Jackson Lafferty

Yes, Mr. Chairman.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the $400,000 that’s been identified would cover a variety of, I guess, sectors or a committee to identify what’s important in the communities. I wouldn’t call this meaningless money. There’s $400,000 going to the communities. We want to spend the $400,000, the majority of it, probably 90 or 95 percent of it, in the schools, in the community, into the organizations’ hands so they can deliver a breakfast program or other nutritious program. We can’t call it meaningless, Mr. Chair.

I think it’s important to identify that we are working with the NWT Foods First...

Individuals like that with a family, we provide subsidies for income security programming. There are a variety of programs that we can certainly offer to those individuals. So, Mr. Speaker, we do what we can through the income security area. As I stated, there are always amendments to our current policies that we have on hand, but so far it’s been up to date to meet the standards of community needs. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, yes. Throughout the career and employment development, we have added a new initiative, as the Members are aware. Smaller community summer employment supports, that certainly will go a long way in small, isolated communities for providing employment to the youth. We do have regional representatives and also at the community level that deal with career counselling. We provide funding to the schools as well, provide that to the community outreach workers and then career officers and so forth.

Mr. Chairman, we can provide more of the detailed breakdown of the actual amount of the main...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we increased the minimum wage just this past week and it is scheduled for April of this year; another one next year. Those are the areas that we are continuing to focus on right now. With respect to the other thresholds the Member is alluding to, we have increased the threshold in the seniors home fuel subsidy just recently. The policy is always changing, so those are things we need to consider. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I do believe my department has met with the Aurora College on what the Member is referring to. Of course, we need to discuss further on what other programs are out there. I know the Member is passionate about the non-renewable resource area and the program that he has suggested in the past. Those are the discussions that we continue to have with the college. The college will likely come back to our department and identify different programming, enhancing their programs, compared to what other jurisdictions are offering. So, yes, those are the ongoing discussions we...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we’re dealing with here is barren land caribou. The question that we’re posing to the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories is: did the GNWT have the authority to issue the banning on the caribou. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I do believe this will be part of the discussion that the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative will certainly take into consideration, because they are dealing with the absenteeism, the enrolment issue, the functional grade level and the also the high school graduates we’re upgrading. Those are the discussions that are before them and they will certainly take those into consideration. If not, we can certainly discuss it as we go forward. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We have identified some of the regions are losing their languages rapidly and we are currently dealing with that through our language groups and the continuous discussion with the federal, three territorial Ministers... We have had a teleconference just late last week and, Mr. Chairman, I am taking a lead role in the language and culture preservation on behalf of the three territorial governments to push at the federal level. I have identified the Gwich’in especially, because they are losing their language fast. Even the Tlicho, even though we have a strong language...

Mr. Speaker, with the addition that we are talking about, whether it be the second phase of Ecole Allain St-Cyr and also the Ecole Boreale in Hay River, we also talked about having a gymnasium attached to the school through our negotiation with the federal government. So we will continue to address that at the federal level. We are, like I said, Mr. Speaker, dealing with the French school board on enhancing this even further, expediting the process with the federal government, but it has been a slow process to date, but we’re not giving up. We’re going to continue our negotiations with the...