Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Does committee agree?

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, you can bring the witnesses into the House.

Minister Lafferty, if you’d like to introduce your witnesses to the House.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I have with me to my left, Gabriela Eggenhofer, my deputy minister of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment; Paul Devitt, director of strategic business; and also Dana Heide, the new associate deputy minister in ECE. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Heide, Mr. Devitt, Ms. Eggenhofer, welcome to the House. What we’re going to be doing here, committee, is we will be opening up with general comments and then we’ll allow the Minister to reply after we’re done. General comments. Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I welcome the Minister and his colleagues and his staff to the House today. As I have done earlier with other

departments, I just want to highlight some of the concerns that came out of the Beaufort-Delta Regional Council meeting where our Minister’s staff was in attendance.

First of all, just the high school in Sachs Harbour. The leadership of the region was concerned and wanted to see how we can get graduates in Sachs Harbour right out of Grade 12, rather than having to send them to Inuvik to a boarding school. It is the same with Paulatuk. They want to try to increase some of the education programs, and include some type of adult education and utilize the school to get some of those programs. I just want to get that on the record. That came out of the Beaufort-Delta regional leadership meeting that was held last January.

I am also interested to hear some of the comments that the Minister stated in here. It looks pretty good. Like I said, I will try to keep my comments short. When we get into detail, we will get into some of the specifics.

In the opening comments I didn’t hear anything in regard to the e-learning program, long distance learning program. I know there’s a pilot project that is going on out of Inuvik right now. They have been pretty successful in terms of the succession rates of students that are passing their advanced courses. Actually, it’s really upping the statistics for some of our smaller communities that have always had low passing grades. I just wanted to mention that and see what the plans are in the future for this e-learning program. Just even talking along those lines, the Minister did state with the official languages, some of the money going into there, but even with the e-learning program in the small communities, we do have some of our well-known language speakers that would be able to speak, say in coming out of Fort McPherson, they might be able to teach other people in Aklavik, Inuvik or Tsiigehtchic with this e-learning. That is an opportunity as well.

Under heritage, I’m not sure if the Minister and staff might have heard earlier this week – it might have even been yesterday – when I asked the Minister of Justice about creating some type of museum or some type of heritage structure for the RCMP “G” Division. They have played a big role in contributing to the North. They have a big role in what the North is and who we are. There is a lot of history there and it would be great to celebrate that, to acknowledge that, and to educate our residents on the history of the RCMP in the Northwest Territories.

Just one last little note here before we get into the real detail, and that is just in terms of income assistance. I know in the past year, and last year, actually, I even noted it in some comments and suggestions, and possibly even questions in the House here, about the increase of income support

and income assistance in the Beaufort-Delta region. I think we’re starting to see that now. With the slow economic activity that is happening there, we are getting more and more people that are starting to rely on government and applying for the income assistance. It is costing government a lot more money now. I’m not sure if that is reflected in the detail. When we get to those budget line items, we will see how much money was appropriated for that program itself.

Just some things that I didn’t see in the Minister’s opening comments. When we will get into detail I think we will be having a few more questions in this department. I commend the work that’s recently been done in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and I look forward to getting into detail with this budget. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. General comments. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a number of comments in no particular order. I will kind of go through the Minister’s opening remarks.

Initially, in the first page, I am pleased to see that we are working to increase the opportunities, I guess, for film within the NWT. We are starting to have quite a strong industry here. I think, along with Industry, Tourism and Investment, ECE has to recognize that we need to change the assistance we give to our film industry. I think that thought is there, but I don’t see anything in the Minister’s remarks in terms of money or a different way of assisting filmmakers to entice them to come to the NWT and to make movies here. I think it’s an area where we need to change our policy. I believe there is some thought being given to it, but I don’t see any evidence from either ITI or ECE that that is coming.

Under official languages, I am disappointed that there is no reference to any upcoming legislation in and around the Official Languages Act. There was a review of the Official Languages Act in the 16th Assembly and there were recommendations to make some changes to legislation to collapse the two boards into one. That recommendation has been sitting there for quite some time. I have yet to see any indication that the legislation is being worked on to make the Aboriginal languages boards more efficient. I think at this point we’re wasting money and I don’t think we have any money to waste.

There is a mention in the Minister’s remarks about it says 1.4 dollars more. I suspect that is supposed to be $1.4 million. However, we are spending $7.7 million on early childhood development programs and that’s about $1.4 million more than was budgeted for 2012-13, not to the revised estimates but to the budgeted estimates. I do believe that from the budgeted 2012-13 estimates, we added approximately $1 million at the request of

committee. That means we have an increase in this budget of about $.4 million, $400,000. If that’s the case, that’s not a heck of a lot. In terms of what committee is looking for, I don’t think it will do the trick in what we think we need to have to increase early childhood development.

Under the K to 12 education and libraries, there is a mention of a broad-based review of the NWT education system. I look forward to asking some questions of the Minister as to what that review is and what is anticipated to be accomplished with that.

I know, to the bottom of that page, there is some discussion about inclusive schooling programs. The department is working with education authorities to improve the delivery of student supports. I couldn’t agree more that that is something that is absolutely necessary, but I’m not so sure that just improving the supports is what we need. We need to provide a different method of providing those supports to our education districts and our education authorities. The way that we are currently funding inclusive schooling is not equitable. It’s not providing funds to the boards that have students with greater needs. The broad brush 18 percent across-the-board approach is not allowing boards to provide the supports that are needed to those students who have great needs.

I noted it talks about building a more effective evidence-based program and I totally agree with that philosophy. I think that is absolutely the way we have to go, but I think it’s going to require a very comprehensive and research–based look at how we currently fund our inclusive schooling across the board. If we don’t rely on evidence, and some of that evidence would be those students who require far greater support than others. There are some that just simply require about half an hour of extra instruction and there are others that require a full-time aide all day, and sometimes some of them require two aides all day, but schools are not funded based on the needs of the students and they should be.

Advanced education, the department will action recommendations from the Adult Literacy and Basic Education review. It’s good to see that we’re going to move forward on that. That review was done some time ago. I will have some questions as to what that means when we come to that section of the budget.

With income support I have concerns, as does my colleague Mr. Moses. We spend a huge amount of money on income support and I don’t think that we look seriously at our policies around income support, our policies around housing, our policies around all our other subsidy programs. I don’t think we look at those policies with a view as to whether they are complementary or whether they are contradictory for the clients that are getting income

support. I think we end up with policies that create barriers for our income support clients.

I think the other problem with income support is there is not a lot of flexibility on the part of the income assistance officers to be a little flexible in their assessments. I get the impression that we provide the officers with a computer program, they plug in a bunch of numbers or a situation, and out comes an answer and that’s it. There’s no if’s, and’s or but’s. There’s no variation. There’s no flexibility on the part of the officer to provide a bit of a different funding model for a particular client. I think that that’s something which we need to look at.

If my information is correct, the last time there was a fairly comprehensive review of the income support or Income Assistance Program, it was almost six years ago. I think it was 2007. I think that’s something we should probably seriously consider doing. Times have changed and computers are great, but computers don’t look at the human need. Computers look at numbers and specifics, and we have to look at what the humans need.

I am really pleased to see that we have an increase in the numbers of families accessing Child Care User Subsidy benefits. That’s been a program which really wasn’t working very well, and whatever change has been made, usage has increased substantially, so I’m really glad to see that.

Lastly, Mr. Chair, with regard to technology for our schools, we are somewhat hampered at this point because we don’t have access to high speed Internet in many places. With the coming of the Mackenzie Valley fibre optic link, which looks like we may have something in two and a half or three years’ time, I will have some questions to the Minister and the department about how we are going to use that new technology that we will have access to, and how we will change our education program based on the new technology, and the faster speeds, and the access to more things worldwide. That’s it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, before we continue on with general comments, we are just going to take a short recess. Thank you.

---SHORT RECESS

Committee, we will come back to order. We are on general comments, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I would like to highlight some of the issues I have been challenged with, with regard to Education, Culture and Employment one more time, I guess.

One of the big issues this term, as MLA for Nahendeh, is to champion the small schools in our small communities, most particularly creating a new Trout Lake school. If anything, if the Minister could respond to general comments to what kind of plan he has moving forward, that would be great. I have the documentation for 2018, et cetera, but that’s not something that the leadership and myself want to hear. We’d really like to work towards getting this moved up in the capital planning for a stand-alone school for the community of Trout Lake.

Another issue that I want to address is library services in the community of Fort Simpson as opposed to a resource centre. I am still moving forward with that and will hopefully get some solution on that. I know they’re working on a bit of a strategy. I’d like to see where the department is on that right now.

I am pleased to see the opening statement reflect the need for increased resources in the Sahtu; however, I have been making the case, as well, that the development is impacting my region as well, the communities of Fort Simpson and Wrigley, so if we could also dedicate some resources to those communities on a go-forward basis as we move forward.

This is a new and emerging thing. We didn’t see the impacts. Initially, we just thought it would be the Sahtu and it’s a bigger impact than we anticipated, and should it be fully developed, we’ll see probably a fourfold, fivefold increase in traffic and impacting all our resources, people, the trading needed, facilities in the community of Wrigley, dumps, just a whole myriad of impacts on the communities.

As well, another issue that I see time and time again as I travel to my communities is elders in the Fuel Subsidy Program. I’ve raised this in the House many times, as have many MLAs, and I’d like to see how the department is going to address this. I know they have checks in place, but often it’s not the elder’s fault that they want somebody to stay with them. When that somebody is staying with them, the income is low or minimal. So I thought about it over and over how to best address it, and the way to handle it is almost heading to a universal fuel subsidy despite the circumstances, that elders should get the fuel.

I know why the rules are there. It’s to prevent abuse, somebody that is actually working making good money and living off our elders. But in many, many cases people come to me and are appealing the fact that I’m here to care for my mother, she’s being impacted. I’m taking time off work to be here with her, and sometimes the family members, be it the children or nephews, they are often taking time off work to live with the elder.

You know, part of our focus, too, is to try to keep our elders in their homes as long as we can. It’s not in our nature to be sending our seniors off to

seniors facilities, and often they’re in another community than they reside in. I’d like to ask the Minister in his response, as well, and general comments, what kind of strategy, what kind of thinking has the department given this. Is there a better way to do it?

With that, those are my general comments. Once we get through specific departments I’ll ask questions as well.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Next on the list is Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have some general comments and I will base them on the Minister’s introductory remarks so it will be easy, hopefully, to follow along.

I do appreciate the work that the department does in the area of culture and heritage, and I’m particularly pleased that our staff have managed to negotiate the $1 million-plus revenue from Nunavut to help with the storage costs for Nunavut-based artifacts. Those are important artifacts. They need to be stored properly and there is a real cost, so I appreciate the department figuring out how to get those covered.

I also appreciate the three new regional Aboriginal language coordinator positions, Fort McPherson, Providence and Deline. Certainly, I know Gwich’in is a language under threat, so these are areas that I’m happy to see some work happening in. I know the Minister is well aware of the language issues in my riding and I’m sure that we’re whittling away on those.

The $7.7 million on early childhood, the Minister knows, again, I fully, 120 percent, support that; $1.4 million more than budgeted in the ’12-13 Main Estimates. I presume that’s the final budget that we passed that we’re talking about there and that this is not the same addition from last year. If that’s so, I think this does meet the Minister’s commitment from last year to recognize that increasing funding in early childhood development will be needed for future years, so I appreciate that completion of his commitment.

Early childhood, you know, there are lots of things to comment on and specifics of what is happening there. I see the distribution of age-appropriate baby bags. I hope that’s not a duplication, because I know there are other agencies distributing those. The child and family resource centre pilots, again, I was very unhappy, and I see this happening with other things, as well, with the timing. We’re leaving these things until the very end of the fiscal year to get going and, of course, then they’re rushed and not effectively done. The Minister did commit with those two child and family resource centres that there would be a PY filled by a fully qualified ECD, so I will be interested in whether that has been

achieved as per the Minister’s commitment for a full-time coordinator.

The bottom of page 3 has included a new child daycare inspection coordinator position. I’m wondering if we need a full-time position on that. Does this require it? How many daycare centres do we have? Is this position actually going to do the inspections or is it to ensure that the inspections are done, in which case I would expect we wouldn’t need a full-time. It’s very critical work but do we need a full-time position there?

Again, looking at the territorial-wide action plan from a broad-based review of the education system, again, I support that. I think there is overwhelming evidence of how early childhood development, which is not necessarily part of the education system but needs to be integrated with it, and some of those features carried on through the early years in our educational system are important to pay attention to in that refocusing. I appreciate the Minister getting started on this broad-based review. The importance of play, for example, and the less importance on homework in those early years. Moving away from a fear-based education system to one that’s clearly focused on the well-being of the child, helping the child to know themselves and discover what their talents and interests are, and helping them to develop those. I’m hoping that we’re going to take advantage of lessons learned in that work.

The Elders in Schools Program. We have heard this before and it didn’t happen. I still am kind of excited to hear it again, so I’m hoping the Minister will, indeed, come through here. I know the Minister, with Health, carried out a lot of consultation on ECD which involved elders, and it seemed like there was a certain amount of wisdom coming out of that. There might be some skill bases that could be tapped into there by the various school authorities. I don’t know what role the Minister might have there but it doesn’t hurt to help contribute that information.

Certainly, there is a great need, as seen by many of my colleagues as well as myself, on the need to improve the delivery of the Inclusive Schooling and how we do that. I am disappointed that we’re just now developing a new data collection system, but on the other hand, I’m glad to see it going ahead and I will be very happy to see that in place this coming fall.

The accountability framework for the education and training of adults in the NWT, again another Auditor General recommendation and discussed quite a bit in our program review office work, so I’ll be happy to see that. Is that ready to put in place? Is it developed and in place, in fact, when we say we’ll introduce it are we talking about spending the year developing it, and maybe at the last few weeks we’ll introduce it to actually put it to work.

Two new positions for the Sahtu. In recognition of what’s happening there, I appreciate the Minister being progressive on that front.

Just flipping through my notes here, I notice on Child Care User Subsidy the number of families accessing the Child Care User Subsidy benefits monthly rose substantially and I know that there were changes made, so I’m wondering what this actually reflects. If I can get that put in plain English. Does this mean that the demand is up, that the need is up, or is that they’ve just recognized that this is a valuable resource they can tap into, sort of, belatedly, and now they’re doing that? If I can get some clarity on that one.

Again, I’m glad to see these new reports, the Student Financial Assistance review and whatnot are coming, and are going to be put on the website, accessible Adult Basic Education review, so I’ll look forward to that. I’m very happy to see the incentives for students in a veterinarian medicine program. I worked closely with the Minister on that for several years and that sounds good to me.

That’s it, Madam Chair. I just do note that the department is increasing 3.6 percent. It’s more than average across departments, but on the other hand, this department, I think, is recognized to be so important that if there is a department that goes over, this is one of them that I think we would generally support. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. We are on general comments, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ve just got some comments, in terms of the department. I understand the department is the second biggest department in terms of its operational budget. I have some interest in terms of trying to at least understand – from my perspective in representing Fort Providence, Kakisa, the reserve, and Enterprise – the rates of success in terms of graduation in terms of high school, university, and whether there is more we can do in terms of encouraging kids to stay in school, and at the same time, ensure they have a value-added educational approach where we are trying to concentrate on academics at the same time trying to balance it off with at least trying to promote youth to understand their culture. I think it’s trying to balance the two.

In some respects, perhaps there are plans when we need to concentrate on academics, ensuring that the kids that graduate are able to make the jump into college or else a vocation where they take on a technical trade or else they advance themselves to the university level of education. It is important at this time in the North that we have successful rates. I would like to see, in terms of the advancement and the progress that the department has been making, I would like to ensure that… I understand

some of the initiatives that might be undertaken to reach those goals in the course of this year.

I have some concerns. One of them, of course, is the Senior Fuel Subsidy. There’s a high cost of living that we experience up here in the North, more so for elders because they are on a fixed income. Sometimes, some elders, it’s just the circumstance, they have to either live by themselves or else, if they have children that they feel that they need to be close to and make a decision to have someone live with them, sometimes they have a hard time trying to ensure that they at least meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for the seniors fuel subsidy. Sometimes they are deemed ineligible. I know the department is trying to apply an initiative that is fair. At the same time, it is resourceful in terms of its efficiency in terms of operating, ensuring that we also meet the needs of elders. I understand it’s a challenge, but perhaps we need to try to at least focus the initiatives. It is there as an existing program to assist elders.

The other area is income support. In some communities we have a high rate of income support in terms of people that are unemployed and don’t have the opportunities in the larger centres and regions where industry has a presence and job opportunities are more abundant in those centres. At the community level, it is a challenge for people to get by and make a living. Income support, I think, has to be delivered in a way that is respectful and that people don’t feel that they’re being downtrodden again in the circumstance of trying to at least make a living that is dignified. I know that is challenging, perhaps, for some families that have to live on income support, but we don’t need to make it disrespectful. We need to ensure that the program is delivered in a very dignified and respectful manner for recipients of income support.

There are some areas I’m interested in. One of them is the youth centre in looking to see if there are ways of trying to collaborate and co-ordinate on the few resources that we might have at the community level to ensure that we develop programs that are fairly efficient, at the same time create at least a forum for youth to come together and work together and experience leadership, at the same time a community service. But sometimes they just don’t have a place that they could hang out. I know there are restraints in terms of capital dollars for building new centres, but perhaps maybe we can begin laying the seeds for perhaps some eventual centres in some of the communities and see if perhaps we can work on that.

Another instance is the idea of a trade centre, perhaps in my home community of Fort Providence. It has been raised and it’s been discussed. At some point I think there could be an opportunity to meet with departmental officials and community leadership. I look forward to that opportunity and to

work with the officials to realize an opportunity to try and establish a trade centre.

Of course, I also have some interest and we have been working on the Early Childhood Development Initiative for some time. There have been some very successful Aboriginal historic programs in some communities, including Fort Providence. I would like to understand what the relationship is that exists now, if there is one. What kind of co-operation? What kind of co-ordination is being done so that we build from people that have worked in the fields, to try to learn from their experience and make successful programs delivered?

I have an interest in history, too. For one, to see if there could be some initiatives to perhaps undertake community history projects so that you have a group of people at least do some research, perhaps in the end have a document that can be shared among all the governments and departments including the communities. I have a particular interest in that.

Languages, of course, I have always believed in my language and to see if there is a way that we can maybe make the link between language and radio. I know there are some very successful and established radio stations across the North, especially small communities. They become a very accepted medium within communities where it is relied upon right from morning until the evening, and not just only for bingos. It is there to give information out. I think it’s undervalued and it could be used to perhaps advance language initiatives. I know there have been some projects that have been successful, but I feel that we perhaps could do more.

With those comments, in closing, I think the school in Fort Providence, under the leadership of our principal Lois, has done some great things. It has been very successful. I look forward to the next year in terms of trying to work with them and do as much as we can. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Next on the list is Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I welcome the Minister and delegation here today. In fact, it’s nice to see fresh faces. It’s nice to see smiling faces. I see a lot of pink out there too. That is also nice to see. Thank you again to the department for their kind, generous offer today with the carnations. I think carnations are a real nice touch. On behalf of the Assembly, thank you for your thoughtfulness.

With all this newness that we have in the department, I am very optimistic what I’m hearing from the Minister. I see a lot of good things in the opening comments. I am very optimistic that we should have a very good and dynamic year. I will say that for the record.

I also would like to comment on the opening address, picking out certain key things that jumped out of the page when I read, and also indicate certain things of caution in the wind in terms of maybe we need to slow down and look at some things. Please keep that in mind as I’m going through the opening address here.

With culture and heritage, I’m going to focus on the film and media industry here. I had the privilege and pleasure to sit down with the national film producers not that long ago. I clearly asked them what are their needs. What do they need from us to make it better, more efficient, more effective so that they will continue to invest in the North? I think these are the stewards of film and media. I think we have to listen to the requests here. They said they would like to see cultural consultants, a program developed through our college and where they can actually be a part of the process. They would be more than happy to help be part of the on-the-ground training for these cultural consultants. They said they would even look at bringing these students down to Vancouver and Toronto to work with the film industry and teach them the ropes.

The advantage of that, Madam Chair, is the fact that now we’ve got these cultural consultants that can actually depict the proper cultural sensitivity when these exact film producers come back up north. So it’s reciprocal. It’s something they can provide to us in terms of the means of advancing a career. On the flip side, we are going to be able to provide them the right cultural capacity so when they are doing their film, their national/international films, they are depicting the right cultural sensitivity. So I think it’s a win/win here and I’m really hoping that with that, we can find a winning solution.

With the official languages, I’m pleased to see that we’re spending $15 million to support Aboriginal languages and programs. However, I’m also concerned that language use for Aboriginal language is in serious decline. We’ve seen the statistics. We were with you there toe to toe. We’re concerned. We have five of the NWT Aboriginal languages that have less than 500 speakers. That’s significant. So when we’re spending this type of money, I caution the department to always keep that in consideration. Are there other ways to use that money more wisely so we can get a bigger impact? You just heard from Member Nadli, radio. How much emphasis do we put on radio? It sounds like it’s a great opportunity to look at that in our communities. So I challenge the department. We’ve got a brand new team here. Let’s think outside the box. Let’s not just keep throwing money in the same direction that we have. We’ve got a languages board, we’ve got a revitalization board, we’ve got a lot of tools out there to help with languages, but I’m gravely concerned that just throwing money at existing programs is not going to bring languages back. So I challenge this brand

new team with the Minister to come up with better ways.

Early childhood development, I am very pleased with where this is going with the department and I continue to support them on their quest. I sat with the Minister of Education and the Minister of Health when we were doing our family resource centre talks with the community. I’m glad to see that we’ve got two pilot buildings, or two pilot sites to lead in Ndilo, but I’m also challenging the department, don’t just rest your laurels on that. I’m sure if you went back and looked at all the comments from all the participants, they are very, very supportive. The community is ready and willing, so if we are able to get these pilots off the ground this year, let’s push the agenda. Let’s get these out there. They want to build capacity, there is a lot of building capacity we can do in this area, so I challenge the department to push that agenda. Don’t wait until the last year of our Assembly to make these big announcements. Let’s use time on our side while we’re here.

I’m also pleased, Madam Chair, that they are completing all the actions outlined in the Child Daycare Inspection. Of course, this is a direct result of the Auditor General of Canada, and I’m pleased to see that this is part of your opening address and your commitment to that. I challenge you to continue.

K to 12, we know that school enrollments are on the decline in the Northwest Territories. That’s a challenge. So I also say in the same breath as I said how we preserve our languages, I also say let’s be very, very careful and conscientious how we’re spending $166 million, please. When you have a decline and you’re still throwing money in the same way, we’ve got to think outside the box. I’m going to challenge your department in the details of this budget but throughout the next fiscal year as well.

Launching NWT Elders in Schools, all I can say is top notch. That is an incredible leap and I encourage you to continue down that way.

Inclusive Schooling program, the Minister and department are very much aware that there have been a lot of comments in the House. Many Members have made reference to the concern that we’ve removed some of those funds and we have to put them back. But I’m saying if we are going to put them back, let’s be smart about it. We need to redefine the distribution of money and we have to base it on the needs of the students and not by a formula assessment which we did before. I say that again, the needs of the students and not by formula assessment. The money has to follow the students, not the school boards. I want you to make sure that that’s emphasized, if possible, in the next year.

Advanced education, the Minister and I had an opportunity to be a participant with Skills Canada. I really encourage you to continue with that program.

It’s not mentioned in your opening address, but I think it should be. I think it may have been a miss. I’m hoping the department and the Minister is equally committed with Skills Canada in terms of its ongoing ability to entice and flush out all these students that we could put to work and give them the tools. More so, the Minister is very much aware of my passion, and the only time you get excited is when you go down there and see these kids yourself and watch our students do incredible things and compete on a national stage and win, not bronze, not silver, but gold. So we’ve got to be pretty proud of what those kids have achieved for the NWT.

More so, the Minister and I looked at the opportunity down in areas where they’ve had their national competitions, and it was called Try a Trade. The Try a Trade program we can’t offer here because it involves bringing that skill set to the Northwest Territories, but the Try a Trade program allowed students to try trades that they would never ever see. I encourage that we put some money towards Skills Canada to not only bring our regional winners but bring those students that show, by investing some time and energy, show them trades that they have never seen before. Let’s open up their eyes. If anything else, they are a booster squad to our regional winners and it’s okay to have cheerleaders down there, as I found out. The more noise you make, the better I feel, and I encourage you to do that.

Again, I appreciate the commitment and response to the Auditor General’s review to education and the accountability framework. Again, anything to do with the Auditor General, you will get 100 percent from this Member here.

Last but not last, the Student Financial Assistance, I am very pleased to see there is more money to go into supporting students and, also, with living allowances. That’s definitely on the right track. The only thing I brought up a number of times, and it still doesn’t seem to be resonating on the radar, is our appeals process for SFA is in dire need of an overhaul. So I’m challenging this new crop, this new group of senior people here with education, to put that on the radar for this next fiscal year.

In summary, Madam Chair, it comes down to two key areas to which I’m hoping the department – again this is on my perspective and observation, not only as a member but also as an academic – there’s two striking features that I think we have to focus on if we are going to truly have a direct impact with our kids. One, without a doubt, is increasing our graduation rates. That is a true key indicator, a performance indicator, and I think everything we do as educators, everything we do as a department needs to focus around graduation rates. We have to push that number up and be on par with our provincial counterparts.

Number two in my books, in terms of the best measurable possible, is keeping kids in the classroom. One statistic that drove me, and I was just stunned by, is that for every six years of education, there are a number of students that miss one year. So by the time they graduate, out of K to 12, they would have missed two years of education. Now, that is a statistic that is incredible. It doesn’t matter how much money you put in there, we have to keep these kids in their seats. How do we do that? That’s the challenge I have for you. At the end of the day, that involves your graduation rates and then we deal with things like functional grade level. You can’t get functional grade level if you miss two years of school by the time you get to Grade 12.

So I want to put a lens on those two areas of statistics. I challenge the department to always have that under their hat when they’re dealing with issues. Does it meet the means test? Everything you do. Graduation rates and keeping these kids in the classroom. I think if we can do those two, we are well on our way, Madam Chair. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Next is Mr. Bouchard.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Probably a lot of my comments are similar to my colleagues here. I am definitely happy to see the 3.6 percent increase in the budget. I think this is a department of great potential for this territory. Education is very important to the development of us. Obviously, the activity in Early Childhood Development is very proactive of us to be involved in that. I am definitely happy to see the Student Financial Assistance enhancements, as well as some of my colleagues have indicated that getting money back into the Inclusive Schooling would be a definite asset to us.

Some of the areas of concern in this department that I have is we’re dealing with budget, we’re dealing with budgets from, from my perspective it’s from the community of Hay River, but they’re dealing with the South Slave Divisional Board’s budget. So some of the areas of concern in that area is the flexibility of funding from the board’s perspective and from the DEA’s perspective. A lot of the funding is provided to them in columns. These are what the funds are used for and if they’re not used for that then they have to be returned. We’re having some difficulties in communities like Hay River with some of the funding not being allocated and spent when there’s dollars that are being overspent, let’s say for busing, where we spend a lot of money in busing because the community of Hay River is spread out all over the place. Other communities don’t even do busing and still get busing funding. So I think flexibility in funding, and we’ve seen some of the same issues with Health and some of the other departments

where a lot of the funds are given in columns. It would be nice to have flexibility in the funding.

My colleagues have discussed some of the official languages and the numbers. Some languages are doing really well, very strong, but some are very, very weak. I think we have to look at that and the way we fund those, and look at different ways that we can build those very weak ones and see if there’s a way to do more with the little bit of money that we’re spending there. I think there’s potential to keep some of those languages on the go, but it’s very difficult when there are very few people speaking those languages. So we have to be very creative. I challenge the department to find ways to do that.

One of the other areas that I’m happy to see the department working on is some of the education that’s going to be happening with all the development throughout the Northwest Territories. The excitement in the Sahtu area and even the potential in the Beau-Del area as far as educating people and where some of the work potential is going to be… If we ever do that Tuk to Inuvik highway, there’s going to be training requirements. Obviously, the Sahtu work, there’s all kinds of educating people and having skilled people so that we can keep Northerners working in the North.

So I think it’s a very exciting department, a very big budget. I think those are my general comments and I’ll have more specific questions as we go along. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thanks, Mr. Bouchard. Next on the list is Mr. Yakeleya.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’ve looked at this department and I’d like to make comments. First of all, I’m glad the department is responding to the oil and gas activity by the planting of two positions in the budget so they can come and work with the people in the Sahtu to handle the increase of oil and gas activity. As to their role in the community, I’ll probably ask the Minister later as to what type of work they’re going to be doing to get the people in the Sahtu ready for the oil and gas activity.

As you’re well aware, we also have the new hospital and long-term care facilities. So there’s some activity happening there. So I wanted to really nail down and specifically focus on the training programs for oil and gas, construction, health care and also for providing some access training programs for teachers from our small communities that want to enter into the profession of teaching.

So we’re ready to move in the Sahtu and I think the spark for us was the number of oil companies that are investing into our region. It’s a God-given signal that we’re finally going to get some attention after many years of not having much activity.

So I’m going to focus on the investment and this has been an overall highlight of the introductions to this department; investment and where do we invest, how much do we invest and what type of investments will get the best return on the dollars that we’re going to spend in the North and in the Sahtu.

As my colleague Mr. Bromley has said, I’m glad that the Minister has written down something that he said a year and a half ago about putting elders into the school. I have to wait on this one here with that old face. I will believe it when I see it. I want to see how this program is going to be enrolled. I’ve been at it for a long, long time so I’m not too excited until I see a program, which we’ve talked about for a long, long time. I have difficulty understanding why it took so long. We’ve been at it for a long, long time and I don’t know what sparked the Minister to say, well, this is it. So I’ll wait and see, take a wait and see approach. I’ve been stunned once, so I have to watch the second time.

I’ve looked at the budget, and the Minister is embarking on some of the development that we’re going to have in the Northwest Territories. The most important development I see now in the Sahtu is the development of the young minds in our education system. I, like my colleague from Nahendeh, think our school is the most important piece of educational infrastructure in our communities. That’s where we develop the young minds of our students and this shows when we have graduations that our students are not graduating with the quality of a diploma. That really concerns me and it concerns a lot of people in the Sahtu. When we graduate our students, it’s not the same type of quality of diploma as in the larger centres. That’s where we have the haves and have-nots of our education. I think that the Minister needs to go to the federal government and ask the federal government if it’s owning up to its fiduciary responsibility obligations in educating our children and the funding that should be under that responsibility by the federal government. Too many of our students are going back to school and it’s become somewhat of a joke in our communities that if you graduate, you can just go back to Aurora College or are you going to go upgrading or are you going to work, because their diploma is not where they think it’s going to go in terms of post-secondary education institutions.

Mr. Dolynny talked about Skills Canada. Some of our schools don’t even have those types of services and programs in our schools to have our students go to Skills Canada. So we need to look at some of those things. If we’re going to be on equal par in having our students reach their fullest potential, then I think the Minister and his new team should really look at how do we really shake up the education system. So if I had my children going back into the Sahtu and when they finish they could

be just as good as the students in Yellowknife, Hay River or Inuvik in their education, that’s what I want, I want the fullest potential. Maybe we have to do things so differently in our smaller communities because we cannot compete with the larger centres. We just do not have the chemistry or biology or science program in Colville Lake. We’ve got to look at that. We can’t have a cookie cutter. I applaud the students in these larger centres. They’re doing good. But we’re one or two or three grades. We hang them. We’re not reaching their fullest potential. I think we need to shift our education almost into a charter-type of school, because the public education right now with the passing requirement or the social passing is not doing us any good. We can only fool ourselves, and someone’s got to save the empire. The emperor has no clothes on, and that’s what we’re telling our students. I hope that we can have some discussion on that. I believe that the staff could help us here. How do we reach the fullest potential of our students and get our parents in the Sahtu communities saying yes, my student finished Grade 12, and that’s a Grade 12. That’s not a Grade 12 with two more years of upgrading to get into a college or to get into a university.

Students in the Sahtu want to go to university, they want to go to college. Some of them want to be trappers and hunters. With the oil and gas coming into the Sahtu, and if we give the green light to do the new technology called fracking, then we need to prepare them to take that training. It’s very scientific. It requires a lot of training and a lot of educating. I think that we’ve got to look at many ways to help our parents help the kids to reach their fullest potential.

Sometimes it’s not all education. Henry Ford had what, less than three months of schooling? He became the richest man in the world. Thomas Edison didn’t even reach high school and he became one of the world’s greatest inventors. We could have that in the Northwest Territories. It’s how you look at education. It’s the mind, it’s the way people think. Right now I think the education is to collect information and memorize it and stamp it. We’ve got to develop that type of thinking with our education system. That’s what I’m talking about. We did not survive as Aboriginal people for thousands of years by… We had to be really smart to survive. That’s what I’m saying.

We’ve got to tap into that potential, and that’s why I am somewhat cautious as to the Minister’s announcement on elders. That’s who our true teachers are. That’s the Aboriginal way of having these teachers recognized as teachers, and not just coming in for prayer and singing and say a few words. Is there a certificate program? I don’t know. I’ll have to wait and see.

I think that our contribution to the North and to the Sahtu has to be recognized. The Minister has talked about some things in his opening comments that I’m going to go through when we go from detail to detail, but the Minister has a big department, a big responsibility, and we’ve got to do our best to support him and the staff to do this.

I say these words because I’ve been sitting here close to nine years. I’ve been going through the budgets and hoping and hoping. I say this because I care about the people and I care about the work that we’re doing, and I see it in the regions with our elders, with our school kids, our language and culture, social assistance, things that we need to prepare for what’s happening in the Sahtu. There is lots of oil and gas activity happening. We have to get our plan ready for educating and training. I hope to see a Sahtu trades centre there. Mr. Ramsay says, well, when the oil and gas are proven up, we need to look at some of those things. If that’s proven up, then that should qualify for a Sahtu trades centre.

I have much more to say but I wanted to tell the Minister that I will work with you and I will work on some of these things, but I need to see some things that are going to make a difference. You have made some, don’t get me all wrong here, but I’ll go through the department on a line-by-line. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Committee, we are on general comments. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Where I’ll start today is maybe on the topic of bullying. It seems like a timely subject to bring up today and, of course, now that we have the Minister and the officials before us.

I would say, I, too, would like to give compliments to the Minister, and certainly the staff that brought forward the initiative of the corsages. It was kind of a neat little touch and that went well for us to help support the youth, so I want to thank the Minister and the department for that. I think that was a nice thing. And, you know, those little things go a long way, you know, oddly enough, and it’s the little things that count.

The reason I’m bringing up bullying is because the issue of bullying legislation, and certainly, in some form, regulations, is how that will roll out one day. We look forward to hearing those details. I’d like to hear some details on where that initiative is going. One of the critical components, as we all know, is that this has to be done not in isolation but in partnership with our teaching organizations and our teachers, because they will be a fundamental component to the success of this type of program. I mean, we can make all the laws in the world we want but, I mean, they’re useless if they’re not enforced or are not supported. That said, it has to

be done in a manner that works with them, not against them.

I don’t see the teachers, in my view, if I may say humbly, as the enforcement, like the police of bullying. What we need to do is help give them tools that we can help support these types of initiatives. That may not be everything that needs to be said today on that topic, but it’s about tools and helping them and supporting them. We saw the outcry today. I mean, the Minister had his eyes wide open, the same as everyone else that is, in the manner of seeing how many young people were here today. It was very touching, deeply touching.

I can even tell you as a parent, as well as I know many people here in our Assembly here today are parents, and you hear your kids come home and talk about bullying and also you hear the voice of hopelessness when they talk about it. I can say even for myself, I heard my own son, the youngest one, say the other day how he didn’t want to go to school because of bullies. It’s not about my kid. It’s about everybody’s kid. I mean, how many parents like to hear that story?

School is supposed to be an exciting place to go. Maybe not on test day or, in my case, test result day or report card day as well. That said, school is supposed to be a wonderful time and it’s supposed to be embraced with great memories as we look back and say that was a happy, safe time, and that I want all students to look back and say those are memories that when times are tough they always look back, and I want those to be the memories that they remember and make them smile.

Another area I’d like to touch base on, again, briefly. It’s funny how 10 minutes goes by so fast. To no surprise, the Minister will hear me bring this topic up, which is Aurora College. Aurora College, I realize, is a capital project, but the planning starts with the seeds within the department and its initiatives. The ground breaking begins with the first pen hitting a piece of paper as a plan that develops an initiative that finds partners. I continue to raise this subject, and I wish we’d get to talk about how we get there. I know we don’t have the capital budget before us. That’s no illusion to me. I know we don’t have the, whether it’s 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 million, dollars to just say here’s the new campus, but it all begins with the first piece of paper. I mean, it starts with the initiative of drawing up a plan, bringing the discussion to the table, creating a roundtable. I mean, the Minister could do this if he really wanted to. It would be very groundbreaking to start this type of process off.

The fact that Aurora College needs an independent campus in Yellowknife can no longer be ignored. I believe we’re punishing the students in some form or fashion, maybe not formally when we think of the word punishment of the old strict ruler against the hand form, but more so in the sense of we’re

denying them educational opportunities here. We’re denying all Northerners educational opportunities by the constrictive sense of the building it’s in. It’s a good building. The building was built for a great purpose. It still serves a fantastic purpose of helping people.

But by the same token, the obligations of a government to think beyond its present circumstances is critical, and it needs to look beyond today and say where can we bring education in five years. They should be asking themselves why do we not have more southern students coming north to get educated. We have great programs we can offer. Why don’t we have student housing that has an excellent mix? And we could be doing all these things. Maybe not today, maybe it’s a five- or 10-year plan, but those plans have to start with the first pen to paper.

My colleagues, people like Mr. Dolynny, spoke well on film, and I won’t speak any further other than to say the industry tells me they are looking for grants and resources. Grants are more useful than tax breaks. Tax breaks only help if you make money. So it’s critical in that view.

As I mentioned, the other thing I would like to talk about is community employment initiatives created by the department. What I think is small community initiatives, employment initiatives are key to keep people healthy. We need people working, but they also have to be tied to education. I’m well aware that the federal government has recently allocated I think $8.6 million to education programs for adult eds who did not graduate. Yet here I continue some days joyfully, but on the other hand sometimes painfully.

I rail against the Minister of ITI about not living up to what I feel are true expectations or fulfilling the socio-economic agreements. I’m going to say he’s also correct: it is an adult education problem too. I didn’t even look up when I said he was correct. So I do give him credit for the fact that he is right, that it’s a component of the issue.

But we’re not here to talk about socio-economic agreements. Education is a critical component. I think enough has been said about inclusive education. I share the concerns that have been raised.

One thing that was mentioned, but I think was also overlooked, was there was discussion by you, I believe, Madam Chair, about the Languages Commissioner and the boards or the two boards that come together. It was my understanding that at one time it was suggested that the Languages Commissioner’s role be phased out. There was a package delivered to my office sometime late last year, sometime in November or into December, where it seems as if the Languages Commissioner is taking on the role of what the department should actually do. Although it’s done with good

stewardship and good intent, I feel the direction of it is…The Languages Commissioner is not doing what the commissioner’s job is directed to do by legislation. So although it’s recognized as important work to be done, I feel the role isn’t being properly fulfilled. That said, maybe the Languages Commissioner’s role either needs to be expanded, or needs to be examined at the very least.

To continue on language, the issue was spoken very well by other colleagues, but one of the things that I continue to see as an obvious problem – and I have yet to hear how the department is going to challenge this – is how is the department building partnerships with regional languages and regional governments. We put such importance upon language, we should be building fundamental partnerships with these Aboriginal groups who have Aboriginal governments. What better way to rebuild a language than building a partnership with these folks? It is in their very best interest to ensure the languages continue, and I certainly support that.

The GNWT cannot go it alone. We can’t be the only people trying to worry about these things. Yet we hear very little about the partnership other than us giving them the money. To support that, I support mechanisms that strive to keep these things alive because they are fundamental to culture. I recognize that as very significant.

I think I mentioned inclusive school, but if I didn’t, it’s important, and that hasn’t changed.

One of the things and another area I was kind of looking to hear more about was skill and training development. I think Mr. Dolynny mentioned trades. But when you speak to industry, they actually talk about wanting more skills and trades development done in the North to draw down on those critical skills. Ironically, I say more in the sense of surprise, because you are going against the old stereotypes where they are saying they’d rather have the women in trades because women do a better job. They are more reliable than the men, and I think it’s a demonstration that stereotypes need to be put away. It’s the women that show up to work, the women who do the work, and I think that’s great. That’s a great thing.

What I would like to see is more trade development. I come from a family that’s a blue collar background, and we were always taught about how important trades are. Here it is 25 years later from when I was finishing high school, and trades were almost an embarrassing thing to get into. Here it is 25 years later, and they are one of the most critical components where we’re lacking skills in that area.

The last thing I would like to say, and I know my time has come to the end here, but obesity rates in children continue to significantly rise. There are more reports in the news that continues to demonstrate this as fact. What I’ll leave as my last thought on this particular issue is that there needs

to be more programming to get kids active. The sad thing of today is the old Huckleberry Finn lifestyle of getting out and having adventures is long gone. It’s replaced by fast skidoos or Internet. It’s a real shame. Our kids have lost the joy of playing or lost the joy of activity or sports, and it’s a real challenge getting them out there. I wouldn’t mind hearing some thoughts on how we are going to get kids active and fight those obesity rates.

Madam Chair, my time is over, but I will have more questions and comments on specific pages. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Are we agreed general comments are concluded?