Jackson Lafferty

The Member is referring to music or other sports. Some of these programs, their fees are waived. We know that some certain students cannot afford to be part of the program, so we work with, whether it be…(inaudible)…program, that is a federal program that allocates funding for these students that cannot afford certain sports programs. There are soccer programs, volleyball programs, there are all these different programs that the fees are waived as well.

Working closely with Municipal and Community Affairs, we are making this happen. We will continue to work with different agencies to continue...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Since I came to office in 2007, we have made some changes not only to income support but other programs as well. As you know, Education, Culture and Employment has a variety of programs under us, even under income support that can provide… There have been some additions; there have been some changes. I can provide that detailed list to the Member. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we do provide basic fundamental funding to the clientele that we service, the income support clientele. The funding that we provide is shelter, food and clothing.

Again, we are working through various programs such as Municipal and Community Affairs have numbers of programming through NGOs such as we do.

As the Education, Culture and Employment department, we provide almost $7 million in various NGO funding that consists in a breakdown in the communities of various funding that is accessible by the parents, by the children, by the community members. Continuously we have been...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I do believe there were three or four questions in there; I can only answer one. With the distance that has been brought to our attention through the poverty strategy that we have engaged with the public, NGOs, it is important for us to be part of that as income support. We have made some changes over the years, even major changes in 2007 that reflect on communities’ needs. Along the way we have been making changes. We are glad we are part of the Anti-Poverty Strategy that is coming forward in this Assembly, along with other strategies as well. It is important for us to be...

Mr. Speaker, as I indicated, we are engaged with the community and the DEAs. The planning study is proposed for 2014-15, so that is earmarked that we are proposing as a department and then moving forward towards the capital projects based on that. A decision will be made from there. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We’ve been closely monitoring Trout Lake, the population and the number of students in the school, as well, along with other schools that are in a similar calibre. Currently, we have approximately 19 students. That’s 58 percent being utilized in the school.

Those are just some of the numbers that we have in play. But we are in the process of visiting the community, and I want my staff to be in the community to look for themselves, because they are a part of the capital planning process, then I think that will make a difference. We are planning to visit the community within...

The Member already alluded to some areas where management of property arrangements have been made with DECs and DEAs, and either with the local bands, local development corporation, private companies or even the other unique partnerships. With this, there is also – I’ve just been informed by the Housing Minister – some home units in the communities, homeownership program, that could be potentially converted to be made available to these professions in the communities. Those are some of the key areas that we are currently discussing, and we want to make as many units available, especially in...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This is an area with a broad perspective beyond the ECE department and beyond the school boards. It is the GNWT as a whole, because we do have all the professions within the GNWT. So if we need to change that regulation, then it would have to be the GNWT changing the regulation. If we do it for one, then there will be others lining up.

So I think we need to strategically look at the overall regulations we have, how they impact on different departments. So that’s what we need to discuss, and we have discussed that with the Housing Corporation and Human Resources in the past...

Part of, again, the process is apprentice training on the jobs that we have. We currently have a wage subsidy, and that’s provided to the small employers so they can be competitive with the larger employers as well.

Most of the programs, as you know, there are limited financial resources with a high demand exceeding supply. With the feedback from my colleague, the Minister of ITI, on the Economic Development Panel, part of the role, I guess, is apprenticeship is something that we will review in light of supply and demand, and as you’ve heard from the panelists, there’s a high demand for...

Mahsi. I do believe this question is timely. As you know, the Minister of ITI delivered an economic development report that was tabled last week. Part of that consisted of training, training Northerners. With the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupation Act, it was recently revised. It came into force October 2012, and full implementation this August 2013. So that is part of ongoing development that we’re going through.

The review also consisted of various partners involved, stakeholders, industries, apprentices and the Apprenticeship Board. So those are just some of the processes that we have to...