Jackson Lafferty

We are currently contributing upwards of $150 million to all the school boards so they can deliver the most cost-effective, efficient program delivery K to 12. We’re currently delivering Junior Kindergarten in 23 of our communities and it’s just a fraction of 0.01 percent of that. It is a public fund, so we need to have the best program delivery in the Northwest Territories.

This is an area that we will continue to push forward with 23 communities based on the EDI, the results that came in. What is before us is we are going to be re-evaluating our situation, our stance, and review the whole...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That decision was made by this government to proceed to deliver to the 23 communities based on a two-year commitment that’s been made as part of the agreement that was agreed to by this government. So this year and next year the funding allocated will continue through those two areas. We will continue to work with the 23 communities. Based on the review, we will have to decide next year how it’s going to look and continue with the delivery to 23 communities in 2015-16 as well. Mahsi.

For the 23 communities, JK has been funded out of the $150 million budget. Those are the areas that we have discussed with the school board chairs back in May and even before that. We will continue to address that, even part of the review process that we have committed in this House in the 23 communities. This year JK is being delivered into our communities on an optional basis, this year and next year as well. We will continue to monitor those areas. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I have committed to providing district education councils anything above 16 to 1, we will provide a subsidy. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. We’ll do everything in our power to expedite the process to sign off the document. Mahsi.

Mahsi. These regs have been before us for a number of years now, upwards of 22 years. So it wouldn’t hurt to wait another year during the life of this Assembly to sign off the final document where we capture everything if we want to have regulations that capture the legality issues that have been brought to my attention. Some of areas of concern within the clause were brought to my attention as well. So we need to deal with those kinks that have been brought to my attention.

We are currently working with the Department of Justice to deal with these matters. Again, I will be signing off during...

Currently we are legislated at 16 to 1. We are providing over and above that, $17 million to our schools boards to deal with those matters at hand. We are currently, as I stated, and the Premier also committed to this House, that we are reviewing the 23 Junior Kindergarten communities, and based on the review, the funding has been highlighted as well.

I did speak to it this morning as well. There will be a mixture of discussions, whether it be the funding, reaching out to operators, and we need to hear their perspective and input to have the delivery of Junior Kindergarten in these communities...

As the Member indicated, small schools are treated differently based on their special needs. The Early Development Instrument tells us that over 60 percent of those individuals, five-year-olds, are developmentally challenged when they enter the school system. Those are from mostly remote communities. Those are true facts and the numbers we are currently working with.

We are going through discussions on the formula, as well, through Education Renewal and Innovation, thinking in the long term, Mr. Speaker. There are other programs, as well, such as Inclusive Schooling and PTR. Those are areas we...

Clearly, the statement was made in this House that the Junior Kindergarten will be continuing this year and next year. Based on the funding that has been allocated to date, it will continue for this year and next year. That was in the statement yesterday. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When I met with all of the school boards on May 23rd, I did commit to making some changes. Part of the changes, of course, is providing flexibility. Providing anything beyond 16 to 1 teacher ratio in their school system, the education authority will be provided a subsidy from my department. That is a commitment I have made. It is based on an average throughout the Northwest Territories.

There will be some impact, in some cases, where there is a high enrollment of students entering our school system. Those are some of the areas that we will continue to monitor, but at this...