Jackson Lafferty

That is detailed information that we don’t have at the tips of our fingers here, but at the same time, we can provide that information to the Members.

First, I’d like to commend the Sahtu region and the communities for their academic success. Congratulations to them. The needs assessment that the Member is referring to is before our department now compiling all that information. I know the Member has addressed that issue in the House on numerous occasions. Now it’s before us within the department. Now we’re compiling all the information from other jurisdictions, as well, because we are looking at a territorial-wide training initiative and how it’s going to look in the Sahtu region. The Member alluded to earlier about the program development...

Mahsi, Madam Chair. We recall that two years ago that was addressed to our department. I was just trying to get clarification of the status on that. The appeals part will be introducing that potentially this coming fall. I will get Ms. Saturnino to just maybe elaborate more in detail. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost is congratulating all the college grads throughout the Northwest Territories. We are very, very proud of them. Obviously, we want them to further their education success, as well, then, upon completion, return back to the Northwest Territories so we can offer them a northern attractiveness when it comes to workforce development.

Part of the Student Financial Assistance program is, again, one of the best across our nation and also international world renowned as well. We continue to provide those subsidies, those services to our students, whether it be...

Mahsi, Madam Chair. We’re fully aware of the collection that’s before us. It’s a challenge that we’ve been faced with, and the office of the Auditor General gave specific instructions on this particular area. The Member alluded to 60 percent fail. Those are areas that we are continuously and aggressively going after for collection. This is not pertaining to this particular change. The amendment is coming with the $5 million increase. So it is a separate topic, and I’ll get Ms. Saturnino to just elaborate a bit more on the process itself. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I am not forcing the school boards to use their surplus on various projects. It is at their discretion to use. We’re hoping and encouraging them to use it towards their educational programming within their district. We will continue as a department working closely with them. My department, as I stated yesterday, is meeting with them now and yesterday and continues to discuss part of the opportunities that we have before us. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, I would.

When we first introduced junior kindergarten, we worked with the superintendents and they gave us some ideas of how we could mitigate and also work with the existing funding that has been introduced. Based on that, we came up with some numbers, a first and second and third year approach based on the 29 communities and then on to the regional centres and, finally, the Yellowknife school boards. Based on that, I’ve also committed that anything beyond 16 to 1 student teacher ratio I will be subsidizing as a department, as the Minister responsible for education. Based on that, the PTR, that’s why...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share some exciting news about the rollout of junior kindergarten that will begin in the fall of 2014. There has been much discussion on how we are implementing junior kindergarten, and we carefully considered comments and concerns raised by education boards on the rollout of junior kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, we put the decision to education boards and gave them a choice of whether they wanted to implement junior kindergarten in the fall of this year, or defer it to next year.

I am pleased to announce that of the 29 small communities who were offered the chance to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The answer would be no. We’re using internal resources.