergarten is just one piece of it. We have all these different initiatives on the go. Recommendations are brought to our attention as part of the action plan. Now we’re currently working on those on what we can do immediately, the short-term/long-term plans.

So, yes, we’ve considered all those areas. It came from the parents, grandparents and educators. Based on that, we are...

Mr. Speaker, the Temporary Worker Program, again, is a federal funding, but also federal programming. The Nominee Program, we also administer that with the federal government. Part of the process is to monitor and evaluate the program itself. With the actual numbers which I don’t have with me, the detail, but I can share with the Member all the transactions that have taken place since we took over the program with the federal government until today and how we are planning to integrate that with the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Part of the process is that the loan to be remissed are those individuals need to come back to the North and live in the North. They don’t necessarily have to work in the North, but they have to be living in the North.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular programming, Junior Kindergarten is part of it. Head Start program is another one. We have eight Head Start programs across the territory through federal funding. Obviously, yes, we have approached the federal government on numerous programs such as Head Start and other early childhood delivery into the communities. We’ve been told over and over, it’s your own jurisdictional deliverance. We have to work with that, but every opportunity, yes, we have met with the federal government not only on the education part but other labour market development agreements...