Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Our judicial system treats adults with FASD as though they are responsible for their decisions and have a full capacity for that responsibility punishing them instead of offering treatment or alternative ways of dealing with it, and thus, our jails are full of adults with FASD who circulate through this costly system without resolution. A wellness court announced for this fall that partnership between Health and Social Services and Justice is a positive step and is needed as soon as possible.

Is there any capacity within Health and Social Services and the courts to expedite this for adults with FASD? Thank you.

We are making progress with the wellness court and we are hopeful and actually anticipate that anticipation of the wellness courts later this year will help the courts better address these exact situations by providing supports. As far as expediting, we have a plan in place to start rolling out the wellness court in the fall and we would be ready to start providing those services then.

In the meantime, if there are individual cases that Members are aware of, Justice and Health and Social Services are always willing to work together to try to find solutions in the interim. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost is congratulating all the college grads throughout the Northwest Territories. We are very, very proud of them. Obviously, we want them to further their education success, as well, then, upon completion, return back to the Northwest Territories so we can offer them a northern attractiveness when it comes to workforce development.

Part of the Student Financial Assistance program is, again, one of the best across our nation and also international world renowned as well. We continue to provide those subsidies, those services to our students, whether it be in the certification of the diploma programming degree or master’s program or even Ph.D. Our students are now pursuing Ph.Ds. We have increased our SFA, so we can increase the disability area, professional areas. So, those are areas we can continue to monitor and we’ll make changes that reflect our northern students. Mahsi.

I want to let the Minister know that I would like to continue tracking the types of support services that are going to be looked at for continued support for our Aurora College students and in our institutions. I also want to say to the Minister, I would like, one day, to see our learning

centres in our small communities take part in the celebration like we have done in Fort Smith, Yellowknife and the Inuvik campuses. We have had a good celebration in our own communities in our learning centres.

Is the Minister looking at ways that we can improve our community learning centres so that one day we can also have a celebration in one of our small communities at our learning centres? Is that a possibility?

Yes. It’s a great possibility. In fact, I’ll be addressing that with the Board of Governors when we’re meeting in June. We’ve already addressed with the Board of Governors a while ago, and they are developing their corporate plan for a long-term strategy. This will obviously be part of their strategy, community learning centres in all communities. They should be producing highly skilled, qualified people. That’s my view, that’s my push, and I fully support that. The Members support that, as well, so we’ll continue to push that forward.

In my research specifically in the Sahtu communities, I have noted that the high school students with greater or higher grades needing diplomas or certificates in the Sahtu. Norman Wells has 89 percent of students. Colville Lake is 78; Fort Good Hope, 68; Deline, 62; and Tulita, 58. These are good start points for measurements to say at some period of time that we want to get 100 percent of these students that have a higher than Grade 12 diploma. This leads me to my third question.

I understand from the last session, and I’ve been pressing the Minister very hard on a Sahtu needs assessment, because we have opportunities that are knocking on our doors. I need to know, is this needs assessment going to be released? What are the next steps? We need to get these students who are willing to work, who want to work, and get them trained now in the Sahtu.

First, I’d like to commend the Sahtu region and the communities for their academic success. Congratulations to them. The needs assessment that the Member is referring to is before our department now compiling all that information. I know the Member has addressed that issue in the House on numerous occasions. Now it’s before us within the department. Now we’re compiling all the information from other jurisdictions, as well, because we are looking at a territorial-wide training initiative and how it’s going to look in the Sahtu region. The Member alluded to earlier about the program development institution potentially and a May tour and so forth. Those are the discussions that we are going to have, and I will update the Members once that is available by the end of this summer and the fall time.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to having this needs assessment discussed within the Sahtu, the leadership and the communities. I want to ask the Minister as I’ve also been pressing with the help of my colleagues on a feasibility study with the Sahtu technical institution, and that’s going to be greatly needed in the Sahtu. I want to ask the Minister if he can provide the House and the people in the Sahtu, where is that specific project at, at this moment now?

Again, it was brought up in this House about the Sahtu and will there be a training institution. We were waiting on the training needs assessment and the assessment of the communities, which involves the stakeholders, the industry, the community leaders and community educators. Now we have that package and now we need to identify what’s needed in the Sahtu region when it comes to program development and also a training centre area, how is that going to look. Based on the package that we received, those are options that we’re going to create and then deliver that to the Sahtu region.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to ask the Minister of Transportation to provide a brief update on the Trout Lake Airport project that has been going on for some time. I’d just like to know how it has progressed.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been many challenges in the construction of the airport, being weather, quality and quantity of material. However, we have recently completed a change order with the organizations that we’re working with to complete the airport this summer.

Exactly what type of work will be done in Trout Lake this summer and fall?

As I indicated, there was an issue with the material and the quality of the material and the quantity, so what we are doing is we are bringing in some crush material and we’re going to blend the material to complete the airport. It would be all of the work that would be required to have the airport at a finished stage. As I indicated, we have completed the change order and the work should have started four days ago, actually. That’s what the change order indicates.

For a small community and a large project like that, that’s good for the economic sustainability and jobs for the community. Just for clarification, did the Minister say potentially we’ll be landing at the airport this fall?

The department and the community of Trout Lake along with the development Corporation and Rowe’s Construction have full intentions of completing the airport this summer, so for sure we’ll be landing at that airport in the fall.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Like the Minister had indicated, given a lot of the challenges, I’m really pleased to see the work towards the completion this fall.

Just one more question is the question of an airport terminal. Is that on site in Trout Lake this year or will it be there soon?

This has been a very likely project. As the Member knows, it was back in 2009 that we got the money from the federal government for the Building Canada Plan so that we are able to complete this project. With all of the issues that were pertaining to the airport itself, we have been concentrating on that. The information on the actual terminal itself, I don’t have with me, but I would be pleased to provide that information to the Member. But I can assure the Member that the department is serious about completing the project. The project has gone on for a significant time and we’ll be working with the community closely to ensure that the completion is done this summer.