Colleagues, I would like to draw your attention to the gallery today and the presence of our Languages Commissioner, Ms. Sarah Jerome, who is with us today. We will be tabling her annual report at the appropriate time today.

The honourable Member for Monfwi, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. It gives me great pleasure to also recognize Sarah Jerome, NWT Official Languages Commissioner; also David Reid, NWTTA president.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Tu Nedhe, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Krutko, Mr. Roland, and Mr. Robert C. McLeod are not in the House and would have recognized the Languages Commissioner, Sarah Jerome. I’d like to recognize the Languages Commissioner.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The honourable Member for Thebacha, Mr. Miltenberger.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad to be able to recognize the chaperone for the two handsome Pages from Fort Smith -- Marcus Bourke and Ferron Beamish -- Ms. Melinda Bourke.

Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. The honourable Member for… I’m drawing a blank.

---Laughter

The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.

Only the most important riding in this whole Territory, Mr. Speaker.

---Interjection

Anyway, I’d like to welcome Melinda Bourke as well. She’s my wife’s niece and I’m her uncle. I’d like to welcome Marcus, as well, for doing a good job helping out as a Page in the Page Program. It is a really good program. I’d like to welcome Ms. Sarah Jerome, too, into the House. Good to see you, Sarah. And Mr. Reid, one of my

old teachers up in Inuvik. We had a lot of good run-ins and a lot of good times. Thank you, Mr. Reid.

Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. The honourable Member for Yellowknife South, Mr. Bob McLeod.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Mr. Darrell Beaulieu, chairman of the Business Development and Investment Corporation, and Ms. Shirley Bohnet.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. If we’ve missed anyone in the gallery today, welcome to the Chamber. I hope you’re enjoying the proceedings.

Item 6, acknowledgements. Item 7, oral questions. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about the practicum issue I talked about. I want to ask the Minister if there are any ways he’s working to arrange for students in the Northwest Territories to come back to the Territories to do their practicum once they complete their courses in southern educational institutions.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, definitely we’re continuing to work with various institutions that we have partnerships with down south. At the same time, the Grande Prairie Regional College is also interested in considering some modification. The modification will take some time but it is in the works. Those are areas that we continue to work on with the college.

The one instance I made reference to and the Minister has just talked about, the Grande Prairie institution. Is the Minister now giving the House a deadline on when maybe a resolution could be satisfactory to the student or the community to have the student or future students come up to the North to do their practicum?

I can’t really give an exact time right now. The discussion just started with the college. That is my understanding. There are talks about the modification of the program for future usage, such as those teachers in training having their practicum in the Northwest Territories. Those are areas we need to work on and we’ll be working closely with the DEAs in the regions, the college and my Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

When these students enter into post-secondary institutions and take on the career of a teacher or teacher’s assistant, has the department notified the students ahead of time about their practicum and the requirements we need? To also let them know ahead of time that it’s not possible to come back to the North to do their practicum, such as this student in Grande Prairie that was disappointed that these things couldn’t be worked out ahead of time? Can the Minister notify me if these things are told to students entering into the teaching professions?

I believe that there are different parties involved. It is also the student’s responsibility to do their research on what they want to get into, the field of studies, and the requirements of that particular program, including the practicum and whether or not it can be delivered in the Northwest Territories. That is information that is available on the college website or the college application. We need to work with the students. We as the Department of Education, Culture and Employment have staff that can provide some information, but it’s also the student’s responsibility to do that part too. We’ll continue to work with those students.

I hope the department can rectify this situation as soon as possible. As you know, students who leave small communities and come back to do their practicum or to go back to work, it’s a good incentive for other students to continue on their education and role modelling. I would ask the Minister again if he would commit to see if this resolution can be done sometime within the life of this government.

That would be one of the plans we’ll be working on to expedite the process. There are a number of students who are taking this particular program and we definitely want them to come back to the Northwest Territories to do their practicum. That will be our goal.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to ask the Minister if he could share what type of arrangements or what type of barriers that Grande Prairie has put up in terms of not helping the student to get to the North to do her practicum. What are some situations that his department is looking into?

Some of the obstacles or challenges that may face the college is the travel to the communities. Those are the areas that have been identified and we need to work with that. There may be other areas, other concerns that may have been brought forward, but this is an area that they’re willing to modify their program. This is definitely an area that we need to focus on. Mahsi.