Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. In short, the answer is yes. Yes, the Right to Read report is definitely very relevant here in the Northwest Territories as its focus is on equitable access to effective reading instruction, especially for Indigenous students. This report finds that queuing or balanced literacy approaches are not supported for teaching word reading and calls for explicit systematic instruction in phonetic awareness, phonics, decoding, and fluency. It's important to note here, Mr. Speaker, that the new NWT-adapted curriculum includes these foundational components as part of the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this concern has not been brought to my attention, but I am more than happy to pass to the deputy minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the conversations around Jordan's Principle over the course of the last year have not stopped at all. Right now, those conversations are happening with education bodies because, as I said, the funding went directly to education bodies. So making sure that we have the numbers and kind of the more granular details of how the funding was used is very important. So, for example, in some instances it was used for a support assistants. In other instances, in other education bodies, it was actually used for a teaching position. And so there's finer...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment works closely with ed leaders from across the territory to make sure that we are in touch, essentially, and understanding how this program is being met within communities and making sure that we're collecting data from schools on a regular basis. Anecdotally, I hear from parents, especially -- well, in Yellowknife here, that they want to see more access to clinicians. But I also know that part of this program is an effort to make sure that we're being preventative and that we're able to address...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to releasing the details of the program on Wednesday, on February 18th. That said, Mr. Speaker, there is going to be more demand for this program than what we have spaces for. We know this already. We knew this last year as well. This is going to be a challenge clear across Canada. I've heard from all of my immigration Minister counterparts how cuts to the program are going to impact their economic potential and their workforce needs in every province across this country. The Northwest Territories shares those concerns, and we...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the goal there between the wage grid for the centre-based early learning and childcare coordinators, our goal was to bring it on par with education assistants in the education system. And so that is the work that has been done. And if centres are choosing to pay higher, then that is something that they would need to mitigate from their end.

In addition, Mr. Chair, centres also get flexible funding that they can use to support wages should they choose, or to support the hiring of additional staff. So some centres, for example, have chosen to hire...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, ECE is currently reviewing BCE -- or sorry, BC's early literacy screening model as part of its quest to strengthen early identification here in the Northwest Territories as well. So some NWT education bodies, Mr. Speaker, have already instituted early screening with students, and it is certainly my goal to see that this is applied consistently across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, there are some post-secondary institutions in the Northwest Territories that are pursuing micro-credentialing and that are looking at different kinds of micro-clusters for business that are happening in different regions and are also tapping into what leadership in different regions are wanting to see as micro-clusters for those businesses and pursuing plans of how they can work together on those. So yes. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, well, thank you to the Member for highlighting that success. It's a number that definitely makes me excited. We started with about half of that when we started this Assembly, and we were, I believe, in -- had SNAP students in two regions. Now we've got twice as many SNAP students, and they're found in six areas or six communities in the Northwest Territories. And certainly the goal is to see SNAP students in every community in the Northwest Territories.

SNAP is heavily reliant on relationships. And so in order for us to have SNAP students, you need...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the Beaufort Delta Education Council delivers the northern distance learning on behalf of the whole territory. So that's where the program itself is based but it's accessible throughout the Northwest Territories. Thank you.