Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, it is a mixture where productive choices consist of the wage economy and also we are moving into more of a traditional economy as well. We have individuals that go out trapping. We have assisted them over the two or three months while they are in the bush. We have done so. We will continue to do that, even those individuals that may be on the land hunting and other sources to bring in some harvesting, as well, for the family and netting fish as well. Those are areas that we are embarking on. I for one like to pursue that even further, how we can engage those clientele so they can...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to thank the Member for that particular question, because it has been addressed to my attention as the Minister responsible for the income security framework how the clients are treated by income security officers, client service officers. Due to that fact, we’ve initiated training for client services officers. I believe that’s coming up either this month or early next month on how to professionally deal with the clientele. We are very serious about our satisfaction of how we service those individuals, the clients, and we’ll make every effort to deal with that...

Again, we are providing the programming through ECE to the communities, to the organizations to deal with those challenges that we’re faced with. Again, interdepartmental, that we are working towards a solution towards this and we’ll continue to stress that. It is important to us and it’s one of our priorities. We will be reaching out to the communities that are most impacted.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. What I can offer is the programs that we currently deliver into the communities, whether it be to the organizations. Part of the programs that we offer, of course, is income security. Within income security there are all different programs, as well, whether it be Productive Choices, individuals that can access the income security. We also offer other areas such as, again, through my department, the Labour Market Agreement. I know the Member is referring to specifically the food area, but we work closely with the Health and Social Services department, and also the Minister...

What I can do as Minister responsible is, again, work with the two Ministers, but at the same time, with our programming, as we speak, my department is doing the research within those communities that are impacted, the challenges that we’re faced with and what can we provide. If we need to improve in those areas, we’ll continue to do so in our programming. This is what I can provide to the Members, that my income department area will be going to those communities from a regional perspective and provide solutions to the challenges.

As I indicated, there are approximately three departments working on this particular project and we are aware of it. To the extent of the challenges, we need to work together in collaboration and identify solutions, because that’s where we’ve been focusing on as a department, and we will be informing the Members as we move forward on resolving this issue. That’s our prime mandate. As my Department of Education, Culture and Employment, we’ll do what we can with the programs in existence to offer a remedy to these situations.

Mr. Speaker, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is dedicated to providing relevant curricula and improving educational outcomes for all students of the Northwest Territories.

At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission meeting in Inuvik last year, Nunavut Minister of Education, the Honourable Eva Aariak, and I committed to developing a comprehensive curriculum on the history and legacy of residential schools. We developed it in partnership with the Legacy of Hope Foundation, through much research, interviews with residential school survivors, archived materials and collaboration...

When we talk about early childhood development, there are all kinds of programs within the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We are also working closely with the Department of Health and Social Services because they do have a framework of programs that deals with zero to three years of age and so forth. Within our Education department, we deal, also, with the college to deliver the certification programs and others, the immersion programs that we have initiated in several of the communities. Those are just some of the examples that have been very successful to date. We will...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I agree with the Member that we need to educate our people across the Northwest Territories to the best of our ability as the Government of the Northwest Territories Department of Education and that’s what we’re doing. Also, we’re heavily focused on the early childhood development. As the Member indicated earlier, there was a 2001 Early Childhood Development Framework that we’ve embarked on to have a renewal.

We are quite unique compared with other jurisdictions where we want to join forces with the Department of Health and Social Services. My colleague Minister Beaulieu and...

Mr. Speaker, the Governance Council does engage in third-party actuary on an annual basis to review any impacts of the Workers’ Protection Fund and also the employee industry classification, the claims experience and also the recommended assessment rates. WSCC is also audited annually by the Auditor General of Canada, but we just had a recent audit done. I am confident that the audits of the Auditor General of Canada and the use of the independent actual rate of WSCC have the new checks and balances in place as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.