Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree. My commitment is that I will put it on the agenda for the education leaders' table, which has all of the education bodies' chairpeople and their superintendents. I think that we need to be more strategic in this. That is our biggest problem. Leaving it to individual schools is not the best way to deal with this funding. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. If the education authority council is willing to take part in that review, we will support him. Again, financially, we do not have the resources in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to do that in one region or all regions. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Again, because we only have six months left, I have a lot of priorities, and I hate to say that. I mean, it is not that I don't want to work with them. I think it is important to build the relationship and work closely with the francophone community. However, I have a polytechnic on my hands right now. I have new initiatives with the secondary school. I have childcare issues. I have income support issues. How far can I stretch myself in six months and make sure that everything is done to the best of my ability? At this point, no. I think that I will continue to maintain the relationship and...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing that is important to state is that the education system is decentralized amongst 10 education bodies that are responsible are implementing, so we have to work really closely with them. It is not appropriate to impose things on it, so there is funding though. I hope Members know that there is funding. If schools in communities are only offering up to grade nine and they want to extend to 10, 11, and 12, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment does have funding to accommodate that. Like I say, right now, our priority is rolling out the 20 communities...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, there is a human right in Canada that talks about the freedom of mobility of people, so we try not to penalize. We do not tell people that, if you are getting income support, you have to stay in Yellowknife. We do allow mobility of people. Then, of course, if they go out of the jurisdiction, then they may have to apply to a different province. Also, if they are only going for a treatment centre, then, of course, we would pay for that. If they leave the territories for a year or whatever the regulation is, then we have to look at that. However, we do support that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is actually found on page 36, and it is part of the culture and heritage monies. What happened was the funding for two devolution archivists was sunsetted, and so, after that happened, we actually asked for the money back. They gave us indeterminate funding for that, so it is an in and out. We have it as a debit for that column one and then, actually, a credit at the same time, so it doesn't really show. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is not in the mains, because it is in the individual education bodies' budgets. It is usually external funding. A lot of the schools actually get external funding, such as Jordan's Principle. However, within this area, we do provide support to them in things such as filling out the applications and reviewing the applications. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Every district or education body actually has to have an operational plan. It's not an operational plan that we do as Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Each educational body does their operational plan. We don’t currently have money within our budget to actually do a regional review of the Sahtu. In fairness, if I did one, I'd have to do all of the regions because that's how I operate. I can speak to the education council, and if the council is willing, then I don't see any reason why they wouldn't meet with their leadership. If the council sees that as...

As stated, I didn't get any of those questions beforehand, so no, I do not have the enrolment of the French schools on hand at this moment. We do have 49 schools in the Northwest Territories. It is impossible for me to try to memorize those all and bring them up with advanced notice. Therefore, I cannot say where we stay close to the 85 percent.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. An evaluation is being done based on years one and two of the implementation, and it is going to be released early in 2019-2020, so we are in the process of doing that. Or sorry, 2019-2020. The one thing I do need to say, though, is that I have met with the education leaders, the board chairs, the board authorities, or education bodies, and their superintendent, and I have also met with the NWT Association of Teachers, and both bodies have said this is a great program and we need to continue it. So it is an informal evaluation, but it is word-of-mouth by organizations...