Jackson Lafferty

We are indeed pouring money into where it’s needed. The most clientele necessity, the most basic needs we’re providing funding towards that. That is our overall goal and objective to look after those who most need it. The ones who are in poverty, we’re providing a subsidy to them. We’re making changes to our programming, as I stated. This is what we’re doing as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment responsible for the Income Security Program. This is an area that we’ve made some considerable improvement, as I stated before, but we are putting money where our mouth is to the...

Obviously, if we had $20 million or $30 million today this is an area we can possibly explore, but we don’t have that kind of funding available to us to date. At the same time, as I stated earlier, we are making some changes effective April 1, 2015. We are proposing to increase our overall food benefits under income assistance programming. This is from a recommendation and also suggestions from the clientele, the general public that it’s time that we change our programming, and we’ve done that in 2007 and again in 2015 to meet the needs of those individual clients. That’s what we’re doing as a...

We are currently in negotiations with the federal government on French language and Aboriginal language contribution agreements. We are in the final stages of signing. I am hoping by this summer. It all depends on how the federal government plays. I have met with the Minister of Canadian Heritage and also Official Languages. I met with her in December and also in January during the Ottawa Days. I stressed to her that it’s important to sign off another four- or five-year agreement. So, the message is clear to the federal Minister that we need to have a new agreement with an increase in funding...

There’s a variety of stakeholders involved with these types of discussion. One of the areas that the Member is alluding to, mandatory counselling, has been brought up. We’re fully aware of that, and even the superintendents of school boards are aware of it, as well, and how can we mitigate that into our current code of conduct measures.

So, these are ongoing discussions that we are currently having with the school boards. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we first talked about the safe and caring school legislation, there was discussion about a territorial school code of conduct being established in all schools. So those are just some of the discussions and engagements we’ve had with the school boards. They are moving forward to developing their own code of conduct within the school establishment. That has been in place.

There has been a lot of discussion happening at the school level. We are hoping in the beginning of the 2015-16 school year an overall code of conduct will be established. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Ms. Lea Lamoureux, principal of Kaw Tay Whee School in Detah, on being recognized as one of Canada’s outstanding principals for 2015.

She is the most recent in a long list of Northwest Territories recipients who have been recognized for their dedication and passion for teaching our students in the Northwest Territories.

The Learning Partnership recently announced Ms. Lamoureux as one of 40 exceptional educators from across Canada. Through her leadership, Kaw Tay Whee School is now a vibrant learning environment, connecting families and the community of Detah....

There are all kinds of websites that have been established within my department. We’re working with the school boards. There are some websites that may not be suitable for various reasons and it’s been highlighted. What the Member is referring to is gearing towards that as well.

So, we are, again, working with the DECs and DEAs to capture that, and if it’s a concern, then we need to address it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Each school is provided with the tools and supports to develop and implement the most effective and relevant safe school plan for their school and also the community, and there’s also an evaluation monitoring mechanism. With every program that we’ve established, we’ve initiated, there’s a MEA, monitoring evaluating accountability aspect to it because it’s very important that we evaluate how our program is operating. So, this is one area that we continue to push forward with the school boards on an annual basis. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise Members that the Honourable Bob McLeod and the Honourable David Ramsay will be absent from the House today to attend the Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women National Round Table in Ottawa. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The phasing out of the Alberta Achievement Test is an opportunity for our government to find other methods that we can work with that have a northern perspective. Tools that assist in student achievement are an appropriate way that takes into account our students’ realities and also their northern context. My department staff, ECE, is working to determine what is the best tool for the Northwest Territories along with working with Alberta and the standardized tests that are most applicable and suitable for our northern context for our small communities as well. Those are just some of the...