Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. We need to get the facts from all the education board levels. We are gathering the facts from our department with the superintendents of each school board. The Member talked about unequal distribution. So we need to identify that. What is she referring to? Is it just one school board that is saying this or is it all school boards? So those are the types of discussions we’re going to have in April when I meet with education chairs. So this is the important discussion that we’re going to be having and on a going forward basis we need to gather all the facts and also identify enrolment...

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This particular area has received a lot of focus for the last year or two. We did make some changes there when Members in the past approached us about how we should deal with it and gave us advice. One bit of advice, of course, was increasing the threshold, which we’ve done successfully. I believe it was $10,000 across the board.

We continue to change the program. As the Member alluded to, we’re trying to do things differently. Yes, we are. We are making change as we go along. This particular area is on household income. The Member is correct on that. I did instruct my...

Mr. Speaker, again, we do provide these apprenticeship programs in the campuses that we have here in the Northwest Territories. We do support them 100 percent as much as we can. This particular student has a great opportunity to take the program in April. The Member is referring to March. There is one in April that is close to home, close to the family that can certainly take on the opportunity. Those students are taking on other courses. There are other courses down south as well that they can take on, but the fee structure is different in the Apprenticeship Program that we have in place...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. That Western Arctic Leadership Program, we are in partnership with them as well. So we contribute on an annual basis towards that particular program and they do have other partnerships that contribute to their leadership program as well. So we continuously support this area. Mahsi.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

We talked about 90 or 95 percent yesterday, but after hearing the Members, I will rank it up to 100 percent. Mahsi.

Yes, there is flexibility where if a program is not being offered at our campuses, we send students down south such as we did with this individual on his second year. So we continue to promote that. But we do have to keep in mind that we do have campuses here in the Northwest Territories that we need to sponsor and support. It’s our true northern campuses.

Mr. Chairman, this was brought up as well. We provide funding to facilities or establishments to offset their costs of their mortgage or start-up costs or operation costs. Not only that but, as I stated, we are exploring options because enrolments are going down. Not only the schools, but also, if it happens to be a child care area, it is also based on the enrolment of attendance of the children or in establishment. We are also looking at that. It has been brought up in the House here, exploring options of attendance versus the operation costs. At the same time, we are looking at some...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We do fund all students as best we can; the 1,400 post-secondary students that are out there and the apprenticeship students that are out there. I think we have to keep that in mind that this particular campus that we’re talking about, it’s also geared towards apprenticeship because, as I stated, we’ve invested so much already and we continue to invest in upgrading our facility so it’s one of the top of the line courses that is being offered. At the same time, other students are taking those post-secondary programs as well at Smith campus and Inuvik campus or Yellowknife...

Mr. Chair, we take into consideration what the Members throw at us. We appreciate that and we can have that as an ongoing discussion that we have, but we have to keep in mind that this is basic food and shelter. If we start providing and paying phone bills, whether it be $32 or $260, are we going to pay for gas to go to the clinic, as well? One can argue that it’s a necessity and as an emergency factor, but this is a basic program subsidy that we provide through the Income Support Framework Agreement that we have. Mr. Chair, we have to keep that in mind, that we do provide subsidies to all...