Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, most definitely. The Minister of Health and Social Services is also the Minister of Persons with Disabilities and she’s also taking all kinds of notes sitting beside me, so, definitely, we’ll continue to work in those areas. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the Early Childhood Program, there have been some changes to benefit the communities that we service. Part of the ongoing initiative, the ongoing improvement of the program is the last two years, April 1, 2007, there has been an increase in the contribution, so that can offset or allow operators to increase staff wages and improve benefits for early childhood staff. So those are the areas where there have been some changes. Also, since 2007-2008, the department assists eligible providers with basic rent or mortgage expenses. Those are new initiatives that...

Mr. Speaker, the Member is referring to a generic area of challenges. We need to find out the root cause. What is the real issue? Like I said, it could be the lack of information being provided. That is always the case, Mr. Speaker, dealing with client service officers. Concerns come in. It is almost always, 80 to 90 percent of the time, that not enough information has been provided. I think that we need to strengthen that area. Certainly that would be our clear message to the communities when we visit the community. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with respect to the issuance of monthly cheques, it could vary in various circumstances where individuals may not have provided enough information such as a tax return or a tax refund, whether it be a source of income has changed or there has been a deposit into their bank account without informing the client service officers. So there are all these areas attached to the information providing.

Certainly we can have our staff do an informal or formal presentation to community government if that needs to happen. We certainly want community members to be aware of...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I rise to provide an update to my colleagues in the House about the Ministers of Justice meeting in New Brunswick last week, especially on aboriginal justice issues.

I have been working with my counterparts in Nunavut and Yukon to provide a unified northern perspective to the federal government. We have common issues, common needs. It makes sense to work together and support each other, especially on policing and aboriginal justice.

For many years, Mr. Speaker, we have been frustrated at the federal government’s inadequate funding for aboriginal policing in the North. The...

Mahsi. We are willing to support the students that are entering college or university, but if they’re at, say, a Grade 9 level, then there’s an education factor in the Northwest Territories. They are more than willing to assist these students enter into our school system. We have beautiful schools in the regions, we have a new school in Tulita. Those are the areas that we continue to improve on. So we continue to strive for that, Mr. Speaker. We have to make clear that the SFA funding is specifically for post-secondary college or university students, but I’m willing to work with the Member on...

Mahsi. We are currently supporting those students that are willing to upgrade in the regions, Mr. Speaker. We have to support our students in our home communities. We can’t ship the students down south to get upgraded. Yes, we fully encourage students to go to college and university with the appropriate courses, and those courses are delivered here in the Northwest Territories. We continue to support those individuals that are willing to upgrade or get educated on our home turf in the Northwest Territories. Not only that, Mr. Speaker, but when we talk about the policies in place, we certainly...

Mahsi. The program that has been offered by Aurora College is recognized, probably not all courses, but most of the courses are recognized by southern institutions so they can continue on to take advanced education, whether it be a diploma or a degree program. So we’re always pushing our northern college and other institutions to have an accreditation program here in the Northwest Territories. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, our contribution is towards the organization and they hire their staff and they pay their staff the wages and also benefits, similar to what we do with the school funding formula. We give a lump sum funding to the schools based on enrolment and then they hire their professional staff. So it’s a similar arrangement that we have with them.

We’re happy to announce that as of this year there have been 55 successful early childhood education candidates surrounding 14 communities. So that’s one of the successes that we like to show the Northwest Territories. So we continue to improve our...

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Member is there for me as well to assist me. I think we need to collaborate on this, because I don’t have all the answers. I certainly don’t know exactly what is happening on a day-to-day basis in the Member’s riding. Certainly that information will be available for our department. Certainly I will look forward to working with that. Mahsi.