Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The department provides funding to eight district education authorities in the NWT according to a predetermined formula. Elementary and secondary school contributions are provided to education authorities based on government priorities and education needs. This funding framework plays a pivotal role in directing and supporting education councils to achieve education objectives. School contributions are calculated based on enrolment and to cover annual operating and maintenance costs.

Provide a...

Thanks to the Minister for the explanation. Generally, policy is developed internally. Why is it that we need to go to an RFP and hire a contractor to develop this part of the policy? Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. The Minister and I have to respectfully agree to disagree. He is forcing the boards to make one of two bad options. They either use their contingency to fund the shortfall or they have to cut staff and increase their class sizes and reduce the quality of education.

The boards use this contingency money to fund extra staff, so they may get a special needs student who needs an assistant. They may get an extra 20 students in September that they need to find a staff person for.

I would like to know from the Minister, without a surplus, if my board has no surplus, in such a...

The Minister mentions an action plan. I know that that has been out there for quite some time. We have been waiting for that. It was originally scheduled for January and I know committee suggested that it be pushed back. Another question would be: When are we going to see that action plan?

The letter indicates that some of these initiatives will be funded from existing budgets but that others will require funding to be put in place. I need a little bit further elaboration from the Minister.

Will there be new funding for these initiatives, or will he continue with the current funding from within...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On behalf of the residents of Frame Lake, I too would like to thank Mr. Blake for his service. It has been great service and we appreciate that. I would also like to welcome the incoming commander, Mr. Smith. I have some Pages as well. Frame Lake is extremely well represented with Pages in the Assembly this week. Today I would like to welcome three Pages from Frame Lake: Sebastian Ransom, Isaac Macpherson and Dakota Earle. Thanks to those three in particular for your service, but thanks to all the Pages for the work they do for us. Thanks, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday I voiced the concern of Yellowknife residents who have expressed their views to their MLAs about the implementation of Junior Kindergarten. Today I want to delve deeper into the dollars and cents aspects of their concerns.

The Education Renewal and Innovation Project is an ambitious one. It’s looking at a renewal or restructuring of our whole NWT education system. To date, the Minister and the department have announced, or is it decreed, that Junior Kindergarten will start in September 2014 in 29, or 22 now of our 33 communities, but with no new money. A very...

Thank you to the Minister. Could I get an explanation of what preparing the roadbed means, because it’s pretty rough in some spots right now?

Thanks. I’m sorry, I didn’t get all of that, but was there any indication of any work being done on the roadbed itself?

Thank you, Madam Chair. We wish to deal with that tabled document. I don’t know the number, but Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2014-2015.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s nice to know that, if I hear the Minister correctly, he’s not going to claw back surpluses, but by reducing funding, that in effect requires them to use their surpluses to fill in the shortfalls.

So I’d like to know from the Minister, in Yellowknife, obviously the situation is different, the Minister is well aware, if he’s forcing the boards in Yellowknife to use up their surpluses, a portion of that is taxpayers’ money. So does he feel that that’s fair in that my taxpayer dollars are being forced to fill in a shortfall that the GNWT is...