Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Thebacha, that Bill 4, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2011, be read for the first time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we do deliver programs where we have contractors coming into corrections. We have elders dealing with those inmates working closely with the counsellors as well. We are trying to reach the people, the inmates within our correction facility to try to reach their root cause of why they are there and deal with those issues at hand. Once they leave the facility, they have the option of attending addiction treatment centre as well, Mr. Speaker, but we do within the corrections, we deliver, again, a vast area of treatment training program workshops that will continue to deliver and...

Mr. Speaker, we do have a treatment centre in Hay River. I think we need to continue what we have within our corrections. We, as the Member indicated, have 90 percent population whether it be Aboriginal from the communities. Those are the individuals that we can work with. Rehabilitation back to the community, reintegration back into the community, that we have somewhat control over within the establishment to deliver those specific programs that can help those inmates so they can go back to their community and start a life all over again. Those are the main focus and our priority as the...

My department can definitely meet with the Coalition Against Family Violence, the group, and report back on what’s happening, how they can be involved. We have various partners involved as well. It’s not only the Coalition Against Family Violence, the groups are out there. There are other NGOs that we need to work with, like, again, the 33 communities that we need to reach out to those victims and also the communities.

If those partners that have been identified have not been involved, then we should involve them. We need to start reaching out to the communities, the organizations, the NGOs, those individuals that can relay the messaging to those victims that have been impacted so they can be notified. We’re doing what we can as a department to work with those communities, the 33 communities that we service. Through telephone or radio announcement, newspaper and so forth, those are the ongoing initiatives that we’ll continue to pursue.

Mr. Speaker, the committee of representatives at the DEC level, those types of discussions, concerns or ideas are brought forward at that level and those discussions are shared with me as the Minister responsible for Education through our chairs meeting. We talk about the priorities of the community and also the communities of the regions.

Mr. Speaker, this is an area that has been brought forward. We talked about the space inadequacy. Mr. Speaker, I will be visiting the Nahendeh area and I am looking forward to meeting the teachers and also the facility as well. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, those types of discussion need to take place from the community, the DEC we need to work with, and highlighting which are the priorities for the region and also the priorities for the Government of the Northwest Territories. We are providing capital project funding to include in the 2010-2011 capital plan that was initiated and that will cover the technical upgrades as identified so it can provide more teaching spaces. Those are just some of the programs, the funding that we’ve identified, but definitely this is a discussion that we need to have at the school board level.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 3, Electronic Transactions Act, be read for the first time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

The program is sunsetting the end of the month. As I stated, with any pilot program initiative that’s been undertaken, there’s a need for re-evaluating the program if it’s been successful. Discussion comes forward after that. As we move forward to the business planning cycle, this I’m sure will be a topic of discussion as well.

I, again, indicated that the schools are receiving funding. With our budget that’s been approved, it has been allocated to various different programs in the schools. The majority of our funding also goes to the school boards and they decide where the money should be distributed, based on their interest in the students, the teachers, the programming. The school boards can also decide on the various areas that they can allocate funding. If it’s going to be towards the Food First Program, then it’s at their discretion to work with that. There are other program dollars that we have identified and...