Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that we’ll go to Ms. Eggenhoffer.

Thank you. What’s the estimated split between our historical archives and Nunavut’s historical archives? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that we’ll be going to Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I’m not sure we have the exact detail. It’s very detailed information that we may not have here, but we can provide that to Members. Mahsi.

Thank you. Can I also get the estimate – and I’m saying estimate, not exact, you don’t have to hire 25, 30 people to do this – of storage capacity as to what do we have, what are we using and where it’s located? I think I heard someone from the Minister’s side say that some of it’s stored at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, some of it’s stored at the government warehouse, which is just a heated warehouse, so can I get that as well?

We’ll definitely provide that information.

I guess… No, that’s fine. Thank you.

Committee, 10-9, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, revenue summary. Any questions?

Thank you. Page 10-10, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, active position summary. Any questions?

Seeing none. Page 10-12, 10-13, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, directorate, administration, operations expenditure summary, $10.521 million. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few questions here. As I read the description for this section it talks about policy, legislative initiatives, strategic business and capital planning. I wanted to ask some questions of the Minister with regard to capital planning.

I get the impression that the department doesn’t really have a capital plan. I’d like to hear from the Minister, if there is one, is there a system the department uses to determine what schools are in need of either renovations or replacement. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty. I’m sorry; we’ll go to Mr. Devitt.

I appreciate that everything has to come through to the government capital plan process; however, within the department, what does the department use? Okay, the need to identify. So once the needs are identified, does the department have a list where they have a priority list of schools, which schools will be sent through the GNWT capital planning process first before another one, for instance? So there must be some way that the department determines that school X will be put ahead of school Y. So what exists at the department to determine the priority of schools that either need renovations or replacement? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi. There have been numerous assessments and reviews done in education plans throughout the Northwest Territories. We can provide the detailed information on which schools have been a priority for either a retrofit and which other schools can hold off for a few more years. So we can provide that detailed information.

Thanks to the Minister for the commitment. So what I would like to see, and I don’t know about other committee members, but I would like to see a list from the department which tells me which school is number one and which school is number 47 on the list of things to be done.

I’d like to move on. The Minister mentioned in his opening remarks that there’s a fairly comprehensive review of the education system that is… I can’t remember whether it’s future or whether it’s ongoing right now. I’d like to know from the Minister whether this review has started and, if so, that’s

fine. Two things I’d like to know: if it’s already in process, what expectations does the department have that this review will produce at the end of it, and what timelines are we working with here for the review from start to finish? Thank you.

Mahsi. Yes, we’ll provide the priorities of the school from first priority to all schools in the Northwest Territories.

The education renewal,’ as you know, is before us now. Our expectation is that we want to hear as much as we can from the experts, whether it be the educators and community members, the grassroots people, the front-line workers. We’ve heard in the House that we need to listen to the front-line workers. So those are my expectations as Minister responsible. I want to listen to them and hear their input. And the time frame, of course, we’re hoping for late fall, early winter. That’s the target date and we will be going back to the standing committee to present the update on that. I believe it was addressed that potentially having some sort of a draft format to speak to the standing committee. So we are committing to that as well.

Thanks to the Minister for the information. I note the Minister, in his remarks, said to improve student performance, the department has initiated a broad-based review of the NWT education system toward developing a territory-wide action plan. That was in his opening remarks. Just now the Minister mentioned talking to people on the front lines, and I absolutely agree that needs to be done. But if this is a broad-based review, if this is a review which is going to look at the total education system, I would caution that we don’t want to put too much weight on what the people on the front lines say. They certainly have experience, they certainly have opinions, I know I would, were I there, but I caution that we don’t rely only on one segment of our system, that we rely on the experience of those people that are working in our system, but that we also rely on research, that we rely on activities and systems that are operational elsewhere in the world. The Finnish one is one that was referenced last week, I think.

I think for us to get a good result from this review, if it’s going to be as broad as it sounds like it’s going to be, and if it’s going to look at every aspect of our education system, we must make sure that we look at it in a broad picture, that we look at every aspect of our system and that we don’t just concentrate on one segment of our system. That’s pretty much a comment, I don’t have any more questions, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Moving on with questions on 10-13 I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess I just have one question. If there’s anywhere that I can place it, is under the directorate. It’s in regard to e-

learning and seeing how this department provides overall management planning, communication and administrative support.

I believe the staff did get a briefing and presentation from the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority representatives on how successful the e-learning program that’s been happening in a couple of communities in the Beaufort-Delta region and some of the successes that they’ve had in terms of students that are passing the advanced level for courses.

So I just wanted to ask the Minister and his staff, with the presentation that they saw and the results that were coming out of these students going well beyond what we are regularly seeing, and the stats with small communities, is the Minister looking to keep this program going after the pilot project, and would he be willing to look at creating more opportunities for the smaller communities. As I stated in the general comments from the Beaufort-Delta leadership meeting, leaders from Paulatuk and Sachs Harbour expressed interest in utilizing more education in those communities for Sachs Harbour being able to see students graduate with a Grade 12 diploma out of Sachs Harbour. So with the e-learning program, I’m just asking what our next steps are and if he’s willing to continue to support this program, and if he’s willing to expand it into more Beaufort-Delta communities. Thank you.