Jackson Lafferty

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

Sorry, I forgot that part. Yes, absolutely. Mahsi.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I certainly hope too. I would like to see all regions with full-fledged immersion programming. This is a great start for us. The South Slave started it off and then the Tlicho, then Gwich’in and other regions. I would like to see all of them, actually. That would be our long-term goal.

We’re still trying to figure out the numbers here. To my understanding, through the briefings that I’ve received, both projects, both communities have received the fullest contribution, and if I am mistaken, then my staff can correct me if I’m wrong. That’s my understanding. The Member is also referring to if this particular project will continue, and those are the discussions that we are currently having with the Department of Health and Social Services as part of the Early Childhood Development Action Plan. We need to discuss those more in detail. Mahsi.

We can obviously share that detailed information with the Member, but it is based on formula, and you have to keep in mind that there are, I guess you can say, three school boards in Yellowknife versus one school board in the South Slave region. Those are just some of the discussions that we’ve been having with the formula funding. As I stated before, we are reviewing our formula funding through the education renewal and innovation, so these are the discussions that we continue to have.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. If I can reflect on the library in Fort Simpson, we have been dealing with that for quite some time now. Even with the community council, town council, we are trying to find an allocation for all those materials. There has been a lot of discussion between two of the departments, my department and also the community. We continue to have that dialogue and there are some funding allocations through various libraries and I do have here Fort Simpson, $52,600 being proposed here, but I’ll be giving more of the latest status to the Member on the Fort Simpson library and where it’s...

Mr. Chair, obviously there is a process we have to go through with the capital planning process later this year and going through some various stages, at the approval stages. We, as a department, will push for those schools in the Northwest Territories, those that are really urgently needed for a retrofit or renovation or replacement. Based on the criteria that have been highlighted through the process, we have to follow the guidelines. Obviously, the Member’s riding of small communities, they have reiterated that, so we will be doing our part as a department to push that forward in the small...

I agree with the Member, we’re possibly utilizing community members. We know that some of the community members have worked in the education field or early childhood for 20-plus years. They may not have a degree or diploma, but they have all this experience under their belt. How can we best utilize them in a classroom setting? If we can have some sort of mentorship program working with the teachers, professional teachers. I’ve stated that there’s going to be some training and those individuals that have been identified in the Member’s riding, through the school boards we’ll be able to identify...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We do have the detailed information. We can certainly provide that to Members. Mahsi.