Is it the department’s understanding from feedback from the district education authorities that this new formula for funding, this alternative schooling, is adequate or, in fact, is this new formula funding putting these programs in jeopardy and threatening them to not exist any longer because of this new funding? What’s the feedback been like from the DEAs who have these programs? What’s their response been to this new formula funding for them? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask some questions about the storefront schooling, alternative schooling for students. That may not be appropriately on this page. Would that come under funding to district education authorities on page 10-33 or would this be the time to ask about that?

Will there be any impact on the staffing level at the alternative school? Will this decrease of $200,000 impact their resources or their staffing in the next school year? Thank you.

As part of the consideration for reworking the funding of the alternative schools, what kind of consideration was given to the results that have been achieved? I understand that the students who attend the alternative schooling are ones who would not normally be attending the regular high school and this is a means of ensuring that those who may have dropped out who need credits, who need to learn in a different way, who need to achieve their high school diploma outside of that regular attendance at school Monday to Friday. Were the results taken into consideration when looking at the revised...

What was the motivation or what precipitated the change in the funding program for the alternative schools? What brought that about and did, in fact, the funding under the new formula, is it reduced funding for alternative schooling? How does it compare to what was being provided? Thank you.

I’m sure that the Minister and deputy minister are very well aware that there have been some questions raised recently with respect to the funding that has allowed these programs to exist in communities. I certainly know of Hay River and Fort Smith. I want to talk about Hay River’s.

There’s some question about whether or not it’s effective to fund the alternative schooling on a per student basis, considering that some of the students who are attending and taking advantage of this program are maybe only there to get a few credits in one grade to finish up and they attend at different rates and...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The committee would like to proceed with the consideration of the budget for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment today. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will support the motion brought forward by Mr. Yakeleya and Mr. Hawkins today. However, I think that if we think that having three teachers in a small community for grades 10, 11, and 12 is going to result in the, I don’t know, some utopia in education, I think we’re sadly mistaken.

The fact of the matter is that it would be an improvement and, therefore, it should be an option. I, as a parent and as a representative of many other parents, believe that what would be best for the students would be options. By the time a student gets to grade 10, 11, 12, maybe it’s time...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This weekend I had occasion to speak to a friend who is a long-time Northerner. She said to me, “Jane, what’s devolution?” Simple question. I said, “Simply, it’s the turning over of federal responsibility for the management of Crown lands and natural resources on and under those lands, and the transfer of decision-making from federal politicians, bureaucrats and federally appointed boards to Northerners. It’s about transferring the jobs associated with those responsibilities to the North. It’s also about sharing a portion of the royalties for the extraction of those...

Please, for the benefit of the economies and the common sense of working together for the benefit of Northerners, let’s seriously listen to each other and let’s see where a unified voice for the North can take us.

All the best to the Premier as he goes out to the regions in the next weeks and months to have that dialogue with Northerners.