Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Chair, the purpose of Bill 4, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2011, is to amend various statutes of the Northwest Territories for which minor changes are proposed or errors or inconsistencies have been identified.

Each amendment included in the bill had to meet the following criteria:

it must not be controversial;

it must not involve the spending of public funds;

it must not prejudicially affect rights; and

it must not create a new offence or subject a new class of persons to an existing offence.

The departments responsible for the various statutes being amended have reviewed and...

Mahsi. I agree that we are not looking away at that particular issue. Again, it’s a preventive measurement that we need to deal with, myself as the Justice Minister along with the federal law that’s before us. The RCMP “G” Division follows the federal law, as well. So we have to respect the Youth Criminal Justice Act as well that’s before us. Yes, the sooner the better. If we can have a meeting, by all means, let’s do that. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Yes, I did commit to the standing committee that I will be working with Mr. McLeod, Municipal and Community Affairs Minister, on this consumer protection, whether it be updates or upgrades to the specific policy. Mahsi.

Mahsi. That can certainly be added to our discussion. Again, it’s under the direction of the “G” Division through their federal legislation laws that they have to follow in dealing with 16-year-old, 15-year-old or 14-year-old individuals that may be drinking with an open bottle. But I can seriously take those into consideration during our discussion with the chief superintendent of the RCMP “G” Division. Mahsi.

Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document entitled Part 1 – 22nd Annual Report of the Victims Assistance Committee of the NWT, April 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011.

Mahsi. I did commit to working with the education school boards, the NWT Housing Corporation and ECE, my department, to work with the subsidies that we have in place, and also to deal with the northern living allowance that’s before us. Maybe some teachers are not fully aware before they get into the communities that they do receive attractive benefits when they’re in most isolated communities. So I did commit in this House that I will be working interdepartmentally and with other corporations as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to housing for staff, especially the teachers, we look after all the teachers as much as we can through the board operations. For the 2010-2011 school year, the teachers that were hired, there were no reports of positions going unfilled because of lack of suitable accommodations. As we all know, the northern living allowance, we take that into consideration as well, where each teacher, individual community members do receive those allowances based on their posting. So if they’re in an isolated community, they get a higher northern living allowance, as well...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular issue has been, as the Member indicated, brought up in the House and we did approach BDEC, the Beaufort-Delta Department of Education, Beaufort-Delta Board of Education. We’ve been working closely with the board on identifying key aspects of the students: are they missing school or having challenges while they’re in school, where they’ll be staying. We provide funding to BDEC on an ongoing basis, on an annual basis.

Mr. Speaker, also the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, the meeting that we’ve had, the last one in the Beaufort-Delta was a very...