Jackson Lafferty

Again, as indicated, we just received the letter from the college that is showing expression of interest. That’s all it lays out. Now our department and the college need to sit down and discuss that, the interest, and where we’re going to go with that. Although we speak in general terms, we are talking about capital planning process. We will get there when the time comes. Now we are going to have my department meet with the college.

With representatives at the regional level I believe we cover all five regions. Other communities, as well, beyond the five regions. We can provide some detailed information on the data itself and where individuals can collect that information via if it’s not on the website where it is at. We will find that out from the regional perspective and from our department.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me, to my left is Gabriela Eggenhofer, deputy minister, Education, Culture and Employment, and Mr. Paul Devitt to my right. He is the director of strategic business services with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The child and family resource centres, the two communities, again, working very closely with them. We had some challenges with the community of Ndilo. Their CEO left and he was actively involved with developing the proposal. So time lapsed and we continued our discussions in the early new year. He left around December. So right now, as it stands, we’ve allocated funding. I believe it was the first or second week in February. We were assured by the group that are working closely with us on this particular project that the funding that’s been allocated to them that there was...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I do remember the Member raising that issue, and we will do it for next year. I’m kind of surprised that it was still here too. We’ll make that work.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. Obviously, there has to be a financial accountability. On an annual basis we receive financial statements from them. I believe it’s audited financial statements from them on an annual basis. That clarifies where expenditures happen and in what areas and so forth, staff, administration, the schools, student programming, all of that. That’s how they base it on annual expenditures, through audited financial statements.

This is an area that we obviously don’t have the information detail before us. We’re leaning towards the capital planning. We are again working close with the college, the Board of Governors, to identify the needs, the needs assessment. We will provide that information to the Members once we engage the college. We will provide that information in due time. Unless my director has some detailed information which I may not have in front of me, I will allow Mr. Devitt.

That $2.041 million is strictly geared towards the PYs in the regions. That’s an area we will continue to monitor through our department. With the training, that is additional funding that we provide through our Education, Culture and Employment department on to the Aboriginal groups or agencies or those firms that are willing to work with us to initiate a training program, such as HEO or underground training, such as the Mine Training Society. We are actively partners in those areas and we have the funding to provide that. The Mine Training Society has the funding to provide that as well. We...

When we talk about training in the communities, there are certain parties involved, whether it be ENR or ITI. There are interdepartmental committees working closely with the regional groups. There is a steering committee that is established to identify those needs, whether it be the biomass, and areas of training that are required by the Deh Cho region. Definitely, those are areas that we need to identify as part of whether it be a month, two months, however the length of training program that’s required, and then identify those individuals that are interested. It is the grassroots people that...

Mr. Chair, what I’m looking at is cultural and heritage. I believe that is the information that I have. Maybe I will get my director to maybe elaborate a bit more.