Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Obviously, my department has been working with Deh Gah Got’ie school and also the Head Start programming. When we first introduced Junior Kindergarten in that community, my department has been actively engaged with conversation with the organization because we wanted to make it work. There is a morning program and there is an afternoon program that I believe has been agreed to and currently it’s working but, mind you, there is always areas of improvement. We are very closely monitoring that, not only that but the other 22 communities as well. Obviously, we want to work closely together with Aboriginal Head Start, whether it be the council organization, because they deliver the federal programming. Federal program is only half a day, so I provide JK as an option, whether as a half-day or full-day Junior Kindergarten.
The Member also raised larger centres versus smaller centres. We are fully aware of that. Again, you touched on the programming itself. The whole Education and Innovation Renewal will embark on the small communities as equal in the program delivery as the larger centres, and they should be producing the same graduates as well. That’s what we’ve been told over and over, and that is our overall goals and objectives, to make that happen with the Education Renewal and Innovation, Mr. Chair.
The language initiative is very key within my department. That’s my we have established an Aboriginal Languages Secretariat that will deal with that initiative with the communities and with the regions for culture preservation and also our language. How can we promote even more of those? CKLB is one of the linkages to that. CKLB, as you know, deals with Aboriginal languages, communicating to the communities, and we have been active and engaged partnership in CKLB. We
have provided our contribution on an annual basis and we are up to date on our contribution. The federal government, there is a bit of a challenge there. I am meeting with the federal Minister, Ms. Shelly Glover, on November 19th , and that will be
one of the ticket items that I will be addressing with the federal Minister because this is a huge concern for me, as well, representing the Northwest Territories, that CKLB shall be back up and running.
The training, there is various training that will be happening. One of the Members alluded to the forestry industry, how we can best deliver that. Again, we need to work with Aurora College in this capacity. There is also School of Community Government training that happens as well. There are all these different venues that we have to make sure it takes place in the communities. Mahsi, Mr. Chair.