Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is my department has discussed with other jurisdictions, other organizations, but they are having continuous dialogue on where we can improve our services. Those potential positions that Ms. Bisaro has alluded to, we’re continuing having discussions in that area. That’s my understanding. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, first of all, the Wrigley detachment, this has been in the works for the last couple of years now and it’s still there. We’re still committed. I’m glad that the MP is doing part of the job representing the Northwest Territories at the federal level. We continue to do that continuously every time we meet at the federal/provincial/territorial Ministers meeting. Wrigley and Gameti have always been addressed at every meeting that we’ve gone to. So we’ll continue to do that.

Mr. Chair, we have a joint discussion that’s ongoing with the Housing Corporation and also the...

Yes, Mr. Chair.

I do believe we are making some changes in our curriculum, as long as it benefits the communities, benefits the schools, benefits the students. If we do it for one, we have to do it for all jurisdictions, not just one region. So, Mr. Speaker, those are the areas that we continue to have with the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. There is valuable information and discussions taking place. Each of the regions are well represented and very fruitful discussions are happening. So, Mr. Speaker, all the issues addressed here today are being addressed at those particular committee meetings...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my understanding is that it is totally committed to the YWCA. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, the amount of funding that we provide to education councils, it’s to their discretion on where to disclose the funds, whether it be to the elders or to the Mentorship Program. Some of the school districts are providing mentorship to improve student attendance using various examples. So it will be up to the Sahtu education council to provide that available information.

Mr. Speaker, although this is a small initiative that we’ve initiated, we are already making progress, we are seeing some changes in student attendance going up a bit. Mr. Speaker, on a going forward basis, this...

We are doing research in other jurisdictions as well. That should be completed and a discussion paper should be available within the next six months to the standing committee. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, we are currently developing a framework for the whole Northwest Territories, but each jurisdiction has their own orientation package. Again, I’ll refer back to the Tlicho Community Services Agency where they have the On-the-Land Barren Land Program where newly recruited teachers go out on the land with the elders. It has been a very successful program, but that’s one jurisdiction. We’re looking at the cross-cultural throughout the Northwest Territories as an orientation package. Mr. Speaker, we are developing one and we’ll certainly get back to the Members on that. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The quick answer is most definitely yes, because those officers that need to go to the communities without detachments, such as Wrigley or Tsiigehtchic, we definitely need to work out some agreement in that area. We want to have more presence in the community by RCMP, but sometimes there’s no accommodation. If they provide accommodation, it’s not suitable to their standards as well. So we have to identify the specs as well. When I was talking about the infrastructure, that also includes the detachment where it has to be according to the “G” Division specs on the detachment as...

We are looking at other alternatives to educating our students. The Member is correct that in some of the areas it could be based on their performance as opposed to their attendance. That’s an area we’re also looking at. We’re also dealing with the attendance issue on formula funding on enrolment. But there is a very successful project happening in the South Slave region. We went to visit Fort Simpson and Fort Resolution on their particular program, an alternative program. I must say this is an area we are very interested in as a department that we can probably pilot project in other regions...