Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize former Behchoko resident Peter Beggair who is here with us.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document, entitled “Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission Corporate Plan 2012.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, this government promotes the importance of trained and certified skilled journeypersons. We encourage our youth to consider skilled trades as a great career choice, and we celebrate the success of our apprentices and journeypersons.

Every year the Northwest Territories dedicates a week to those in the skilled trades and occupations. This year, Apprenticeship and Occupational Certification Week is scheduled for February 6th to 10th. Each regional ECE Service Centre will host Apprenticeship and Occupational Certification Award ceremonies for the 37 top mark awards achieved by our...

I’m glad the Member raised that issue. It’s a very valid point. There are agreements in place with the Deh Cho and other regions as well. There are some changes through the federal government, whether it be ASEP versus ASETS and we also have the Labour Market Development Agreement and also the Labour Market Agreement that I’ve highlighted. It’s a separate entity but we continue to support those individual organizations and members.

The Member referred to an agreement that is in place. We know that there is a sunset clause but we need to coordinate together with the community. It is at a federal...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Member did talk about the income security in the communities, and part of the program is to assess those individuals that could pursue productive choices at the community level. We also have a small employment program, as well, a subsidy to the employer so they can hire community members. It’s been very successful to date and we will continue to address that. There’s also a Labour Market Agreement and Labour Market Development as well. That funding is allocated for training, skill development, self-employment, work experience and so forth, youth employment. That...

Through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment we have regional representatives, regional employees at the community level, and we collaborate with other departments, as well, whether it be the superintendents working with the career development officers or PWS and ENR. Each department has their own mandate, their own initiatives on how or where those individual positions should be based, which community or region. Within our ECE department we target each region, each community where those positions should lie, what kind of position it should be, the skills and so forth, and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Now, more than ever, Northerners are realizing the importance of literacy. January 27th was Family Literacy Day. Celebrating Family Literacy Day helps recognize the important role that families play in literacy development.

The Northwest Territories has vast economic potential, and Northerners want to be able to access the jobs being created. We know that to take advantage of the opportunities, we must have a skilled, educated and literate workforce.

Family support is imperative to our children’s literacy development. Parents and elders are our children’s first and most...

Again, we do contribute to the board of education. I don’t want to be in a position to dictate where the money should be going. It’s their decision, the local DEA/DEC. They need to decide where the best interest lies because they’re the experts and they need to allocate funding. It will be a last resort for our department to go into the community and say this is where the money should be spent: on busing. It’s at their discretion. We are more than willing to work with Beaufort-Delta on the funding allocation, the formal funding and so forth. I will be committing to meeting, because we are...

If there are changes, we will definitely come back to the standing committee and talk about potential impacts and how we can deal with that in due time. Mahsi.

This is a real recent decision that is going to be coming down and we haven’t really figured out the repercussions or the impacts in the Northwest Territories. We will be working on the potential impacts and we can share that information with the Members. Mahsi.