Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Chair, the Member has raised this issue on numerous occasions. It is one of the priorities of this department because we are going through some changes. Education renewal innovation was one of the pillars that are focusing on small community schools. Just as a reminder, Members have reiterated and focused on small communities. That is one of the drives within our pillars. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The junior kindergarten, again, as I stated, is play-based programming and I’m glad the Member is referring to a culture base being part of the component. As the Member knows, we just introduced elders in schools, so we want to fully utilize those elders in schools, elders as part of the programming. One part of the learning themes is belonging, also becoming – those children are four-year-olds – to be independent, and learning areas such as living in a world, thinking, and also working, so those are just some of the patterns that will be taught as part of the four-year...

Mr. Chair, to my left is deputy minister of ECE, Gabriela Eggenhofer. To my immediate right is Dana Heide. He is the associate deputy minister, and also Marissa Martin is the director of finance and capital planning to my far right. Mahsi.

We are serious about qualifications, as well, for those professions that will be looking after our children, and junior kindergarten teachers obviously will be required to have the same basic qualifications as K to 12 NWT teachers. Most NWT teachers have a minimum of a Bachelor of Education degree, so that’s what we’re striving for, also the undergraduate degree in a specialized area, and a master’s degree. All junior kindergarten teachers will be required to be registered under the department’s ECE NWT teacher certification. The Member alluded to if there is going to be such training. All...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to present the 2014-2015 Main Estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The department’s fiscal summary proposes an overall ECE budget of $305.6 million, an increase of $6 million, or 2 percent, over the 2013-2014 Main Estimates. There is $154.9 million of the budget allocated to schools and school contributions for all programs, which represents close to 51 percent of our budget, and $33.5 million is allocated to Aurora College, which represents almost 11 percent of our budget.

The department has a key role to play in furthering this...

Mr. Chair, obviously that is our overall goal and objective, to have qualified people to look after our most vulnerable children under their care. Currently, we work with the college. Obviously, Members have stated that we should be delivering a high-class early childhood development certification diploma or degree program. That is an area we are currently focusing on as a long-term plan. Currently, we have some stats on number of individuals that are working within the early childhood programming that have either certification, diploma, degrees, even teacher degrees. Mind you, some of them do...

Those are some of the areas I wanted to share about from the front-line workers and I did hear about them last week. I’m going to be meeting with my senior staff in the department on income support and start implementing some of the key areas such as professional development and what kind of training is required to deal with critical situations.

So, what the Member is addressing here is very important to our client service officers and clientele. We are going to make sure that the training programs are in place. There are some training programs we are currently conducting. I want us to enhance...

It was in this House that I mentioned the zero to three, what kind of funding that will be allocated based on what their needs are, whether it be the cribs and other certain necessities that are required. Those are the supports that we are going to be providing to the zero to three, the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. I can lay that out to the Members again, the detailed information. I’ll be more than glad to do that.

Mahsi. Those are the key detailed discussions that we are currently having with the operators to justify and find out the cost factor. As the Member knows, there are various subsidies available to the operators, whether it be the rent, the mortgage, the support mechanism is currently there to subsidize those operators. There is part of the O and M as well. Based on the discussions that we’re going to be having, we need to move forward on that and then provide feedback on what’s the best approach. Those are the discussions that we’ll continue to have with the open dialogue with them.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize the president of the NWTTA. Gayla Meredith is here with us and is doing an outstanding job as president and is recognizing the 60th year. Mahsi for being here.