Caroline Cochrane

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How does the funding formula work right now? Right now, we provide money for schools to be able to provide services for JK to grade 12. It does have a funding formula that we feel is equitable, but it does also permit flexibility for the local decision-making that needs to be done by authorities.

Some of that is able to be flexible, such as our territorial school of monies. We also provide administration monies, but some of it is actually being changed, that it needs to be spent for things such as inclusive schooling and the Aboriginal languages. Those have to be spent...

I apologize if I was incorrect, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that I had said that MLAs don't speak for the people. They do speak for the people, but I also need to hear directly from the education bodies. They are my partners. I fund them. They are responsible for providing the services to the students. So I need to make sure that that relationship -- the Minister before me worked hard on developing relationships. I need to carry that forward. We need to get it to a place where they actually feel comfortable to come to me as the Minister and say, "We have concerns."

Like I...

The last comprehensive review, actually, on the funding formula was done in March 2016, where a number of things were brought up. Like I said, we are constantly reviewing it, so it is something that always is on the template.

Some of the things that we did notice and that were changed from that review, though, were, for example, things like targeted funding, such as inclusive schooling. We had given, in my opinion, too much discretion to the education bodies, and some were using it for teachers; some were using it for all kinds of things, so we tightened up the inclusive schooling funding so...

It is a concern where we don't have enough teachers in schools. That is why, like I said earlier, I insisted that there be two teachers in every school. Some of our small schools, like the one I met with today, actually only have five students in it and now has two teachers in it, so we have to also be careful that we don't overload it so that we have more teachers than actual students at a time.

In saying that, though, we do need to review the funding formula. When I was in the constituency tour for Nahendeh, it was brought to my attention that other jurisdictions actually don't do the funding...

Like I stated earlier, the funding formula is based so that it is equitable. There is money for administration et cetera, but there is money that is provided for the number of children in the schools. However, they are allowed to use that with some flexibility, and, therefore, some schools do decide to hire additional teachers; other schools decide to use it for other areas. There are also other monies besides, that come from the GNWT. A lot of the schools in the territory have access to our Canada's Jordan's Principle, which is providing additional monies for them. We need to get more schools...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to start with recognizing, again, my nephew Jeremy Beauchamp. It looks like he might be trying to take my seat here in the House. I am glad to have him. Then Suzie Napayok is the translator in Inuktitut. She lives in my constituency, so I am glad to see her. She is also is a great writer of books, with traditional knowledge from her culture, so a great asset to the Legislative Assembly. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I totally agree. I would like to see it expanded. I am hoping within the next Legislative Assembly that we will get more programs, more schools that are doing the full immersion. However, I recognize also the reality is that this will take years. We need to train people to be able to provide that service. At least, I am hoping that within the next Assembly there will be couple of more schools jump on board with the full immersion, and my goal is that every single, at least every couple, of years more will help in, until we are doing it across the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, it is important that we reach out and train as many people in developing language revitalization teaching. It is actually an embarrassment, being a Metis woman and not being able to speak a word of my language, except perhaps "mahsi," which is common. I am not the only one that is Indigenous and can't speak their language, so we need to put a lot of effort.

Last year alone, approximately 75 of the Indigenous language teachers and support staff came together for the very first training in our new languages curriculum. That included training on learning how to use the new curriculum and how...

I think it is no secret that I think, like I have said many times, that this is really important, and it is critical. Language is culture, and culture, in my opinion, is health. It's about wellness and making people feel good about themselves, and that is critical in making good choices. That's from my social work background. For the full immersion programs, ideally, all activities and learning would be done in their Indigenous language. That is the ideal. Currently, now, we have two communities that are doing immersion programs, one in Fort Providence and one in Behchoko. Those communities...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am actually glad to speak about our languages because, as the MLA stated, our languages are in danger and they need to be preserved. I also want to recognize that, within the Northwest Territories, we still have a fair amount of speakers, and we need to preserve that. We need to promote that and revitalize.

We did do the action plan in May of 2018, but, in honesty, we have been working on this before last year. We have been working on this for many years. Our curriculum is being piloted right now in 40 of our schools across the territories. We have 40 out of 49. When I...