Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am very cautious of what I am taking on. Recognizing that we have six months left, this is one that is a priority for me, so yes. I have already asked the department to go cross-jurisdictional and look at how their funding formulas are done.

I do have to give credit to the MLA for Nahendeh, who first brought that to my attention, and it was a concern for me as well. I am looking across jurisdictions to see if there is a better way to fund. We are looking at lower enrolments in the Northwest Territories, so we can't keep basing it on enrolments if our numbers are going...

Currently, the Education Act actually does define what can be provided through student financial assistance. It is legislated, so it is difficult. We need to look at it and actually change the legislation, which is a lot more difficult than changing policies. Will we look at it? Absolutely. It is part of the process that we need to look at within the college. The difference, though, is that normal upgrading courses can be addressed within their communities, through schools and the community learning centres, which we only have 21 of, I recognize.

The access programs, really, are not a general...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely, it is important that we do evaluations of any new program that we are rolling out, so we commit to doing that. I do want to just say a little bit that change is something that is never usually accepted very easily. I am sure that when we rolled out the Northern Distance Learning, there were comments or complaints, as well, and yet it is proven to be very successful, so initial comments on change should not be something that we evaluate it on. It should be a formal evaluation process that is carried out at the end of each school year to see if they are working...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In honesty, I've read the initial report from the NGO and the income support people who we worked with. I had put out a call to Aboriginal governments and to MLAs to provide their feedback for me. There was also a municipal government that wanted to have some input in that, as well, so I have allowed that. I have not, in all honesty, given it a lot of thought. I am desperate for this session to be over because my department knows that, as soon as this session is over, I am tackling that. The idea will be just like what I did with the housing program. I will be looking at...

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.

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...

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.