Jackson Lafferty

When I speak to success, we refer to the 50th year anniversary. There are all these apprentices who have been very successful to date. We have journeymen ticket holders in the Northwest Territories, and we continue to push that forward and seeing the positive results. Those are the successes in the Northwest Territories. This particular program that may not be with us today, we will be discussing. Not only that, but other programming that potentially will come into play as we review this overall apprenticeship through adult and post-secondary education and skills training. It is under review...

Mr. Speaker, there have been several discussions pertaining to trades access in Hay River, but these were preliminary discussions that we had when we were renovating the school. I have to follow up on where the discussions have taken place. Obviously, if there’s a high demand from DECs or DEAs, it’s an area that we need to look at as well. There was a request from the Sahtu region, as well, for a trades access program and a technical training centre.

Those are just some of the areas that the communities have showed interest, and we are following through with them. I’ll get back to the Member...

Mr. Speaker, that’s a very valid question the Member is asking, and it is a very important question as well. If you look throughout the Northwest Territories – I can only speak to my region, as well – we have a high number of females in high school and also post-secondary, upwards of 90 percent. Obviously, those individuals will enter either the skilled trades area or even the professional development area.

Yes, that is one of the prime focuses because we know the stats that are out there, that we have a majority of females in K to 12 and even in post-secondary, so we need to identify those...

I believe some of the options that I highlighted earlier will be discussed at the public forum and the parents will be raising their concerns to YK1, and then we will be hearing feedback from YK1 with the outcome. We are looking forward to those discussions as we move forward.

There is a proposed public meeting that’s going to be happening tomorrow. Then I believe the decision comes down on December 9th. We are just waiting for the outcome of the parents’ engagement pertaining to these areas that have been brought to our attention. I believe there are four options for the general public to consider, the general public of the schools. At this point in time, we are just awaiting the results of those meetings.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to share the Northwest Territories three-year baseline results of the Early Development Instrument referred to as the EDI results. The EDI is a population-level tool that measures children’s ability to meet age-appropriate developmental expectations at school entry.

The EDI measures five areas of a child’s development, including their physical health and well-being, their language and cognitive development, their communication skills and general knowledge, their social competence and the child’s emotional maturity.

Mr. Speaker, the EDI focuses on the outcomes for...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Government of the Northwest Territories 2013-2014 Annual Report on Official Languages,” and a letter to Mr. Bob Bromley, dated November 4, 2014 regarding a statement in the House on the safety in junior kindergarten.

I wish to table the following two documents, entitled “Workers’ Safety and Compensation Commission Annual Report 2013” and “Northwest Territories and Nunavut Workers’ Compensation Appeals Tribunal Annual Report 2013.” Mahsi.

As I stated earlier, there are a variety of programs, subsidy programs that we provide to, whether it be training or small community employment programming. Not only that, there is a substantial amount of funding that we work with through the federal government, and that is Canada’s Job Fund. Those individuals that do not qualify for EI, those individuals, as the Member indicated, are in desperate need of sort of like a training that fall through the cracks. This particular program is geared towards that. Part of the focus of the federal government, obviously, is to train those individuals and...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The pre-employment program and other programs have been very successful to date. There have been some changes in programming. Right now we are looking at the employment success through adult and post-secondary education and skills training. Those types of programs that existed before will definitely be captured in part of our review process, because we are engaging the key partners and also the stakeholders in the Northwest Territories on how best to deliver this particular program. We are re-evaluating our position on these skills and training programs.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The Member raised the conflict of interest between the Minister and the board chairs and the DECs with respect to if there are any program changes the superintendent, well, they’ll still work on their DECs. I don’t see that changing. Right now, if we’re introducing a new initiative and there are issues, the board chairs usually raise that issue with us, whether it be public or in person with the Minister responsible for education. Superintendents will continue on record. They will still continue to report and to provide advice if there are any issues with program delivery...