Jackson Lafferty

Yes, Mr. Chair.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. To my right I have Mark Aitken, director of legislation division and to my left, Mike Reddy, senior policy analyst, policy and planning division. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.

Yes, Mr. Chair. I’m pleased to be here to speak to you about Bill 7, An Act to Amend the Summary Convictions Procedures Act. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Social Programs for their review of this bill. The Summary Conviction Procedures Act allows for a ticket to be issued to a person who is accused of committing an offense under a territorial law or municipal bylaw. The ticket indicates the amount of the voluntary payment for an offense, as well as the date on which the person is obligated to attend court if the person wishes to challenge the ticket.

Mr. Chair, the act...

Mahsi. With this outcome, we can certainly clarify what’s truly happening. It’s just a matter of making calls to the superintendent or the board level and reconfirm where the students are at, but at the same time, the Member is asking for an additional teacher in the community to what was required based on their funding. It will be at the board level to deal with those eight students that have been brought forward to our attention. Mr. Speaker, yes, we will clarify the matter once and for all. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my department works closely with the Beaufort-Delta education council and we get information directly from them. The information we got from them is exactly what I quoted yesterday. There might have been a miscommunication, but that’s what we received. We do have a superintendent who continues to have a discussion on this particular issue, as well, between our department and also the Beaufort-Delta, to deal with the one outstanding student that I referred to yesterday and how we can work with those students and then continue on our dialogue where if some of the...

This particular program is quite unique and the cost factor itself is approximately $800,000 to operate. It does consist of classroom and library resources, mostly level books. They are the key to success literacy program and make it possible for teachers and students to track their reading achievement progress. Those are the specific areas, $800,000, which also covers the literacy coaches in those communities.

I, too, truly enjoyed the tour of the South Slave with the Member. I believe it was a real successful South Slave tour. I can certainly highlight some of the key initiatives that have been undertaken since 2006.

Just over 50 percent of the South Slave students met or exceeded the standards of the Alberta Achievement Tests for grades 3, 6, and 9 after the second year, for the South Slave students reading at or above the Canadian norm this year, 2009. We are making a huge improvement in this area. In 2008-2009, South Slave students were at 71 percent, at or above the Canadian average. Also, 2009...

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to update the House on the Department of Justice’s work to improve policing services across the Territory.

I would first like to recognize the new commanding officer of the Northwest Territories “G” Division, Chief Superintendent Wade Blake. Chief Superintendent Blake has 29 years of experience in the RCMP. Residents of Fort Smith will recognize him from his posting there from 1989-1992. He is well known for his commitment to alternative justice approaches and community policing. He is very familiar with the needs of small aboriginal communities without on-site...

I can commit to the Member that I am willing to work with them on this symposium that he’s referring to. He did bring that to my attention and I believe that’s going forward. I told him, if we’re invited, we’ll certainly be part of that ongoing process. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, by all means. Those are consultations that we need to have. We do have representatives at the regional levels; not just Sahtu region but other regions. We depend on their expertise because they’re fully aware of the community needs, the community programming, and what’s needed, what’s lacking. So those are areas that we need to have continuous consultation and dialogue with the Sahtu region.

Mr. Speaker, yes, we will have a dialogue with them. Mahsi.