Don Stewart

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we are absolutely looking at the impact on enrolments that are likely to happen when junior kindergarten is implemented in the communities that aren't currently offering it. We're doing the modelling to try to understand what the impacts will be overall financially on the system as well, given various scenarios around how that funding may take place. Yes, we are looking at those enrolments.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now, we get information from the boards on their current suite of teachers and their salaries. We then do adjustments for any expectation, not just for teachers but for all staff, any expectation of staff increases, those sorts of things, and any collective bargaining increases that would be expected in the upcoming year. On that basis, we calculate the expected salary and benefit requirements for every board. That is what goes in for that portion of the budget, currently is the way we do it. Thanks, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member is probably aware, there is a funding framework that goes with how we fund the various boards that is linked to any wage or salary-type information as well as benefits as well as enrolments is a key input to that. That is the basis on which we come up with an initial estimate across the various components that go into the contributions to the boards. Then the boards take that and develop their budgets off of those estimates that we give them for the initial amount, working within the framework that we give them for the total. We do give them the detail on...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The value that's in there is the total cost of operating the Student Financial Assistance program. That $16.4 million breaks down, and these are approximate numbers, there's about $685,000 for the staff that operate the program, there's about $13.3 million that are the grants that actually go out for the basic allowance and the supports that are provided. There's a small amount of other O and M for materials and travel, but the biggest other portion is a valuation allowance for student loans. It's about $2.4 million. That’s the difference between the amount that goes out...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is early days, but it is my understanding that one of the positions has been placed in another one of these positions. The incumbent has been placed in another position. Two of them we expect are going to retire. They are in a position that they are able to retire, but we don't know for sure whether they will do that or not. One of the other ones, though, we are still working to find placement for them.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member will note, the $101,000 that is up top, that is up for grabs. Anything that is under $15,000 we are handing out as a grant where there is much less onerous reporting. The other portions are contribution agreements where there is a required level of reporting that comes with the contribution agreements. That is the difference between the two: we consolidated all of our contributions under one program, but we left the grants for those under $15,000 in what is above with the $101,000 that are still. Those are small amounts that go out to individual artists and...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I mean, I think the Member is right there are places that do these sorts of things. But as the Minister said, everybody has the same interest here in terms of wanting to get the best outcomes for our students. It's complex, but I think it's something that we definitely should be looking at in the coming years in terms of those alternative school years and, in particular, given our northern context and some of our smaller communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of the Member's comments around the needs side, we actually just completed a project with the regional inclusive schooling coordinators, where they did an assessment of every kid in the Northwest Territories in terms of a variety of factors in terms of the needs they may have. They did a lot of work in advance of that to make sure there was consistency from region to region. It is probably the best snapshot we have had in a long time because it was the regional inclusive schooling coordinators working with teachers in the school to try to get a sense of the kinds...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That early work in 201415 and into 201516 was really getting the system in place. It is there now. Now, we are into the stage of some level of customization and those sorts of things that the boards wants to see in terms of being able to report out attendance and making sure that the report cards are being generated and all of that sort of stuff. I think we are at a much more manageable phase now where the pace is more controllable in terms of making sure that we don't need to make those big onetime expenditures. I think we are pretty confident that we will not have to...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I think we can try for 201617. I wouldn't be surprised if it's early next fiscal year though, realistically, with some of the other changes, there's a lot of consultation, I think, that needs to be done on this one in terms of what we should include in that type of legislation. I think realistically it may be next fiscal year that you see actual legislation on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.