Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following three documents, entitled Health and Health-Related Behaviours Among Young People in the Northwest Territories, the NWT Student Financial Assistance Program Review and Final Review Report as of March 2012, Management Response to the Student Financial Assistance Review, Final Report. Finally, further to my Return to Written Question 10-17(3), I wish to table the following document, entitled 2012-2013, ASA Funding Distribution. Mahsi.

Mahsi. We did look into Alberta and southern jurisdictions, their student financial assistance. Again, our program is much better than what they provide. I’ll give you an example.

As I stated on March 12, 2009, the limitation of $50,000 for a loan limit in other jurisdictions. Ours was $47,000. We increased it to $60,000 so at least we can service a master’s student. So we are improving our program every time and, again, with the recommendations that were brought to my attention from the general public, from the students, from the parents and also from Regular Members, we will be following...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the question was first raised in this House, I did respond to the Member’s question, reflecting on our program comparable to other jurisdictions such as Alberta. At that time I did state that we have the best program to subsidize students in the Northwest Territories, comparable to the information that we had at that time. With that, I did commit to this House that we were looking at an overall review of the SFA program and I’m glad to say that we have done that.

The review is before us and I’m going to be tabling that document today, and it does reflect on what we’ve...

We do try to avoid, as much as we can, on the delay of payments to those clients. We understand that the power bill, the utility bills and other food sources, that is our priority, to issue those cheques on time. But there are times when we are challenged with providing documentation and so forth.

Again, as I indicated, we are going to have a dedicated individual that deals with those matters. The requests that come in, I specifically instructed, after the question was raised in the House, that this is an urgent matter. We need to deal with it especially now that winter is here. It is a...

Mr. Speaker, healthy behaviours and healthy choices are fundamental to a good education and superior quality of life. Schools offer a significant opportunity to educate young people about healthy lifestyles and to foster healthy behaviours. In the Northwest Territories, schools play a strong central role in health promotion. While we develop the programs that foster these healthy behaviours, we must first understand what our young people think about their health, their challenges and their choices. The Health and Health-Related Behaviours Among Young People in the Northwest Territories is our...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories is dedicated to providing relevant and necessary programming to suit the needs of our adult learners.

In May 2011, as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the GNWT and the mines, the departments of Education, Culture and Employment and Industry, Tourism and Investment met with our three operating mines in the North: BHP Billiton Ltd., Rio Tinto and De Beers Canada. They identified a need for financial literacy training for their staff and we responded. ECE set to work on identifying modules for the program, with research on best...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled Annual Report on Official Languages, 2011-2012. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize some of the visitors in the gallery here. I would like to recognize, first of all, Mr. David Mitchell, the president and CEO of the Public Policy Forum. With him is Vice-President Jill Baker, and also project coordinator Ryan Conway. Our visitors are from Ottawa. Accompanying them is David Brock, Chief Electoral Officer.

I would also just like to recognize the students that are here with us, along with Arthur Osborne, an instructor with Aurora College, as part of the Business Administration Program. He has brought his Introduction to...

Mahsi. I do agree that we need to have better communication dialogue with clientele, and we are improving in those areas. We will be providing training for the client service officers starting at the end of this month, early next month, having all of those client service officers across the Northwest Territories come in and provide training to them on best customer service satisfaction. That’s our priority and we’ll continue to improve in those areas. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Client service officers work closely with the clients and we try to avoid most delays as much as possible, but there are times where we are challenged with the clientele producing valid documents, such as bank statements or other sources of income. At times we have to wait until we receive that documentation. So part of the process is we want to expedite the process, but at the same time we require those documents, according to our policies and legislation that we have in place. Mahsi.