Jackson Lafferty

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...

Part of the plan will be to have that package... We are hoping to have it available April 2010. So we are looking forward to that so we can start thinking about the future capital plans. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, most definitely I agree that the more an individual has education in their back pocket, high school graduation and on to post-secondary and even to higher education. Of course, we want them to come back to the Northwest Territories and work for whether it be our government or aboriginal governments or municipalities. So we continue to invest into our SFA Program, our Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative area. So we continue to invest in those areas. Early childhood that we talked about earlier, we continue to invest in those important factors. Mahsi.

Those types of discussions we need to have with the divisional education council. The library is an area that we continue to support, whether it be the programming into the regional centres or small community libraries. In the Member’s library in Lutselk’e, they are getting new community learning centres. It could be worked out through the college itself, but there are all these opportunities that we can discuss with the Member in that respect. At the same time, I think this is an ideal discussion that we need to have for the community of Lutselk’e.

I know that there is always talk about having...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Hay River school, there has been an addition to it to deal with the space issue; the challenge that was put before us I believe a couple of years ago in the school itself. Also, the gymnasium aspect of it, certainly there have been arrangements made with other schools within the community of Hay River. Part of the long-term plan, of course, is to work on the gymnasiums for those schools without the gymnasiums. Like I said to other Members, I need to work with the Department of PWS and also Municipal and Community Affairs on this particular piece of work. We need to...

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I guess the reason why it’s not reflected in this budget is that work is still being collaborated with the regional boards, whether it be the schools, the health, the housing, but nothing has been changed at this point. As we move forward, as I stated earlier, there will be more discussion that will be taking place. But, Mr. Chairman, the Member is asking if there have been any changes. No, there has not been any change. Mahsi.

I do believe we are committed to having the school expedited, the second phase. So that’s why we continue to pressure the federal government to sponsor us as they did in phase one. They provided the funding to the schools and we’re hoping that they’ll continue to do so. Those are the discussions that we continue to have to put more pressure on the federal government. We’ll continue to do that.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it would all depend on the community, what kind of facility that they have. The criteria, of course, will be followed. We do have various funding through Early Childhood Development, whether it is daycare or other areas of programming. So we can’t really give out the community-based...which community is going to receive this. All we are saying for now is the small and remote communities will certainly benefit from this and it could be part of the Member’s riding as well. It all depends on the community infrastructure they have in place. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, all the schools are our prime focus. We’re not comparing small schools versus bigger centre schools. I think we feel that all schools are the responsibility of the GNWT as a whole under the Department of Education. But with this ongoing discussion that we’re going to be having, we need to compile that information from the divisional education council, what they have on file, with our department. Certainly, from there we’ll move forward with that information on the capital planning process. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The reason it’s not reflected in this budget is we’re still working out the logistics of transferring those positions. So we’re at the development stages, development plans for the actual transfer of the program and also there’s going to be PYs attached to it. So those are still in the preliminary stages as we speak. Mahsi.