Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment has successfully established the social assistance appeal committees to serve all Northwest Territories communities. The committees hear appeals for income assistance and child care user subsidy programs. Getting these local appeal committees now ensures that Northerners have access to a fair and impartial appeals process within their home communities.

To date we have appointed 87 committee members to hear appeals. There are still spaces available for more committee members in some communities. I encourage the public and my...

Mr. Speaker, I’ve always respected working closely with the education councils and I will continue to do so. We cannot do this alone, implement this strategy. Definitely I will be seeking some guidance and support from the education councils and the Members as well. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to recognize an old colleague of mine as well, Mr. Harley Crowshoe. He’s the regional director for aboriginal policing from Edmonton, Alberta. Also Julie Day, policy analyst with aboriginal policing from Ottawa, Ontario. Both of these individuals are here as part of the federal aboriginal policing directorate and participating in self-government meetings. Welcome to the Assembly.

Mr. Speaker, I think we need to focus on what we have before us today. It is part of the package and we are going to start implementing that. The language immersion in all schools, that is also our vision, starting from early childhood. Not only that, but we’ve heard over and over, even in the Sahtu region, the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, that there was a language that was spoken that we need to start from home. Parents need to talk to their kids at home. The teachers are there as a resource tool, but at the same time some teachers don’t speak the language. So it has to come...

I’d like to focus on what we are going to be doing with the new package. We had the Language Institute here this past summer. That’s part of the strategy that’s been highlighted, that we need to deliver more language programming into the region and the communities to the people. That’s what we’re doing. Not only that, but it also captures Dene fonts onto our computers throughout the system, integrated language curriculum and immersion programming. Those are the key factors that are within the package.

I think, as we move forward, most of the concerns and discussions that were brought forward...

The aboriginal languages will likely see some shift, because we want this to work. At the same time, we need to gather the information. We have done that along with the package that we have before us. Mr. Krutko did mention numbers as well that are out there that we have used so far. We will be monitoring that and collecting more data over the next two or three years. We need the committees, the language specialists, committee experts, the community members to provide that information as well. We will be working closely with the community. My department will be working with the Members as well...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. An evaluation form will come out of this framework that’s going to be before us. We seriously want to monitor each and every recommendation that is brought forward and the program changes that we will be making within our Department of Education. So it’s all preliminary right now, the recommendations that are before us today. Definitely evaluations will be part of the process.

What the Member is referring to is captured in the 70-plus recommendations that will be brought forward and we’ve also initiated a summer institute for language this past summer. It was very successful and was part of the development stages pertaining to certification, possibly diploma or degree. So the Member has already shared his concern and we are looking at that as part of the strategy that’s before us, and there are also talks about the interpretation and translation training program. So that is part of the strategy as well. It is a comprehensive document and we are in the process of...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. As it stands, we recognize 11 official languages in the Northwest Territories. The federal government recognizes English and French, so we are very proud of our Northwest Territories jurisdiction language recognition.

I have heard on several occasions of a language that could be integrated or added to the existing 11 official languages. There are comprehensive steps that have to be undertaken, public consultation. Members would have to be involved in that. The Legislative Assembly would have to be involved in that. It would take some form of consultation with the communities...

Mr. Speaker, I am fully committed to seeking a way to, of course, provide increased support to the communities, especially in the aboriginal language communities. We are also looking very closely at our existing resources where we can improve in certain programming and increase our investment as well. Those are the areas that we are closely monitoring and with this strategy in place we want to make some changes, as well, on how we distribute funding as well. I will be having further discussion with our federal counterparts, as well, the federal Minister. This has been addressed through the...