Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. I did mention in this House that there have been various meetings that took place since August 21st of 2013, September 18 and 19, 2013. These are with the superintendents of the school. November 27, 28, 2013, January 2014. These are ongoing discussions that we are currently having. There has been a recommendation brought forward by a superintendent to make adjustment to our approach of the PTR and we took that into consideration and instead of using 10 to Grade 12, they indicated that maybe we should try K to 12. So it does balance it out, all of the communities throughout the Northwest...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Part of the process is, of course, rolling out the program in a three-phase approach. There will be 29 communities and the second year will be on to Hay River and the third year will be Yellowknife.

There’s Detah, Ndilo. So Detah will be $14,000 surplus for year one, they will be given the funding to operate. For Ndilo, $91,000 in year one to operate. YCS, the first year will be minus $434,000, year two will be minus $264,000, and year three will be plus $484,000. So a slight decrease of 1.2 percent of their overall budget, Mr. Speaker.

YK1, year one, $569,000 in the minus...

Mahsi. When I highlighted all the dates, those are interactions that we are currently having in coordination with the school boards, with the superintendents. We’ll continue to do so because we have to work with the early childhood educators, as well, and the operators, the daycare operators. This is beneficial to all 33 communities. Yes, the Member is referring to Yellowknife, but we, as a government, are responsible for 33 communities. Mahsi.

Mahsi. The Yellowknife school boards have been offering the monthly fee-for-service four-year-old pre-kindergarten spaces beginning in 2008. So it has been operating for the past six years now, which has grown over the years. Currently, it would include approximately 163 licenced four-year-old spaces. So YK1 with a possible 90 fee-based four-year-old preschool space, bringing in revenue of approximately $600,000 per school year. Same with YCS, approximately $500,000 per school year on fee for service. So that will continue for the next two years and in the third year we will be providing them...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I believe Member Bouchard also mentioned approximately $13 million. If there are no alternatives to building an addition to Ecole Boreale in Hay River, the cost to the NWT will be approximately $13 million. That’s the number that we’ve been working with with the DEA and commission with my department. Those are just some of the numbers that we have been working with.

Mr. Speaker, Action Jackson is here to…

---Laughter

Mr. Speaker, I am hearing the Member and we are moving forward with the action plan and that is coming in early spring. It will be delivered through the standing committee and also in this House. It will be a very substantial piece of work that we are moving forward.

The Member has referred to that it has been long awaited. Yes, patience is a virtue, as well, but we are going to be delivering an action plan by this summer. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. We just heard last night from the Member, of course, both Members, that the Hay River DEA is not in a position to move forward on a school swap. From their meeting with the parents, my understanding is that there was a great turnout from the general public and I must commend them for having the engagement of the public. We have not heard back from the Commission scolaire francophone, who are meeting in Hay River with the parents tonight. So we will be hearing from them and until we hear back from them, there are no decisions on the next steps as of yet. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, when we initiated our discussions back in let’s say in late fall, that’s the date that we had thrown around, possibly February or March, and now we have to engage the school boards, and in order to get feedback, it takes time to engage the school boards, the parents and, again, the grandparents and educators, so we will be waiting for feedback from them and then delivering the package as an action plan to the standing committee. I’m hoping that by May/June we have that final detailed information. In due time, I will be sharing that with the standing committee when the time is...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We first initiated the discussion with the Hay River DEA and, of course, the Commission scolaire francophone on the whole idea that we have yet to go through the appeals process with the court. It was just exploratory discussions that we’ve had, and obviously, my officials met with the chair of the DEA and the parents that represented the Hay River DEA. So those are the discussions we’ve been having.

From the board’s perspective, we’ll work with the community and my department. To date, we’re compiling the information on what the expenditure would be on the school swap...

I, too, would like to encourage those individuals to enter the workforce, and all of us here, 19 of us, fully support that. We want individuals to be successful in the Northwest Territories, throughout Canada, internationally, so we have to provide them the tools. Part of the tools that we’re providing them is productive choices within our income support division, and part of the productive choices is putting them on on-the-job training and preparing them for resume writing. All these different tools that we are providing them are there for individuals such as what Mr. Bromley is referring to...