Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to recognize today our interpreters. My favourite day of session is the day that you and I get to have lunch with all of them. I appreciate the time they spend with each of us and the extra time they spend with me helping me on my statements. I'd also like to do a special recognition of Susie Napayk-Short, our Inuktitut translator. It is her birthday today, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Our plan at the moment -- and we've been working on it for the entire year now -- is working on a review of our inclusive schooling directive. And so a lot of the funding that goes into schools is to support students, for us to meet them where they're at and make sure that they are supported in their classrooms. And so that review will tell us what those recommendations are, what teachers are looking for, what families are looking for, what students are looking for, so that we can take a look at that directive and take a look at our system globally. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the opportunity I have to connect with education leaders is through our education leader table meetings, and I can certainly commit to continuing to bring this forward to them. Attendance is something that we talk about quite often, and the Member has my commitment absolutely to continue to keep this top of mind and top of discussion because it's vitally important that our kids are in school. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, many of our schools in the Northwest Territories have a staff member that they dedicate to supporting students and families. These days as well, we have many of our schools who have our kind of peer counselling program or wellness worker program, and so those are roles as well that also help students work through the variety and spectrum of challenges that our students are experiencing these days. And other programs that have seen quite a lot of success are our healthy foods program in our schools, which do draw students in. We end up with warm...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So the Member is absolutely right. When programs are not offered here, then often our students will go down to Alberta, for example at NAIT. So quite often, we end up with students who are doing their first and second year here in the Northwest Territories, and then their third and fourth year are being facilitated at other institutions. Predominantly, they end up going down to Alberta. I will also say the chair and board of governors of Aurora College is looking at other ways of increasing their trades offerings and making sure that they're increasing access...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we currently follow the national, what's called the NOT Code, so the trades that are identified under national standards, and so that's the system that we adhere to to make sure that we're being consistent with the whole country. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our programs are accredited, so they go through a process of accreditation before they can be offered, before they can be deemed programs that people turn around and then can use in life. We want to make sure that we are being safe, that we have appropriate training for people across the territory, and make sure that we're offering a program that is competitive with the south. If the Member has a specific concern about a specific program, I'm more than happy to follow up on that with him, with the college, and make sure that I can provide him with...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

So, Mr. Speaker, it's called the Apprenticeship Trade and Occupational Certification Advisory Board, so ATOC Board, and they are still very much in play. Their current board all has current membership, and I actually rely on them quite a bit and source them for their expert opinions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while I said to the Member that we don't want to do strategies left, right and center, and make new door props for departments to use, that we want to make sure that we're using our public servants effectively and efficiently, we still do have programs, and we still do have metrics in our programs. So continuing to use our data that we do have is incredibly important.

Mr. Speaker, I'd also say that it's really important that we are very clear in our communication that we have accessible messaging as a government in all of our economic initiatives that we're...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the support of a healthcare worker on those assessments is a change that was proposed by the federal government. We continue to go about doing our applications with education bodies in the same way and making sure that at the Department of Education, Culture and Employment that we're providing the support letters that our education bodies need to be able to facilitate that application process. So that support that we've always provided is still maintained and still provided. Thank you.