Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have asked the department, and yes, the commitment from the department is that it will be included in the next mains. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, it is only a new policy in 2018-2019, and it was because there were concerns. I mean, there are concerns when children are not developmentally ready, when they are not meeting the standards, when they are not showing in the middle years developmental index. There are concerns of children dropping out. There are concerns of children not doing well in school. I have concerns when we are not reaching the needs of children, and yet, we have $13 million in surplus. I think it was about time that we actually looked at saying, "Give us plans for your surpluses," and so I don...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The money is provided to Aurora College for the implementation of their programs as they, Aurora College, deem fit. Now, as we move into the polytechnic university, the person that is responsible for that will use that funding as that person deems fit to provide for the best services for students and to meet the needs of residents and businesses in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Yes, definitely. Schools can actually offer upgrading if they have the capacity to do so. Some of the schools don't have the higher learning grades. That has been addressed over the years with the Northern Distance Learning. There is funding, actually, to provide through schools if they want to address the higher grades, 10, 11, and 12. There is funding through Education to provide for that. We do try to support students as much as possible, and using the existing schools, as well as community learning centres, is something that we need to do as much as possible.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $916,000 decrease for inclusive schooling was a transfer. We transferred $639,000 to the mental health resources to Health and Social Services to fund the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu for their mental health counsellors, which again fall within inclusive schooling. Then we did a transfer of $279,000 to the mental health resources to fund the Deh Cho and the Tlicho Governments, as well. It is just transferring the money so that we can provide the mental health services support that is going out to all schools. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. $1.676 million of that is additional funding for clients, the numbers of people accessing, increases in rent and utilities, so forced growth within that; $3,000 is the 1-percent salary increase for non-unionized employees; and $989,000 is for the CPI increase for disability and aged allowance, which moved that program from $300 a month to $405 a month for seniors and people with disabilities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The position was actually hired after the business plans and these mains were drawn up, so it is a timing issue, but there is money in the current budget to actually allow for that salary to be implemented. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Most of the funding allocations are done by enrolment. When enrolments decrease, then funding decreases. However, in that funding that you see is also monies for things like the Indigenizing education. Indigenized education is the biggest one within that.

The allocations for the teaching positions are based on the enrolment, so that is why you see a difference. I do want to stress, though, that the individual education bodies do have the authority. This is what we fund them for. They can actually use their funding or surplus. The majority of them have huge surpluses that...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The decision was made not to take the funding away, because we know that we are moving into a polytechnic university, and my commitment on the floor was that those two programs would be the first ones to be reviewed once we do the evaluation. Those positions are still here in the mains. The people in those positions are not there. They have been transferred, or they have gotten other jobs, but the positions still remain, and that money is actually not being spent until the polytechnic action plan is decided upon. We haven't taken the money away. The people have left, but...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The impact on children actually should be better services with the implementation of junior kindergarten, which made accessible early childhood development programming to all communities in the Northwest Territories, where that wasn't an option before. The licenced childcare centres actually got increases last year to provide extra money for infants and children who were needing support. Ideally, the impact for children should be better services. That, of course, will take an evaluation period. Thank you, Mr. Chair.