R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Junior kindergarten is funded the same way that every other grade in a school is funded, so there should be no financial gaps. There are more students, there are more classes, but there is more money that is flowing the same way as if that was additional students in grade one, or if you had to open up a second grade one class. It's the same type of money. That being said, I know that schools are often tight for cash. You know, you talk to some principals, and they say they have to determine whether they are going to buy these supplies, these books, maybe, that the class might need...

Thank you. I am very familiar with this. I have had constituent businesses who have brought this issue to my attention time and time again, and I have had discussions with the department about what we can do to address this issue. Questions earlier in the House today reminded me of this. You know, dental hygienists can't perform their work because there are no dentists around. Similarly, apprentices can't get their hours and can't move to journeypersons because there are no journeypersons around. We have discussed some different approaches, and, in the mandate, we have an item in there that...

Thank you, and thank you to the Member for the comment. With such a large department, with such a large budget, an increase that would be a large percentage in another department might not show up as such a large increase here, but I appreciate the Member's support for education and advancing the priorities of the Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. No, we haven't done that work. This is particularly a team to support the principals, teachers, program support teachers. It's an interesting thought, and we can look into it, but we haven't done that to date. Thank you.

Thank you. Absolutely. This has become vital. I think the feds see a need for it, and I can't speak for them. I can't say if it is entrenched. We could have a new government, and they could get drastically slashed. When I speak with the appropriate ministers, I will definitely be speaking to the value of this. Thank you.

Thank you. Currently, we do not, and I can't speak for ITI because ITI is also involved in the arts, but that is something that we are looking at with ITI in the development of the new arts strategy. That's something I've always been critical of myself. I appreciate art. I appreciate artists. If we're doing it as an investment in the economy, are we getting a good bang for our buck? We're doing that work to find out. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The territorial support team does go into the communities. They don't travel there on a regular basis. There are referrals. Based on those referrals, I believe there's been 42 in the last year, so there's been nine from the Beaufort Delta; there's been four in the Sahtu; the Deh Cho, Tlicho. They've been all over the entire territory. The largest number is in Yellowknife, but that's just because of the size of the population, but they do travel to every region. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to hand this over to Mr. Saturnino who can, perhaps, provide a bit more detail. Thank you.

Yes, I do.

Thank you. Recently, we started working with the territorial support team, which is a group of professionals centred in Yellowknife. There are three positions right now, and they assist teachers in schools with instructions for children with higher needs. There is a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, and a mental health specialist, and they travel around the territory to the schools to do visits. They also offer remote support through telephone, email, et cetera, but that's what that increase is reflective of. Thank you.