Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. Those are the types of discussions that we need to have with the Board of Governors. As you know, they’re arm’s reach from us. We provide funding to them. It’s the board that makes the decisions on where the money should be expended and we work closely with them, I work closely with the board chair of the Board of Governors. Every opportunity to meet with them at the annual event through the meetings, but these are some of the areas that Members have alluded to. It is an initiative that’s been earmarked before. So I’m sure the Board of Governors will be discussing that and I will be...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have that detailed information, but we can certainly provide the breakdown of the use of the Childcare Subsidy Program over the last year or last few years, and whether it’s been maximized or the usage of that particular subsidy program. We can provide that. Mahsi.

My department has been engaged with the superintendents and also assistant superintendents over the last week to explain that very concept and ask for substantive feedback from their school boards. As we said, Alberta is developing new assessment tools such as Student Learning Assessment for introduction at the Grade 3 level in September 2014. So those are some of the important key aspects that we are monitoring.

For the NWT, no matter how we decide to engage in the use of these tools, we will, on some level, compromise data for the coming years for Grade 3.

Grades 6, 9 and 12 assessment tools...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The NWT and Alberta are part of the Western and Northern Canadian Protocol along with three provinces and three territorial jurisdictions. We have been involved with the math curriculum and teaching resources for the past 20 years to develop a common and use by all WNCP partners.

The NWT has been, and continues to be, extremely active in this process along with other provincial jurisdictions. As you know, Mr. Speaker, there are changes happening within Alberta education. We are closely monitoring that through their education redesign process. With any changes, we are closely...

I heard three questions in there, so I will answer one of them. My department is listening carefully and taking notes as well.

We have a Board of Governors representing the students. We have a student representative on there as well. Most of the organizations do not provide personal e-mails, but I will be addressing that with the president and Board of Governor chair. If we can allow board members to have their e-mail address and phone number on the website, then we can make that accessible for the general public of the Northwest Territories. I am making a commitment to address that with the...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 1-17(5), I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Standard Income Assistance Benefits by Household Composition” and “Income Assistance Distinct Cases and Payments in 2012-2013.” Mahsi.

We have a Board of Governors that have their meetings in our colleges, in our communities. They are accessible to the students, to the general public. We have an open forum, we have an open dialogue when there is a Board of Governors meeting. There is one coming up in Inuvik in June. It is opened up to Inuvik to residents and students at Inuvik campus. There are meetings in Fort Smith; there are meetings in Yellowknife. Those are accessible to students and the general public. We will continue to open doors to those students.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Member for meeting with the students and also Members as well. We are here as elected MLAs, elected officials. We represent the students as well. We have a Board of Governors, one from each region, that are responsible for their committee, for their regions and they represent the students. So it is not only the students that represents at the Board of Governors level, but all the board members.

This is an area that we are closely monitoring, and having the student representatives has been grateful for the Board of Governors. We will continue to push...

I laid out plenty of accountability that we deal with as the Board of Governors and with my Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We continue to strengthen that into the communities and into the regions. Under accountability of the Board of Governors, again, we have representatives from each region that represents these students, that represents the general public, the regions, the communities. As a department, I work closely with the board chair to make them accountable to the general public and to the students. I have laid out what I have committed already. I will be addressing...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Every school is different, especially in the small, isolated communities where we’re lacking some of the academic programming, whether it be chemistry, biology or pure math and others. I’m glad the Member is raising that. The Beaufort-Delta, again, has been very successful. Our prime focus today is how can we invest that into other regions into other communities as a model. Even though we may not be delivering these core, academic courses in small, isolated communities, that is the overall plan through education renewal and through his e-learning that’s been very successful...