Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Rolling out the junior kindergarten across the Northwest Territories, as I committed, starting this fall, Phase I, next year Phase II, the following year will be Phase III, and I met with the board chairs and superintendents just May 13th, I believe, two weeks ago. I did hear them and I wanted to hear their perspective and due to the fact, I’ve made some changes, I’ve made some commitments where delivering is optional starting this fall. So all of those 29 communities will have the option of delivering that in their communities and also providing half-time as opposed to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. After our engagement with the communities, numerous discussions that we’ve been having, especially the small communities, it’s been identified that there are 10 communities without licenced child care programming. First are Colville Lake, Enterprise, Jean Marie River, Lutselk’e, Kakisa, Nahanni Butte, Norman Wells, Trout Lake, Tsiigehtchic and Wrigley. Those are the communities without licenced child care programming. Mahsi.

Mahsi. That is our overall plan, starting 2014, the new school year, we’re going to be reaching out to 29 communities, especially those 10 communities that are without licenced child care programming. The Minister’s riding is a prime example. He’s part of a community that would benefit once we roll out the program, and other communities as well. This has huge potential, very beneficial to the communities, especially those isolated communities that do not have this programming. The Member is quite correct that some of the communities are not in the same position as the larger communities. I...

Mr. Speaker, I’ve already answered that question for Mr. Bromley. This is federal programming, the eight communities the Member is referring to. We’re working with them. Junior kindergarten is a prime example as part of enhancing the program. Again, it’s optional. We’re not forcing parents to send their kids to junior kindergarten; it is optional for parents. At this point, I’ll have to take that question as notice. Mahsi

When we first introduced junior kindergarten as part of our discussions, obviously we don’t want to have impacts on other programs in schools. With this approach, the school programs should not suffer, as the department funds school boards as part of our contributions. Nobody needs to rely on surpluses to fund education. We already provide funding for educational programming for the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities we contribute to on an annual basis. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Yellowknife South, that Bill 24, An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act, be read for the second time.

Mr. Speaker, this bill amends the Student Financial Assistance Act to raise the maximum aggregate principal amount of all student loans that may be made by the Government of the Northwest Territories by $5 million for the 2014-2015 and subsequent fiscal years. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, my department has been engaged and has conducted a review of the implications for junior kindergarten in each school board across the Northwest Territories. We have also looked at the success of students in junior kindergarten when it was implemented in other jurisdictions, just to see the outcome of introducing a junior kindergarten.

The mill rate question is another one that we haven’t looked at as a department or as GNWT. The mill rate, as it is, is a municipal jurisdiction. Many of our communities are non-tax-based communities. It would be unfair to Yellowknife to...

Again, we’re not forcing them. It’s an optional program for parents in the Northwest Territories in the 33 communities we are going to be servicing. This has been in discussion, the Early Childhood Development Framework, in an engagement with the parents, the educators and they want this to be an option so they can choose, the parents can choose. So we’ve done that. We’ve listened to them. We will be rolling out the program, but it’s an optional program, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

Thank you. As I stated before, there have been various areas of evaluation and assessment of current delivery in the communities, whether it be preschools, early junior kindergarten and some of the development programming in the communities. So we’ve looked at all of that and we’re working, also, with the licenced child care programming, the centres.

This is an area that is not a brand new discussion we’re having today. Over the years of engagement, we’ve been hearing from the parents and the educators that we need to move forward on focusing on the preschool. We currently deliver preschool in...

We did compile all that information. As I stated, junior kindergarten is not a fresh topic of discussion here. It has been discussed for a number of years now as part of the process we’ve been going through. Compiling all the information for 2014, 2015-16, 2016-17, I can gather the information for the Member. I don’t have it in front of me today, but I can gather the detailed information for the Member.