Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. As you know, we just heard an announcement last week. It is a federal program. Income support obviously will be prepared for any impacts when it comes to EI recipients. They’ve extended longer hours, but I believe, from my understanding maybe with Minister Kenney, there is the two-phase approach, Yellowknife and then small communities on unemployment rates. Based on that, I believe it’s 8 percent hovering around Yellowknife and it’s around 20, 30 or 40 percent depending on the communities. He obviously stated that there won’t be much of an impact on the small communities, but...

As I stated, part of our contribution is to all school boards. There are approximately 37 communities, but we deal with all the school boards, the $400,000. At their discretion, they hire elders on an as-needed basis, as well, so this is an initial step for us as a department. We’ve never had this before. We feel we need to have more presence in our school systems. Our prime focus is increasing this over time. Mr. Chair, all I can say at this point is our contribution is towards all the school boards. Currently, we have 37 communities that are accessing it. Obviously, we want all schools to be...

Mr. Chair, that’s correct. It has been under review by the program review office. Mahsi.

Most definitely. Those are the areas that we are currently researching with our contacts in BC, not only BC but Alberta. As you know, Dr. Corriveau was in Alberta for a short period. He made all kinds of connections there with educators and administrators. We are taking full advantage of those resources that are available to us, but most specifically in BC, as the Member is alluding to. Those are some of the areas we want to get our hands on and start working on within our department and the Northwest Territories operators. Mahsi.

Mr. Chair, there’s a variety of sections within this, the increase. Partially it’s the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat, the reallocation, $400,000 increase in new initiatives. There’s North Slave and South Slave, so they all get a contribution. The Sahtu oil and gas, $5,000 increase as part of forced growth. Collective Agreement is part of that, as well, $48,000. Amortization. The employment and standards increased in budget of $18,000, again Collective Agreement. There’s another Collective Agreement with management and program support. These are just a variety of areas that offset the...

Mahsi. When I say school boards, it would consist of those experts that are in the field, the professions. So it was generic when I said school boards, but they will be involved with the professionals and experts in the field. I’ll get Ms. Martin to elaborate a bit on the difference between $131 million or $150 million, or Mr. Heide.

Mr. Chair, yes, we will be sharing that information with the Members, that detail. The supplementary reserve was originally allocated in 2008-2009 to cover utility costs for Aurora College. Since April 2010 the reserve fund has been used to offset expenditures mainly in the early childhood and school services section. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We’ve been working closely with Health and Social Services on this. It’s not necessarily itemized by priority. We have to tackle each and every one of the recommendations that are brought to our attention. Between the two departments, we’ll be rolling out the programming, the implementation. Number one would be at the top but we might have to deal with, say, number 18, type of deal. We have to deal with those matters at hand. The Member is asking if it’s a priority; it hasn’t really been set as a priority from one to 22, it’s just the way it’s laid out. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member that we need to be innovative and creative of sharing information and educational awareness. That’s exactly what we need to do. There is always room for improvement in the programming. This is an area that we listen well with the Member and we will continue to push that forward. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Once the evaluations in occurrence, once it’s completed, by all means we’ll be sharing that with committee.