Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment wishes to recognize the dedication and service of the educators who have contributed to the well-being, support and education of our students.

The Northwest Territories Teachers’ Association was founded 60 years ago with just 60 teachers, including those from the Western and Eastern Arctic, eventually becoming a member of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation. As we proudly recognize this anniversary, the NWTTA now represents more than 800 teachers in 49 schools, demonstrating tremendous growth in the territory.

Throughout this growth...

We have to keep in mind that we are providing free junior kindergarten across the whole Northwest Territories, and especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The communities will definitely be benefiting from this program that we’re initiating. It’s a three-year phased approach, so the daycare, the home care operators… Again, I must emphasize that we are providing the supporting mechanism in place. It’s been there before, it’s always been there, and we’re going to enhance it further as we move forward on implementing a junior kindergarten. There is a lot...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This whole implementation of junior kindergarten has been positive news. As the Member alluded to earlier with his statement, there’s a lot of support on this particular piece of work that has been in the works for some time now, the last few years. We are mindful of the day homes, the operators in the Northwest Territories. We’re doing this for the whole Northwest Territories and the Member touched on two under two, there’s also three under three that we’re fully aware of and my department is working diligently with the operators, the day home operators and other operators...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I have an important thing to say. I know that there are a lot of things happening in our region. In the last little while in my region, in Whati there were hand games that were held in the community, and I want to express, to the community, a thank you and congratulations.

We had visitors from Alberta and all the people from the Northwest Territories. This was put on by the Whati community. The chief and council have prepared and hosted the hand games for all the people. They also had security for the community. I want to express my thanks and congratulations...

To my understanding, the information that we have received within my department working with the school boards on compiling all the information, we work closely with the school boards so we can access their information, as well, so they can share the information with us, so we can compare. If it’s based on per school or per educational authority, those are areas that the education authorities need to work with us. The information that we have we’ve compiled based on the projected enrolment. Phase one, phase two, year three approach is all projected on the student enrolment over a three-year...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we’re rolling out the junior kindergarten, it’s for the whole Northwest Territories and the 33 communities that we service. There is phase one, phase two, phase three year approach, and obviously, Yellowknife will get the third year implementation of the junior kindergarten, so we’re making sure, and I made a commitment in the House yesterday, anything above and beyond the 16 to 1 level, that PTR level, my department will be subsidizing them. We’re going to be monitoring that, and it’s not only in Yellowknife, it’s all the educational authorities that could be on the...

As I mentioned earlier, it is scheduled for replacement or renovation in 2019. This is an area that we need to work on the Member. We’ll continue to work with the DEA pertaining to that.

When the time is close, we’ll definitely work towards that as part of the capital planning process. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We work closely with PWS when it comes to these assets in the communities such as schools. There is scheduled regular maintenance and upgrades to the educational facilities, so they remain in good standing. We have to be up to code on all schools. So if there is such an asbestos issue, then we would be proactive and work on it with PWS and put in mitigating measures to deal with that.

At this point, it hasn’t been brought to my attention if it is an issue, but those are just some of the areas we are working closely on with PWS. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is working with our Aboriginal government partners on a new approach to strengthen Aboriginal languages.

As you know, this government has sponsored two Aboriginal languages symposia. We meet regularly with Aboriginal leaders and their delegates. We have excellent ongoing relationships with language coordinators and elders. We have heard from all of them that Aboriginal governments and their language communities are best placed to deliver programs aimed at revitalizing their languages.

Mr. Speaker, in recognition of this, I am...

I will commit to the Members that the information that we’ve compiled to date on the pupil-teacher ratio across the Northwest Territories will be shared with the Members.