Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. If the information is not there at this point, we will make sure that it is available. Mahsi.

There are a lot of things on the go right now, a lot of discussions happening. There are also Skills for Success within my department that Dechinta is engaged in as well. We want to engage them. We need to find those individuals with the talent. Not only that, but if we need to change within our Education Act, obviously that will take some time. Those changes have to reflect our engagement with the general public as well. We are currently in discussions with the Dechinta and also the president of Aurora College and the U of A. There is a proposal that’s been discussed and we are moving forward...

Yes. We will provide that to the standing committee, who the actual contractor is. It’s a contractor that’s well known to deal with these matters in other jurisdictions as well. So they’re more specifically on the junior kindergarten area. We also have Dr. Andre Corriveau who’s working very closely with us on this particular file, especially when it comes to the health and social services area. This is a joint initiative between my department, Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. So we’re doing what we can to capture everything within that review. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. With Dechinta Bush University, it has been successful to date, since 2009. I was just there last fall and I wanted to meet with the staff, meet with the students, and it was a very well-experienced visit. I’ve always been supportive of the Dechinta University Program and I will continue to do so.

When I met with the staff at the Dechinta Campus, they highlighted some of the challenges we are faced with. I expected the proposal that’s coming down, so this is an opportune time to discuss some of these aspects. We will be entertaining a discussion on this. Obviously, Aurora...

There are so many initiatives that my department is working on. When we were at NWT Days in Ottawa we also met with university students from the Northwest Territories. Obviously we want them to come back to our Northwest Territories and work for us. It was a very productive meeting and we’re going to continue to do that. Every time we travel to other provincial jurisdictions, we want to meet with the students. We care for the students. We want them to come back. We support them. There is the Education Renewal and Innovation that’s happening that will capture three years of action plan. Also...

We are being challenged in the Northwest Territories. We know that NWT students are graduating from high school significantly below the Canadian average. We’re fully aware of that, and our system is not meeting the standards. The whole Education Renewal and Innovation will definitely capture that. We’re fully aware of that and we’re developing tools to capture that as well. Along the way, it’s a three-year mandate, a three-year action plan, and we will be keeping the standing committee up to speed while we’re making changes along the way.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Again, I have to reflect on the whole Education Renewal and Innovation. It is a very broad sector. This will obviously capture the graduation of our students across the Northwest Territories. Some of the areas of which we are aiming and also our goals and objectives are obviously to improve the overall academic achievement of all students, 8,000 students, 49 schools across the Northwest Territories. We also want to increase the number. The Member touched on the 50 percent. Obviously, we want to reach 80 percent or plus, but that will take some time.

Also, improving literacy...

We are closely monitoring the Alberta AATs. There have been some changes that are happening and we are working very closely with them. My department is currently looking at replacement of the assessment and including Alberta’s new tools for student learning assessment. That’s a new tool that they have developed which was piloted in several schools in the NWT this fall as well. We’re working very closely with Alberta. It is too soon to know if the new Alberta assessment is a good fit for the NWT, but those are areas that we will continue to push forward with Alberta and see what’s best for the...

Yes, these are some of the additional activities, extracurricular activities that the coaches get involved in, and the teachers, volunteers at the community level. The after-school physical activity program is also part of the GNWT Healthy Choices initiative. Obviously, there is some funding attached to it to provide schools with after-school physical activities, upwards of $765,000. That is $650,000 for after-school physical activity programming and $150,000 for the healthy snacks component of the program. We feel this is very important for students to be actively engaged in sports and...

We will provide the latest update of all those we have engaged because it’s very important that we hear from the day home and the daycare operators from their perspectives and their concerns that are brought to our attention.