I would like to ask the Minister if there are any precedents in the Northwest Territories for communities that would find themselves in the same situation as Hay River where they would have a full-time fire chief on the municipal staff, if there is any specific funding

earmarked to support that position in view of the tasks that person can take on that relieve pressure on the fire marshal’s office. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, we have a few communities that have full-time fire chiefs and they’re paid for by the municipality. Again, as far as them taking up some of the duties or doing some of the work that would normally be done by the assistant fire marshal, once we do the review of the O and M if we find that there’s some merit to that, then I’m sure it’s a situation that the department will have a look at. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, if the Town of Hay River could quantify a certain amount of work of that nature that is being done and were to submit a proposal to MACA for an offsetting contribution to support this position in Hay River, is that something that Municipal and Community Affairs could support? I’m just thinking it would be more information if there were an actual detailing of that type of work that’s being done that would normally fall under the mandate of a territorial government employee. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I’m sure all the communities come forward and make their case to MACA on the amount of funding that they receive, and if the communities make a good enough argument for funding for a position such as the one the Member is speaking of, I’m sure the department will be more than happy to have a look at it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Your final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m going to ask the Minister if he sees this as a good model. We see this in other areas such as economic development where a municipality or a community will hire an economic development officer and it will be funded by the territorial government to work… There will be a contribution from the municipality and a contribution from the territorial government for a position like that. I see this position of a full-time fire chief as similar in the sense that this is work, a lot of the work that could fall within the mandate of a territorial government employee. So I see it as a cooperative and joint effort with communities. I think it deserves special recognition in that way as a special category of funding and I’d like to thank the Minister for considering a proposal of that nature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Again, communities that do their budget, they will budget if they want to bring on a full-time fire chief or whatever other staff they want to hire in the community. As I assured the Member, we are always working with communities, LGANT, and NWTAC just to see how we can improve services that we provide to the community. Again, the whole O and M funding process will be

reviewed to see, working with all these different groups, if any changes need to be made. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Weledeh, Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions follow up on my Member’s statement and are directed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I’m sure the Minister is aware of the critical importance of early childhood development and I want to explore how this has been recognized in the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative review.

The early childhood development research I’ve cited comes from a presentation to the Canadian Council of Ministers of Education by world renowned early childhood expert Dr. Fraser Mustard. I’ve recommended Dr. Mustard’s work and even his participation in the ECB initiative to the Minister.

Mr. Speaker, how has the Minister assured recommendations in the ASAI report reach all the way down to consider prenatal and preschool measures? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. This particular area is of great interest and also a priority of this government. Early childhood development and childcare has always been a priority of this government. We all know that learning starts at early ages. Part of the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, the first priority is the early childhood development and childcare.

We’ve heard over and over from the regional forums, the people of the North, the educators, the parents, that this needs to be at the forefront, the first priority. We have initiated that. This will be part of the document I will be tabling in the House today, later today. It will specifically highlight what we’ve heard, what the priorities are, the implementation stages for the next government to proceed. Mahsi.

I’m very pleased to hear those comments from the Minister. The scientific information is obviously too powerful to ignore here. If foresters growing trees had similar information, for example, they wouldn’t wait until seedlings are five years old to get the best yields. They’d pour on the fertilizer the moment the seed is planted and we must do the same with our most precious resources.

Given the Aboriginal Student Initiative work will be incomplete without full inclusion of early childhood

development considerations, and yet the ECE review is ongoing, how will the Minister ensure that results of the early childhood development review, which will be completed next Assembly, will be immediately incorporated into the Aboriginal Achievement Initiative work? Mahsi.

We take the same example as the fertilizer on the early seedling. We’ve heard in communities that even focussing on those babies that are not born yet, they talk about that and how the parents and the grandparents should be talking to their unborn child because that’s the most important step. I believe in that as well. We need to spread the news. We need to start initiating our discussion, talking to our children, even though they’re not born as of yet. At the same time even little ones.

Mr. Speaker, this particular Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative is a working document. Any document that we produce, there are always changes that reflect on what we’ve missed out from our previous forum discussions. You know, we may have not captured everything that we wanted. That’s the purpose why we are here today in this House and question period. Sometimes we miss out on things, and we can certainly capture that as we move forward.

So this particular area of early childhood development is of importance for this government and will continue to pressure them as we move forward into the next government. Mahsi.

Again, I appreciate the Minister’s remarks. I referred earlier today to the scientific information on how the building blocks of language development are laid even before birth and are best developed before the age of three. This government devotes a lot of energy to preserving and promoting Aboriginal language, and rightly so. The science shows our best prospect of success isn't in the formal school system. They begin when the child is still in the womb.

Again, how do recommendations in the Aboriginal Student Achievement report reflect these understandings? In other words, what actions? Can the Minister give some examples of what actions are proposed to support parents in their home and community during prenatal and initial years of their children’s lives? Mahsi.

Most of the discussions we’ve heard at the regional forums are specific to that area of dealing with the ongoing child and even the two and three year olds, focussing on them because they have to start early. That is planted into the document that is going to be tabled. It does highlight the importance of starting early and having parents and educators involved and also the leaders. This is a shared responsibility. We have to do it together. Even the grandparents are involved. So, Mr. Speaker, I will be tabling the

document that will highlight all the specific key points that we’ve heard, particularly early childhood development. This is an important document that will be tabled in this House. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of the Housing Corporation with regard to my Member’s statement and looking at alternatives and options to work with tenants that are finding themselves in situations of either being evicted or having arrears and finding ways. As the Minister should know, in most of our communities we have 45 percent unemployment. There are very few jobs to go around. I think as a department you should consider looking at what you can do to help these individuals work off their arrears by either simply cleaning, painting, or in some cases, like I mentioned in Tsiigehtchic where they demolished housing units which were going to be demolished anyway, and allow those individuals to take on some training and give them some opportunity to get some work experience, but more importantly, pay down their arrears with 50 percent of the income that they arrive at.

Has the department looked inwards of the Housing Corporation and the housing authorities of how they can work along with their tenants to pay down those arrears? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Minister responsible for the NWT Housing Corporation, Mr. Robert McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Housing is always looking everywhere to see how we can help those folks pay down their arrears. Part of it was allowing people to get into a repayment plan where they pay X amount of dollars. In some cases, one case in particular, a lady paid for five or six years until she managed to pay it all. It was very small amounts she paid each month. But the Member has a point, though, and it was an innovative solution that was reached in Tsiigehtchic. That’s one thing we try to encourage our department and all our folks out in the front line to try to come up with innovative ways that we can work with these residents to give them an opportunity to pay down on their arrears. We are always open to suggestions and open to new ideas.

This is one that we just actually had a fairly brief discussion at the beginning of the week with senior management over at the Housing Corp. So this is one that we would consider. Thank you.

As we know, we have aging housing stocks in the Northwest Territories. A lot of it does need upkeep, and that’s where I’m trying to focus my question on. Those units need some improvements such as painting and the possibility of doing minor renovations and also replacement of, say, electrical fixtures. I’d like to ask the Minister if he could get his department to look at what is on the business plans for capital investment in those different communities and see if some of those investments could be used for the tenants in those units to maybe do some of that work and work off their arrears by simply painting their units so you don’t have to bring a contractor in from outside the community. Those dollars will stay in the community and will help those individuals to pay down their arrears.

We look for every opportunity that we can work with the communities. I know of a few communities where the local LHO will do a lot of their own maintenance and improvement work over the summer. In some cases they’ll bring as many as 17 people on board to do the summer work. They also hire a lot of students to work at the LHOs for the summer.

As far as the employment goes, we have to be very careful that these folks, that if they do enter into some kind of agreement with them, we have to be sure that they qualify or are able to do a fairly good job, because we don’t want anyone just going into a unit and just slopping paint all over the place and thinking that’s acceptable, which it really isn’t. We have to be sure all the work is done according to the standards that the local housing authorities have.

It’s not a simple question of cash switching hands. Sweat equity is a way that people do work things off, and I know in the past, people did trade, barter, and did whatever they had to do to help the other person out. I think that should still originate in this government. I think we have to be conscious that people do have talents in our communities, and if you can make use of those talents and tell them you can work it off, I think that’s all I’m asking for.

I’d like to ask the Minister to take this into serious consideration. Since you look at the arrears that are out there, I think it’s going to take many, many years to pay down the arrears simply at $30 a month or whatever. I think you have to find a way of working with them to pay them down sooner and get these people back into housing.

I’m very well aware of the talents that we have in the small communities, having seen it first hand and knowing that they’re quite capable if you give them an opportunity of performing the work. The training that a lot of these folks have gotten over the past number of years working casual for the local housing authority

during the summer is something that’s allowed them to continue to work.

I take the Member’s point, and I can assure the Member that as a corporation we’ll continue to try to work any way we can with the tenants to find ways that they can possibly work off their arrears and that. It’s a decision that’s made by the LHO but with some direction from headquarters. I can assure the Member that I will have discussion with staff and we’ll see if there are ways that we can find solutions to help those in the communities.

The Member is absolutely correct; arrears in some communities are quite high and it would take a long time to pay them down. We’ll do what we can as a corporation to see how we can alleviate some of that pressure.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mr. Krutko. Thank you, Mr. Krutko. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.