Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am still trying to find out how JK is being funded, if it’s the budget reductions that are funding it.

I would like to ask the Minister, if we are going to have reductions to education authority budgets in ‘15-16, what will that money be used for? Thank you.

Thanks to the Minister. So, I guess, it is an average across the territory. We’re going to make sure that no school or no education authority is beyond 16 to 1, which is appreciated for sure. But if that’s the case, then the Minister is going to subsidize from within the department. So we are going to end up reducing education authority funding and then he’s going to add money back in. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, since I didn’t get an explanation as to whether it’s fair, I have to assume that it’s unfair and he can’t explain it.

My last question to the Minister is: We’ve heard many times that our legislated pupil-teacher ratio is 16 to 1. I have said that definitely we do not have 16 to 1 in all our schools. I would like to know from the department if we are intending to bring our funding down to 16 to 1, how does he intend to implement this 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio, particularly in small schools where some of them are 9 to 1 and some are 4 to 1. So, how is...

I really don’t understand why we need to take more money in 2015-16 to fund a program that is apparently a program that is operational. so I may come back to that.

Small schools have a lower pupil-teacher ratio than do the larger schools. I referenced that in my statement. They need different treatment, and I accept that. Smaller schools have a smaller number of students. They, therefore, need a certain number of teachers to get their programs going. ECE has a small schools funding formula and it is specifically to assist small schools to give them money for their special needs and to account...

Stress to small schools is not what I want, and I’m sure it’s not what the Ministers want, but to do otherwise is unfair to the larger education authorities and that unfairness is being categorically ignored. The justification seems to be that the larger authorities can handle it, so let’s take advantage of them. The fairest solution is to provide new JK funding for the new JK program. That way all schools will be able to keep the staff they currently have and maintain delivery of the excellent programs they provide.

If, as stated yesterday, the regional centres and YK board budgets are reduced...

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I just want to follow up a bit on this same subject. I think Mr. Bromley has covered most of it.

My question here is similar to his and maybe I will try asking it in a different way. My concern is that it has been referenced that GNWT can’t just remove an employee, but where is it written that we can’t do that? What safeguards exist? Where are they that one could go look at them and read them that basically states we can’t just remove somebody or we have to have cause to remove somebody? Because it’s not clear what safeguards are in place to prevent the Minister from...

One last question. The Minister mentions that it’s a design/build project. It’s a set price. I have great difficulty with these statements for many projects where it’s a set price. I have to ask, if it’s a set price, why are we having to eat the interest cost? Thank you.

I know the Minister said that they knew early on, but I think again this is a situation where Regular Members weren’t advised and if we were advised, it certainly wasn’t spelled out to us that this was going to be coming at us later down the line. The department may have known, the Minister may have known, but I don’t think Regular Members were advised and told this contract is in flux, we’re going to be coming back at you probably at some point in time to ask for a change in how we’re cash-flowing the money. I certainly don’t remember that we got that kind of a firm explanation of the need to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to make the same comment on this page that I made yesterday in talking about the operations expenditures. These projects have been completed and yet we are only now being asked to appropriate the funds. I won’t say more than that, but we have violated, I guess, for lack of a better word, a policy that we have as a government, that we don’t spend money until it has gone through an appropriation in this House, and all three of these projects are completed at this point and yet the money is only just now being approved. Just a comment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table a document from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, “Projected Funded Pupil-Teacher Ratio (PTR) Based on September 2013 Enrolment Data.” Thank you.