Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what we're talking about here is making school systems sustainable, making them friendly to the use of children and to help them to be successful there, and that starts from the time they get picked up at the door to the time they come back again and everything that happens in between. So, once again, I am going to ask if the Minister will include the additional costs of JK as he does with all the other grades when he is having his famous meeting with the superintendents? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It's my understanding that the school boards have asked the Minister to fund the busing of the junior kindergarten students. They anticipate that the cost could be up to $500,000 here in Yellowknife to accommodate those new 250 students who are going to be in school. Will the Minister pay for the extra costs of busing?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister just said there would be some supports there for them. Could the Minister please elaborate? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

It is my understanding that ECE sends draft budgets to the school boards on almost a daily basis. In the most recent budget that was sent last night, there is no money for inclusive schooling. My question is: this is the Minister's pot of money to spend; when is he going to include JK in the inclusive schooling funding?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question has to do with the timing of making the funding available, or at least the announcement that the money is available and exactly what amount. The school boards need it by the end of March because they are told to create a budget by ECE and it's due to ECE by the end of March. Will they have a firm idea, to the dollar, of how much money they're getting from the government for September by the end of March, yes or no? Thank you.

Thank you for your patience. What I understand, then, is that there will be no need for the schools to cut their internal staffing in order to staff JK. Am I correct in understanding that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to a couple of questions that I asked yesterday that I didn't feel I had satisfactory answers for, and they are questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, when the department briefed the standing committee at the beginning of December, the department said that the school boards would have to invest some of their own money in the implementation of junior kindergarten and that that would be no problem for them because schools had been consistently funded above required legislation.

So when I went to the town...

The district education authorities and school boards were looking at making a cut of 3.6 per cent to their budget for the next school year in order to fund junior kindergarten from within. Now the government is fully funding junior kindergarten, will this cut be necessary?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE. Mr. Speaker, in his statement today, the Minister said, and I quote, "we will make the money they need to implement junior kindergarten available to them when it is needed." Could the Minister please tell me what the phrase, "when it is needed" means? Thank you.

I did not hear a definitive answer to my question. So schools are now planning. School boards in Yellowknife are holding open houses this month to talk to parents about coming to their schools to access junior kindergarten, and they have a target number of involvements in mind for each of the school boards, so there are lots of pieces of this puzzle that are known. So can the boards count on having this funding in hand or committed to the penny by the end of March?