Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to conclude general comments on the budget and start with opening comments on the Department of Human Resources. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. So I need to ask the Minister now then, what will be the pupil-teacher ratio for grades 10 to 12, what will be the PTR for elementary, what will be the PTR for primary in the budget year ‘14-15 coming up? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with the Minister of Education and ask a few more questions with regards to the funding for junior kindergarten and the written response, or the response to the written question.

I asked the Minister when the boards, the board chairs, the superintendents had been advised of the reductions in their funding for the ‘14-15 year. I don’t believe I heard an answer.

I would like to ask again, to the Minister, I appreciate that the boards and the chairs and the superintendents have been involved all along, but when were they advised of the reduction in...

I find it interesting that the Minister twice in the last couple of days has referenced 10 communities without daycares and in the same breath that he’s talking about junior kindergarten, so I’m wondering if he’s equating daycare and junior kindergarten. I hope it’s not so.

I’m trying to understand the numbers in the answer that the Minister gave me to my written question. There are two high schools in Yellowknife. One is Sir John Franklin and the other is St. Pats. Sir John in YK No. 1 is the bigger high school but Yellowknife Catholic Schools will see a much bigger reduction in their funding...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education. I’d like to ask him a couple of questions with regard to his Response to Written Question 6-17(5), with regard to the explanation of funding and reallocation of funding for junior kindergarten.

In 2014-15, $1.8 million will be reallocated from education authorities, and I take it from the Minister’s response that this is from all authorities, even from those four authorities who will not get junior kindergarten in 2014-15.

I would like to ask the Minister if he would please confirm that my understanding is correct...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I, too, have a number of comments, and answers can come later on. I may ask further questions when we get to detail, but I just have some observations and some comments that I’d like make comparing last year to this year and so on.

I’d like to comment, first of all, about the Workforce Planning Strategy. I’m really glad that we have that and that it’s still being worked on. One of the things that we noticed, particularly in the last budget or the budget before that, was the number of retirees. I shouldn’t say number of retirees. The number of employees we have who are...

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. I think I heard the Minister say we have those numbers. All I have in the written response is the current ratio is 13 to 1 and the legislated ratio is 16 to 1. I would like to know what we are moving to, and if that’s what the Minister said that he will get for us, then I very much look forward to that information, if he could confirm, please. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bill 6, An Act to Amend the Medical Care Act; and Tabled Document 22-17(5), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, with conclusion of general comments. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, it just does not compute for me. We are comparing apples and oranges and I cannot understand how it’s okay for us to record the revenues… It’s an accounting entry, I think the Minister said. So we are recording an accounting entry and it’s okay for revenues but we won’t do an accounting entry for expenses. So on the one hand we’re taking advantage and on the other hand the government is also taking advantage and saying we’re not going to do it in ‘14-15, we’ll do it in ‘15-16.

I’d like to ask the Minister if he can tell me, since 5 percent is presumably what the budget was...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask some questions to the Minister of Finance. I want to follow up on my statement and also follow up from my colleagues’ questions earlier.

I would like to say that I appreciate the government’s willingness to do the right thing and put 25 percent of our new resource revenues into the Heritage Fund, but I am unable to reconcile the Minister’s words with the numbers that are in our budget. As I stated in my statement, the request was to put that money in -14-15, not in ‘15-16.

Mr. Bromley has asked this already, but I don’t believe I heard an answer, so I...