Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister explain how his budget was developed? I am sitting here looking. There are increases and decreases throughout this page here, and it doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason, but I know that the department has done a good job of preparing it. I just need to understand how they did it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for that. However, I guess my question is: how come this information wasn't brought to our attention previously? One of the positions was cut; now this is the first time I'm seeing it and I'm seeing it in the business plans here. The information we're getting about cuts, are they only full-time positions? Is that the information, and that half-time positions are just showing up? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister explain how they get the information out? Is it a walk-in or do they actually go out and go and see the people, the clients, out there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I guess can the Minister, deputy minister, explain how long it took to implement the system, because when I look at the actuals, it's $1.146 million, and the revised budget for 2015-16 is $1.143 million, so it was a $3,000 reduction compared to the year before, but it is what the main estimate was: $747,000. It was almost a $400,000 increase. It concerns me that there was a revised budget, and they had revised estimates later on. Could they explain if it was a process this system is now done and it was over two years, or what is that contract services all about then? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I notice that there's a reduction in another position at Dehcho. Please explain what position this was. Thank you.

Thank you. Just to clarify, this is the federal funding and is it dollar for dollar or is it 50/50? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, I think I am a little ahead on the schedule. This is corporate management. I can look at the policy and I guess I will deal with the regional education authorities and stuff like that. Thanks, Mr. Minister, for that answer, and I have actually seen some of that work done in our region, so I thank the department for doing that and continue to support doing that. In regards to contract services, I noticed a huge decrease in the budget. What's the rationale for that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure… Is it confidential presently or are we able to provide that information to the public, what the pupil-teacher ratio is for junior kindergarten? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, upon returning to this session, I started preparing my reply to the Finance Minister's budget address. It has been an interesting process, to say the least. I have worked for the government for more than 23 years as a public servant and always wondered how the budget was developed, scratching my head and wondering how Ordinary MLAs could allow things to happen as they did. Now that I've been through the process, I still am scratching my head, but now I know the process a little bit better.

Mr. Speaker, I'll start with a bit of history. For me to understand...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm kind of disappointed. I see that the small communities are getting hit again. I mean, bigger centers are now getting two more positions and we're taking a half position in a small community. I'm kind of disappointed so trying to understand the rationale with decentralization, why weren’t you looking at moving these positions into either the Sahtu or the Dehcho. Thank you, Mr. Chair.