Wendy Bisaro

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’ll sneak the last question in. So we really don’t have much of a profile in terms of heritage. The NWT Arts Council, I presume it’s called an arts council. So I presume that they don’t and their description doesn’t say much about grants for heritage. So there are donations for heritage centres, but that tends to be the operations of the centres themselves. So in terms of programming, it sounds to me as though the only funding in this budget for programming is cultural projects, which is $36,000. Am I correct in that? Thank you.

Thanks. So I guess I have to read the sentence and ask for an explanation because I don’t understand. The Minister’s remarks said savings realized by PWS from closing the existing units will be used to fund $469,000 of the $898,000 increase to the department’s main estimates. Is that maybe referencing PWS as opposed to ECE? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to ask some questions about the inclusive schooling funding formula. The Minister has heard Members talk about the problems with the inclusive schooling formula and the way that inclusive schooling is provided. Boards are underfunded, many of them, and the formula basically is not working. I think the current percentage applied across the board to our education authorities is inappropriate.

I would like to ask the Minister initially, what does the department do to evaluate how...

Thanks to the deputy minister. I’m struggling to understand why we would offer a program that doesn’t really provide us with the qualified people that we are looking for to run our early childhood development programs, so I’ll leave that as a statement. Can I be advised when the decision will be made whether or not to go ahead with a higher quality program in the fall?

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thanks to the deputy minister for the info. I’ll look forward to seeing those tenders. That’s all I have, Mr. Chair.

I move that we report progress.

---Carried

Thanks. I’ll take that as a no, that we’re not going to be consulted prior to the development of the report.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I have just a couple of questions. I wanted to follow up on Mr. Bromley’s question about the investigation or the report that is being formulated on the reorg of the college. The answer that I heard was that there’s going to be a report at the end of March. I wondered whether or not there is any intention to involve the Standing Committee on Social Programs or other Regular Members in the consultation for the development of this report. Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister for the commitment. So what I would like to see, and I don’t know about other committee members, but I would like to see a list from the department which tells me which school is number one and which school is number 47 on the list of things to be done.

I’d like to move on. The Minister mentioned in his opening remarks that there’s a fairly comprehensive review of the education system that is… I can’t remember whether it’s future or whether it’s ongoing right now. I’d like to know from the Minister whether this review has started and, if so, that’s fine. Two things I’d...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a few questions here. As I read the description for this section it talks about policy, legislative initiatives, strategic business and capital planning. I wanted to ask some questions of the Minister with regard to capital planning.

I get the impression that the department doesn’t really have a capital plan. I’d like to hear from the Minister, if there is one, is there a system the department uses to determine what schools are in need of either renovations or replacement. Thank you.

I thank the Minister for that information. I’ll just have one last question. I would like to know from the Minister if he can provide me with a list of schools for the next five years that have renovations or upgrades or replacements planned.