Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I totally agree that we need to focus on all schools in the Northwest Territories. We will continue to push where the priorities lie. I agree that we need to focus on the communities that we represent. Mahsi.

Those are the areas that we continue to get complaints from various parties and we deal with them either through the employers or through our Justice department. The avenue they may have with respect to certain types of complaints that may be brought forward, it all depends on the case-by-case basis. We need to work with those individuals as the need arises. Again it can be an interdepartmental initiative as well. Our Justice department is available to the general public if there are any issues pertaining to that and also with Human Resources.

Mr. Speaker, the solutions are still coming at us from the regional forums that we have initiated. We visited four regions already, including Yellowknife, and also two more upcoming, Beaufort-Delta and also South Slave where Mr. Beaulieu will be part of that process, as well, along with other MLAs. It is at the preliminary stages right now, but in due time, in May session we are hoping to table the document and that information will be available to the general public. There are a lot of solutions in that package that will come out of that. Mahsi.

I’m fully committed to working towards the planning stages. We are at that point where we’re working towards the capital planning projects. I did indicate in this House that I’m committed to working towards that and identifying dollars. The planning stages are in play and the capital planning process will be before us this summer. We’ll move forward in this regard as a discussion and then see what comes out of that. If we need to allocate funding, then definitely we’ll talk about that at that time.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t have the detailed information before me now. I can get that information for the Member. I understand that there has been some improvement in absenteeism, because the school board has developed initiatives to deal with absenteeism because it is a big issue in the small, isolated communities. We are currently discussing that with the various school boards across the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. What I can tell the Member is that this is an area that we’ve been discussing for a number of years now. The lease is coming up as well. We need to plan for that this fall. The stand-alone campus we’ve been discussing with other jurisdictions as well, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut, and other jurisdictions about how we can move forward as a university of the North. We talk about the campus here and we talk about a university of the North building on the existing campuses.

This is an area that’s important for our department and we’ll continue to push forward. I will...

Mr. Speaker, I did state that this will be part of the discussion that we need to have as we discuss all the capital projects for the Northwest Territories and we need to prioritize what needs to go in place for next year. Definitely, the Sissons School and Mildred Hall will be part of that discussion and we’ll keep the Members posted as we move forward. They will be part of the process as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi. Any assistance the Member can provide, we’d really appreciate it and discussing a partnership approach has always been our push as the Government of the Northwest Territories, we’re always seeking out potential partners. So we will be seeking out what kind of capacities are out there with regards to partnerships. So those are discussions that are open for us as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the title of our strategic plan is Northerners Working Together. This reminds us of an important point, that it requires the effort of all Northerners to help us achieve success on the goals of this Assembly. In acknowledgement of the contributions our residents make towards our goal of healthy, educated people, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment is now accepting nominations for inductions into the Education Hall of Fame this year. This is a great opportunity to give recognition to Northerners dedicated to education in the Northwest Territories...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Let me first commend those students that are pursuing their higher education. We support those students 100 percent to fulfill their dream and come back successfully into our Sahtu region or other regions in the Northwest Territories. With this Sahtu trades centre, the Member had approached us a while ago and we are working on the key aspects of gathering information and we need to work with Aurora College in that respect as well. We’re talking about the community learning centres, as well, and combining those and how it would look. But we are working on that, gathering the...