Agreed. Page 8-37, Health and Social Services, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued, Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Page 8-38, Health and Social Services, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Page 8-39, Health and Social Services, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Page 8-40, Health and Social Services, information item, work performed on behalf of others, continued. Agreed?
Agreed.
Agreed. Committee, that concludes that section. Let us turn back to 8-7, which is on page 8-7. Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move that this committee defer consideration on the department summary for the Department of Health and Social Services. Thank you.
The motion is on the floor and the motion is being distributed. Let’s wait until it’s distributed. Motion is on the floor. The Motion has been distributed. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called.
---Carried
We will defer further consideration of Health and Social Services until another time.
Thank you, Minister Lee. If I can please get the Sergeant-at-Arms to please escort the witnesses out, and thank you to the witnesses for being here today.
Before we move on to the next department we’re going to take a short break.
---SHORT RECESS
I’ll bring the committee back to order. I’ll go to Minister Lafferty for his opening comments.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I am pleased to present the 2011-2012 main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
The work of the department is guided by the priorities of the 16th Assembly, specifically healthy educated people in a diversified economy that provides all communities and regions with opportunities and choices.
The proposed 2011-2012 main estimates for Education, Culture and Employment total $285.895 million. This is an increase of 4.9 percent over previous year's main estimates.
Ensuring the success of all children and students is a cornerstone of our education system. Under the Healthy Choices Framework, in 2010-2011 the department is leading in the review of the Early Childhood Development Framework for Action to identify how we can better support early learning.
At the school level, Aboriginal Student Achievement, or ASA, Initiative aims to improve Aboriginal student success across the education system to eliminate the achievement gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. In 2011-2012, a literacy initiative will be implemented in the schools.
The department will provide funding so five additional communities, can extend school library hours and resources to serve as community libraries. The new community literacy coordinator position will offer training and support to staff in these new libraries.
Mr. Chairman, the mandatory teacher orientation and the promotional campaign to raise parents’ awareness of habits that support students’ success will continue. Overall funding will be increased by $500,000 in 2011-2012 to support the $1.8 million cost of planned activities under the ASA initiative.
Ensuring that survival and revitalization of our official languages and promoting arts and culture in all forms of expression provide a foundation for learning, personal growth and community vitality for the future of our Territory.
In 2011-2012, an additional $200,000 will be used to expand exhibits and collections at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Support to individuals, organizations and projects that showcase the arts will continue as this government has increased support for the arts by $1.4 million since taking office.
In fiscal year 2011-2012, $300,000 will support expansion of the annual Aboriginal Languages Summer Institute launched this past summer. The 2011 summer institute will include a repeat offering of two foundation courses and one other course from the University of Victoria certificate program in Aboriginal Language Revitalization.
The department will establish a new administrative structure, costing $812,000 in 2011-2012, for the delivery of French language services across the GNWT, thereby meeting government obligations under the Official Languages Act, in line with court orders.
A key department goal is to ensure every adult in the NWT can acquire the skills, knowledge and abilities necessary to access social and economic opportunities.
In fiscal year 2011-2012, an additional $200,000 will go to Aurora College for a student wellness coordinator position in each campus and $300,000 will ensure expanded delivery of the community-based Teacher Education Program in the South Slave.
In 2011-2012, the department will implement the NWT Labour Force Development Framework developed with the NWT stakeholders. The framework outlines a common vision, principles and goals to develop a strong northern workforce.
The department will also invest $925,000 in 2011-2012 to support employment in small and remote communities by way of wage subsidies to employers.
Income security programs assist the most vulnerable among us to meet their basic needs and achieve greater self-reliance. In 2011-2012, the income security delivery model will be reviewed. We are also investing $150,000 to conduct an independent review of the student financial assistance benefits to determine the extent to which benefits could be improved.
In response to the rising demand for income assistance as we recover from the world-wide economic downturn and are progressing slowly, $1.4 million will go to increase regional budgets for income assistance. Another $351,000 will ensure the retention of positions to help address the rising income assistance caseload.
The job of the department is to support residents in reaching their education, training and employment goals, and in making positive choices for themselves and their family. In this way, residents are encouraged to be as self-reliant as possible and develop a strong identity based on their culture and heritage. Determining the levels of support to help Northerners with all their goals is a challenge that requires constant review. Based on this Assembly’s vision and goals, we believe we are making the best investment for the people within our fiscal reality.
I will be pleased to answer any questions that the Members may have at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Before I go to general comments from the Members, would you like to bring witnesses into the House,
Yes, I do, Mr. Chairman.
Does committee agree that the Minister can bring witnesses into the House?
Agreed.
Sergeant-at-Arms, can I please get you to escort the witnesses into the House?
Thank you. Minister, would you like to introduce your witnesses to the House, please.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. I have with me Dan Daniels, the deputy minister of ECE; and Paul Devitt, director of strategic and business services. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Does committee agree that we go through general comments? Do the Members wish to make them before going to the Minister to have him to respond to all of them or would Members prefer that he respond to each one?
To go through and have the Minister answer all of them at once, does committee agree?
Agreed.
Then that’s what we’ll do. Alright, general comments, Mr. Jacobson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. General comments regarding Education, Culture and Employment for the early childhood development. I’m seeing a lot of success in the communities that I represent, in that the funding I hope does not get cut in regard to supplying of the breakfast program that they have there in the school.
The school system, I’ll start off with Tuk. We have teachers’ housing that’s coming up. The funding has run out to supply per door, $20,000 per door per unit. We have five units. So it’s going to cause havoc on the teachers up in Tuk if we don’t get our agreement signed, which we desperately need to keep good teachers in the community. That has to be looked at.
We have not enough teachers. We have overcrowding in grade 10 in the community and we should get some more help, if that’s possible. I want the Minister to be taking these. I’m not going to go back to ECE, I’m going to come here and this is where it should be done, because all the time I always get referred back to ECE in the community in the Beaufort-Delta and nothing happens.
The high school in Sachs Harbour, that’s another thing we’re failing, Mr. Minister, in regard to the students up in Sachs Harbour. From grade 10, 11 and 12 the kids are going into Inuvik and they’re feeling uncomfortable. Half the time there’s not a safe place to stay so they come back into the community. We have to have shelter for them in a house, or a boarding house run by the department. The students there that were failing over the last two years now, three years we’re going on, the kids are having to come back in again and have to be re-educated just to get their upgrading to go to further courses in Aurora College. That’s not right.
The other communities, Paulatuk, we’re good there, but any funding for Paulatuk is just the retrofitting in regard to some retrofits into the school. I know I’ve been saying this the last three years. Also in Tuk, I mean, I’m looking at my big extension that I’ve been trying to work with and it’s probably going to have to come back to the next government to get the shop and the science lab and all that into the community. Getting back to Paulatuk, there should be some retrofits done to the community school. I’ve been there and the windows you can feel the draft coming in and the students are getting sick, which is not good.
The Adult Education Program is really needed in the community of Tuk. The community has no teacher, they have a student there and last year Tuk’s Aurora College had the most students all across the whole Northwest Territories. So we should try and get a teacher in the community as soon as possible.
Income security, again, we should have some petitions coming in in regard to getting the income support cheques given to the Northern Store or to the Co-op or to the Stanton Store. The monies that are given to the families are not being utilized for food; they’re being utilized for alcohol and drugs. That has to stop. I’m told it’s up to the community and the hamlet council to bring that forward to give to the Minister to make the changes. The people with ECE on income support, the monies, it’s just not there. The people are going hungry on the third week and it’s a really sad situation. There’s no work up in the communities and it’s tough. I was talking to an elder in the community of Tuk, they said they were spending $350 on gas to go out hunting and he said they come back skunked sometimes, and they see caribou coming in that’s not in the boundary and they still won’t hunt because they’re keeping the boundary lines. So I think there should be some way that we could try to work together in regard to getting extra gas money to help these people in the community.
With education in the communities, we’re failing. This has got to be picked up. I know the Minister is working hard with the education system with what they’ve got, but we’ve got to try to find more ways to get these kids at the proper education level where we’re not social passing. You’ve got kids in grade 11 with a grade 6 reading level. That’s not right and we’ve got to work together to get this done. I really want to work with his office in regard to making something happen for the students that are falling through the cracks.
I’ll have more questions on the page-by-page, but thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Jacobson. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to reflect on some of the issues I’ve been working on and have been raising with the Minister over time and I think the most recent was in my Member’s statement today where I was talking about the Bompus Elementary playground and the efforts of the parents group to raise funds for it. I think the department really went out of their way when they assisted Fort Liard enough to extend that over to Fort Simpson and do what they can there to replace that playground, because it is pretty sad when I think this is almost the second year for those children playing out there and there’s hardly any playground equipment. It goes a long way to health and wellness and happiness of the children when we look at that, Mr. Chair.
The second biggest issue I’ve been faced with now is the amount of Wrigley high school students that are not successful in Fort Simpson. I really think that we have to do a good review or some kind of assessment just to see what’s going on there, because our students are running into trouble and we’re going to have to support them, Mr. Chair. So we’ve got to review that situation and we’ve got to ask the Dehcho Divisional Educational Council to get into Wrigley to meet with the parents and look at some solutions and work with the parents to see if there’s a better way to do it, because they are concerned.
Like I said, I think it was over 12 students in the past three years and as far as I’m aware there’s only two successful students that were able to maintain themselves in the student residence that’s there. So we’ve got to really look at that situation, come up with some alternatives. We cannot deny them educational opportunity. The divisional education council has taken the position that, okay, if they’re not successful in this residence, then we’re not paying for the students anywhere else, and like my colleague just indicated, our smaller communities have low to little income and paying on their own for students to get to a different community is very hard. We’ve really got to have a look at that.
I’m pleased to see that there’s money in the budget this year to do the Student Financial Assistance review. Over time I get contacted lots, I get students inquiring, can we have a better rate, is there a better way to support the students in school. I don’t know, maybe the Minister can write this one down, but I think the biggest little change that you can do is pay for even their rent, because right now their rent has got to come out of their student financial assistance and I think it’s almost, like, 25 percent of their contribution agreement when we include rent, and probably higher in some other institutions, even if they go down south. So that’s something that we should try to consider. I know at a place like Aurora College it would be easily done, because it’s local and Aurora College is virtually government, so rent can be easily monitored, but when they’re going down south to other institutions it will be a little bit harder. That’s something that doing that one little, small change I think will go a long ways.
Another issue that I found particularly hard this year was the seniors’ home heating subsidy and having non-working children that stay with the elder. Some of them have trouble with the filing of their income tax statements or going backwards to get income tax statements done. Apparently it’s a firm guideline, there’s a firm rule that they have to see this. I offered the solution of let’s do a statutory declaration if that person is having issues with getting income tax statements, just to self-declare with a semi-officer of the law that, yes, they did not make any income in the last year, and that’s a good enough solution for the interim. Then we can always get the paperwork necessary later, because the income tax takes quite awhile. Somebody who needs fuel in December, if they’re waiting for paperwork from income tax Canada and the flow of paperwork is going to take two months and by then the elder still needs fuel every two or three weeks, that fuel goes a long ways. The seniors do not have that much income.
I spoke often about the schools in Trout Lake and the one in Nahanni Butte and I really believe that we have to start developing a strategy to upgrade and beef up our schools in the smaller communities, because I think we spend lots of money on super schools and big, expensive schools, but now it’s time to start concentrating on the smaller communities. I’d sure like to see us work towards that. They really have to be refurbished. Some of them in my communities are 20 to 30 years old and they do need reworking. I believe that we have to start developing a strategy towards that.
I’m pleased to see that all the work we did on the official languages is finally making its way into the budget. There’s a start in terms of some of the programming that we’re looking at for official languages. I certainly continue to support that and would certainly like to see more of it done in future budgets. Certainly it’s a start on revitalization and supporting our Aboriginal languages in all the communities and in the schools. I know that we just did the Aboriginal student achievement workshops. The Minister was in Fort Simpson and people were very pleased to see him there, taking the time to be with the people, to hear their needs, and indeed we have a long ways to go because some of the Aboriginal Student Achievement recommendations did include languages. We have to start working towards that, getting it into the schools, immersion style. I believe that would really help our Aboriginal students.
I think another big thing is the Minister and government have heard about employment rates in the small communities. I’m glad to see there’s money in the budget to continue our successful summer employment for small communities this coming summer once again. I look forward to working with the communities and getting the proposals in and getting some work in the communities.
Just with that, I’ll end my opening comments now and I’ll be glad to address further concerns as we deliberate the budget for the rest of the week.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Next on my list is Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start off by saying that I’m really happy to see the review of the Early Childhood Development Framework happening. I think there’s quite a considerable amount of new research and insights into this area and the opportunity for gains that can influence our effectiveness in many, many areas. I look forward to that.
Already in this short session so far we’ve passed two motions dealing with education and I hope the Minister has heard those. They were broadly supported and I think in the first area, the Aboriginal student achievement that’s mentioned here under school system, I’m happy to see extra effort there. I hope it’s wisely used. We clearly need to do a better job in this area.
I want to point out just by way of an example related to the motion, the Phoenix School in Fort Smith is one that’s been working. It’s graduated 30 students that probably would not have graduated or did not graduate because the regular system was not appropriate for their learning. Twenty more are anticipated to graduate this year. Just when the school is demonstrating its effectiveness after years of getting it together, we’re coming along and chopping it off at the knees. I’m assuming that this Aboriginal Student Achievement program could put support at least in those areas where programs have demonstrated they’re successful and should not be cut.
I, again, appreciate the increased support for the arts. I think we’ve done a good job there. I’m not one to say we can never do a better job, but I think we can be happy that we’ve made some real progress in this area.
The $300,000 for the expansion of the community-based Teacher Education Program that the Minister mentioned in the South Slave, what I hear from residents down there is some of them at least would sooner see support continue to things like Phoenix School where there’s a demonstrated success. We need to graduate high school students before we get into this program. Having said that, I recognize a real need in this area and I appreciate the Minister responding to that need. I think there are other regions that could use that effort as well.
The apprenticeship and employment development, the new $925,000 for this coming year to support employment in small and remote communities by way of wage subsidies, I think this is again an opportunity to put into action what I spoke to earlier today in the budget address. That is to spend that wisely and in a way that contributes to reaching many of our goals beyond just employment. We have an opportunity to influence things that will contribute to our local economies, our social fabric and our improved environment if it’s spent wisely. This is another specific opportunity for that.
Again, the review of the student financial assistance. I think to some degree we’ve been providing the Minister with a review or contributions to that review and I hope he’s been listening. There’s a clear need of recognition of support for veterinary services. That hopefully will fall under this review. The policy needs to be put in place for 2011-2012 with funding to start the following fiscal year. Again that policy, we’ve let it lapse. We need to re-establish that.
There are a number of areas where we have been talking to the Minister for the life of our term and haven’t seemed to make progress. One area is, of course, the community-wide milk subsidy in those communities where milk is sold prohibitively expensive. I stick with the theme of the opportunities we have for real advances across a suite of government goals. This is the single most effective thing we could do in that area. It’s been demonstrated by health professionals where these problems lie. The Minister came out with a Healthy Foods Program of some kind, $400,000, a one-time effort and then walked away leaving people falling flat. Again I have to underline that, underscore that and mention again that we have been repeatedly calling for programs in Aurora College that provide sustainable community administrators and renewable energy technicians, and so far we’ve seen no action on that.
We know that the Program Review Office that we have heard exists and is working did a comprehensive review of adult literacy and basic education programs and drew some pretty strong conclusions there. I’m looking forward to seeing how those conclusions have made it into the department’s budget this coming fiscal year. I’ll leave it at that for now.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Next on my list is Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a number of comments. In general I echo many of Mr. Bromley’s comments. I think that there’s an opportunity in all the budgets that we’re seeing and all the budgets of each department that we’re going to go through. There’s been an opportunity for them to do some things differently and I don’t see that either of the departments that we’ve looked at so far have taken up that challenge and have looked at what they’re doing and looked at doing it differently to try and encompass some of the main philosophies that Members on this side of the House have been talking about for a long time.
In terms of early childhood development, I also am pleased to see that there is a review of the Framework for Action, which apparently is in the works right now and I look forward to seeing that review. I’m a firm believer in evaluating programs once we’ve set them up and I don’t think this government does that nearly often enough.
I do have fairly major concerns with the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. I support the intent of the initiative but I’m not sure that we’re putting the money in the right place to effect what we need to do to increase Aboriginal student success. I think, if I read this correctly and from what I remember of the business plans, what we’re intending to do this year is a literacy initiative. We’re going to hire a literacy coordinator and put libraries in five additional communities. I’m not seeing how that is going to increase Aboriginal student achievement success. I’m going to have some questions for the Minister when we get to that part of the budget.
In terms of the funding for the arts, I too am extremely supportive of the amount of money that this government has put in over the years. It has been increasing and that’s a good thing. I hope that we continue to increase support for the arts as we go forward.
The adult and post-secondary education section talks about an expanded delivery of community-based Teacher Education Program in the South Slave. I also support the local teacher education programs in our various regions but I do wonder whether or not the department has done an evaluation of the current community-based teacher education programs that are in operation. Have they proved to be successful? On what basis are we expanding the program into the South Slave? Is there a demonstrated need? Was the department approached to put it in or is this a decision that the department made and on what basis did they make that decision? I’m looking for an evaluation of what we’re doing now and was there a demonstrated need to go into the South Slave with this program.
With regard to the apprenticeship and employment development, we’re implementing an NWT Labour Force Development Framework and I think coordination of our apprenticeship and employment development programs is good and it sounds as though that’s what this framework does. I haven’t seen it, but I would hope that it would coordinate what we’re doing in this area.
I’m quite concerned about what the Minister is saying here under income security. We’re going to review the income security delivery model in 2011-2012. It probably does need to be reviewed but I wonder if the department is reviewing it in isolation or if it is going to review its income security model in light of what goes on in other departments. I’m specifically concerned that there’s no mention here of reviewing it in light of an Anti-Poverty Strategy or an anti-poverty framework. The anti-poverty work is ongoing and it does involve the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I know that. So I really hope that if we’re going to review our income security delivery, that we will do it with the view to assisting those who are living in poverty, because certainly now income security does not make it easy for people to either get the funds, to apply for the funds, it impacts on how they can or cannot get their housing. There are so many things where there are barriers which are put up knowingly or unknowingly, but people run across roadblocks at every turn when they are trying to deal with income security and housing particularly.
The statement that we’re adding almost one and three-quarter million dollars to the costs for income security is quite concerning, $1.4 million to increase regional budgets for income assistance and then another $350,000 to ensure the retention of positions, so I’m presuming that’s staffing, because we have a rising income assistance caseload. That’s concerning. We should be wanting to see our income security caseload going down. We should be getting people off income security and I hope that with this review we’ll see why people are on income security and we will be able to determine how we can get them off it. That should be the ultimate goal. We should have a Territory where nobody needs income security.
I’ll have some specific questions on certain programs when we come to that portion of the budget, Mr. Chair, but that’s all I think I’ll say at this point. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Next on my list is Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’m going to just be very quick. Most of my comments and questions will come as we go into detail. Similar to my colleagues, I’m pleased to see the work being done under the Healthy Choices Framework and what’s been done to date on the Aboriginal Student Achievement. I think those are both very good initiatives and I look forward to seeing the information as that comes forward.
It’s going to be no surprise to anybody that I’m happy with the additional support that this government is putting into the arts. I think it’s important from several perspectives. Supporting this industry is good for business but it’s also good for tourism, it’s also good for the overall well-being of people throughout the Northwest Territories, so I’m happy to see some additional money in there.
I’m very pleased to see the additional $200,000 that you’ve included to expand exhibits and collections at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. It doesn’t sound like a huge amount of money, but I think with $200,000 you can go a long way to making truly northern exhibits that are reflective of the people throughout this Territory, and I look forward to seeing those exhibits in the future.
Related to that, as I have said before, I like the concept of curated shows and I think there might be an opportunity in this area to look at some of the exhibits and see if there’s any potential to include some curated art in any of our exhibits, exhibits that can travel outside of the Northwest Territories to really show people some of the cultural significance of our great Territory.
One of the areas that I do have concern with with the budget is actually with respect to infrastructure. I know that we’re not talking about infrastructure right now -- that was in October -- but infrastructure does drive O and M, and in Yellowknife there are a couple of schools that I think need some work and because the work isn’t done I do believe it dries up the operations cost. Specifically, the far side of Mildred Hall, the windows and the insulation on that back weren’t upgraded at the same time the rest of the building was done. The department and the board did a fantastic job of upgrading that building but we didn’t quite finish. I’m worried about the fact that we’re not getting that done and we continue to drive the operation costs of that school. I’d like the department to keep on top of that and keep working towards trying to find some solutions with respect to the far side of Mildred Hall.
Also, Sissons School is in need of a significant amount of work. It’s quite old. The mechanical systems are quite old, and once again, if we don’t move on those types of things, operation costs in those schools will continue to go up, which is at a disadvantage for the programming we deliver. We need to make sure that the money is going to the education, and if we can get some savings with respect to mechanical and operations, that would be good. It’s an infrastructure point but it does drive O and M.
The other infrastructure issue I have that, in my opinion, also drives O and M, and that’s Aurora College. There is no stand-alone Yellowknife campus here in the capital of the Northwest Territories. We’re in a couple of different buildings delivering services and our students are located in different parts of town. It’s my understanding that Northern United Place is fairly expensive, so obviously a stand-alone campus would help us gain better control over the operational costs of a Yellowknife-based campus and, once again, give us an opportunity to roll more money into the program, which is really the most important thing.
I know we’re not talking infrastructure but I am concerned about the way that some of the existing facilities we have may be driving our O and M costs and potentially taking away from programming that we could have.
I share my colleagues’ comments with respect to income security. I don’t think we’d ever be able to get a system where there’s no need for income support. People go through cycles and people are always going to need, many people are going to need support from time to time. I’d sure like us to get to a system where it was more proactive and it was more effective on helping people transition from a low point financially in their lives where they need assistance to the point where they can be more self-sufficient and not require the social assistance so much. It’s going to be hard work. I know you guys are working towards that, but it would be nice to see some more progress on finding ways to transition some of these people out. I don’t know how many times we’ve heard people don’t want to get off social assistance because it’s so much easier to stay on. We need to find a way to help people transition out and make productive choices. I remember the tag line years ago used to be productive choices, and it’s a good tag line, but let’s see a little bit more action there on trying to help these people get out of the system.
I do have lots of questions as we go through the department, but those are my basic, general comments and I look forward to more discussion as we move through the document. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list is Mr. Beaulieu.
Mahsi cho, Mr. Chairman. I was happy to hear the Minister say that children and students are the cornerstone of the education system. I think they’re the cornerstone of our society, actually. I find that putting effort into the early childhood development is a very positive move for the small communities, no question about that. I think that it’s important. Even today in my Member’s statement I spoke of the need to support daycares and the need to support preschool and all of those types of programs that support the development of the children in their early years. I’m very pleased with that and I’m hoping that the department puts even more emphasis into early childhood development and more money into the program in the future.
I also think it’s important working with the adult and post-secondary education, but I think it’s a step in the right direction to start putting positions like student wellness coordinators and so on, just putting money into the programs and having the students go in there and run through the program and everything is good, but sometimes people need the additional support in order to get through these programs, get through all of the programs. Many of the programs that are offered at the college -- adult education, health reps, community wellness, early childhood development, the natural resource program, the social worker program -- all of those programs are very good for the economy of the North, very good for the economy of the small communities and so on. I think the higher rate of success we have at the adult and post-secondary education, the better opportunities and the better off the smaller communities would be.
Of course, as I indicated many times, if we see successes in the small communities then the whole North will benefit, because when we have pockets of very low employment in the Northwest Territories, then even in the areas where we have good employment, places like Yellowknife and Norman Wells and so on where the employment rates are high, it’s still affected. Those communities are still affected.
Just an example: if we had 80 percent employment in communities like Fort Providence, Fort Resolution, Lutselk'e, all of the regional centres and the capital will all benefit from that. People would be able to travel into communities, spend money in communities and so on. Teaching and educating and making sure that people are successful in the adult programs and post-secondary programs are important. All of those things that are not apparent in the classroom but are support for the students is excellent. So that is something that I was very happy to see.
The Apprenticeship and Employment Program, NWT Labour Force Development Framework, I think is again another step in the right direction. I feel that in the small communities we should have tradesmen. Either tradesmen or apprentices, and if we have to bring tradesmen in so that we have apprentices in all the small communities, in all the disciplines, so that in the future years we don’t have to bring people into the small communities to get the work done, we are able to run programs, government programs like, one example, if we had a couple of apprentice carpenters, we could run housing programs all year using the employment program, hiring people and having some people go through an apprenticeship that could remain on with them and some that are just labour. I recognize that, but in a way to where we could end up creating our own tradespeople in the small communities and have all of the work that is necessary in the small communities done by small community people. I think that this area here, employment development and apprenticeship, speaks to that and, of course, the department investing the almost $1 million to support the employment in small communities again speaks to that issue. All of those combined with any other programs that -- any other work I should say -- needs to be done in the small communities could be all run through this area utilizing labour programs, employment programs, apprenticeships and so on. I think that is about the extent of my comments, Mr. Chairman.
I guess just in closing, something that is not mentioned here but is important to my communities is somehow if this department is the lead, then I guess it could be the right lead in that it is creating some employment in small communities, some permanency, whether it be seasonal or not, but some permanency that provides income into the small communities. I’ll pull a number out of the air, $100,000 worth of income into one community. That is $100,000 less support, less income support, that type of thing, which is also the responsibility of this program going into that community. It turns people that are on the system and are being paid by the taxpayer to essentially, because there is no employment, into people who are contributing to the economy of the Northwest Territories. If we can have small communities as contributors into the economy, then we have done a lot.
I think that is what this government has to do. Just imagine that the small communities didn’t have employment rates of 40 percent but had, rather, employment rates of 65 percent. That would be phenomenal. That would be absolutely amazing and that is something that we could dream of in this government, but it is something that we could actually do. That is the thing, those things are actually achievable.
There is enough work in various areas, whether it is my favourite topic of fixing up elders’ homes or getting out there and cleaning up the land that has been, some of the sites that have been contaminated, and resource development or resource exploration, so be it, but there is enough work out there for people. There is the money to do it and this developing of some sort of employment program that targets employment rates, the lowest of the employment rates in the small communities, I think, is very important. It is something that can be done, actually, with very little effort, I think. The impact is significant. Five positions in a community that has a population of 70 would increase the employment rates by 10 to 15 percent easily, so that becomes significant.
Also, the career technical services getting back to the schools, I think that is essential. That is an essential element of K to12. I know that in Fort Resolution, for the first time in 20 years that school is going to see career technical services functional. I went into the school with the principal, looked at all the brand new equipment that was brought in, thanks to the support from the department, and I think that with teachers’ support, in order to get that machinery up and running and the rooms ready for use, it is going to be a major, major improvement just to the morale of the students in the Deninu School. The same thing is going to happen in Lutselk’e. The money is there, all they need is a building, so it is my job to work with the government and the local district authority to get a building to put the career technical services equipment in play and the students in Lutselk’e will also benefit from that program. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Committee, we are on general comments. Department of Education, Culture and Employment. I have nobody else on my list. Anybody? Not seeing any, I will turn to the Minister for his response. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. There has been a lot of discussion from the Members and I appreciate that, and a lot of good ideas, some concerns, so I will have to work with that. There has been talks that there shouldn’t be any cuts to the breakfast program and, as you know, the schools provide those programs and have been very successful, so we will continue to work with the educational authorities in that respect.
The teacher housing subsidy that was raised in the House earlier, in Tuktoyaktuk, this is an area that there has been agreement with the NWT Housing Corporation for a number of years. Apparently it is sunsetting, so this is an area of concern, as well as we have to look after our teachers, but I understand that the units are still available for those teachers, so this is an area that we have to look at, what kind of options there are.
Overcrowding, that has been addressed already in this House as well. Actually the motion that came forward as well today, lack of teachers, they want more teachers, students maybe under 10 students. This is another area that I did commit to looking at as a department. Not only that, there are other initiatives that are on their way, such as Aboriginal Student Achievement initiative, they have heard this already, so it won’t be part of the discussion.
Some of the students drop out of school in Inuvik, coming from a small, remote community, this will definitely have the opportunity to discuss this in the Beaufort-Delta during the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and that is going to be on the way in the next couple of months. I am looking forward to more response in that respect.
The same with the retrofitting schools, we have heard about that and we need to look at where things are at with that, Mr. Chairman. Shops and science labs, similar to discussion that was addressed earlier, whether it be CTS, this is an area that we definitely need to explore, see what kind of options are out there, working with the educational authorities, because we provide funding for operations and maintenance of the schools, but we want every student to be successful, so those are just some of the areas that were brought to our attention.
Income support funds, paying out vouchers instead of cash has been brought to our attention. We are waiting for the community to give us a letter of support and then it is just a matter of issuing direction in that respect. Mr. Chairman, this is an area that is a concern to us, as well, because we want the wellness of every child and to be fed as well. We need to monitor this area. I will be working closely with the Member that raised that issue in Tuk.
There is also a concern about social passing. That has been addressed through ASA, Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. There is going to be a recommendation coming out of the initiative. I am looking forward to ideas and suggestions from the communities.
The elementary playground, that has been addressed here today as well. The Member alluded to similar in Liard. This is an area that we need to work with the DEA and the parent group is currently fundraising. We need to closely monitor that and see where things are at. I did make a commitment to work with the community of Simpson.
Wrigley’s high school students, there is a concern that was brought forward. I did commit to the Member that I will have my department and DEA possibly meet with the parents and just explain what is truly happening with those students. There are stories, but we need to get out the facts of what is happening, because there are strict guidelines as well when you are in residence and so forth. Mr. Chairman, this is a commitment that I made.
SFA review, it is going to be happening once we go through this budget planning process. The Member also stated possibly paying for rent. If those ideas come forward, we will definitely look at it and see where we go with it. I would like to hear ideas from other students and parents and community members as well. We are reaching out to all Northwest Territories, as well, and the students that are outside.
Seniors home fuel subsidy, this is an area that I did instruct my department to look at seriously because it is not the first time we heard about that. There has been a discussion on stat declaration, income tax that takes long to get that information. We understand if it is minus 40, we need to act on it. We have done that in the past, but I think we need to seriously look at this overall.
Schools in Trout Lake and Nahanni investment and retrofit, we did look at Trout Lake and we are looking at other schools, as well, to see what their status is. If it needs to be a retrofit, then we need to discuss that in the upcoming capital planning process.
Official languages, the dollars are identified. The need to stress the importance of revitalizing our language and keeping our department focused on official languages has been earmarked. There has been good praise on summer employment, the $925,000 we have allocated. We heard from the Members and we decided to move forward on that.
Early Childhood Development Framework, that is underway, as mentioned in this House. We are working with various parties on that. ASA and then Phoenix School were combined when the discussion arose. It was mentioned it was a chopping at the knees. This particular program has been very successful to date. The program dollars, the money is continuing. There have been some changes to the way it has been funded. We are not saying we are going to stop the Phoenix programming. The money is continuing, just in a different format. We can provide more information on that. We have done that through Fort Smith and Hay River. We can provide that to Members as well.
Increased support for arts over the years, as you know, Mr. Chairman, we have increased a heavy investment in this area. We will continue to do so. I believe this area will definitely and truly benefit the Northwest Territories.
The $300,000 TEP in South Slave, the TEP program which Ms. Bisaro also alluded to, maybe we can re-evaluate the program and based on... Has it been successful to date? I think with any program there are always changes. We can definitely look at the program, but I did indicate and committed in this House that I wanted to reach out to all regions to deliver a TEP program and we are doing that. I don’t want to stop now and want to continue with other regions as well. I agree that if we need to change our programming, then that is an area that we definitely need to look at because we do need Aboriginal speaking teachers. We want to produce those teachers in the Northwest Territories so we can rely on them so they can teach our children.
The milk subsidy was raised through the nutrition foods program that we allocated $400,000. Of course, as you know, it is sunsetting March 31st. This is an area that we have looked at as well. The $400,000 has been used in those regions. So we continue to discuss with other departments, as well, when it comes to nutritious food.
The veterinary services, as the Member alluded to, again SFA review, as you mentioned, Mr. Chairman, that could be part of the discussion that can be brought forward to our department. We have to look at all options. We have to look at what has been brought to our attention. Also, the renewable tech admin and other areas, we have shared this with the college already. The college is fully aware. They are looking at other jurisdictions, what has been offered. I will be going back to the college to see where things are at, the current status on this particular matter.
ALBE review, the question was a part of this budget. ALBE is still under review as we speak. It will be finalized in June 2011, this year. Obviously it is not in the budget, but we will be planning for next year’s budget.
ASA literacy coordinator, increasing funding for community libraries. I understand Ms. Bisaro will be asking more detailed information, so we can provide that as well.
The review of Income Security Framework, the Member also brought up the Anti-Poverty Strategy, if it could be somehow linked together. Yes, we will tie our income security review with the Anti-Poverty Strategy so we will work hand in hand with that.
Income security, the $1.43 million increased regional budget and also retention of PYs due to caseload increase, of course our number one goal is to get people off income security, but we can’t just say we’ll cut off the funding because there are a lot of people out there who are on income security right now. The 1.4, especially in the regional, the money is going to regional community. I must state again in this House that is our goal. As Members have alluded to, we want to get people off income security. One of the areas we continue to look at is productive choices. I’ve been trying to work closely with the communities to kick-start what we can do to get people off income security. Whether it be splitting wood or checking fish nets for the elders, those are just some of the examples we’ve thrown around.
The $200,000 increase to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre reflects northern perspective and is a worthwhile investment. The Member also shared with us a curated showcase that could fit in this area. This is an area that we need to seriously look at. So we’re fully aware of that.
He also touched base on the infrastructure. The Member also wants us to closely monitor what’s happening and some buildings need upgrading. At Mildred Hall the Member referred to windows in the back area; finding solutions. We clearly heard that and we need to work with that.
The college, the stand-alone college, as you know, the lease is coming up in 2012 which is not too far off in the distance. We need to have a plan in place. Coming this fall we may have to extend the lease agreement again because in order to plan for a facility, then we need to have at least a two or three-year planning process. It’s not just our department. We’ve been talking to outside organizations and interdepartmentally as well. This is a matter that’s very important to us and to find out what options are there for us when it comes to an Aurora College stand-alone building.
It’s important that daycares and preschools need to put more emphasis on this. I think we’ve done that in the past and we’ll continue to do so. As I stated in the House, there are certain programs that communities can fit the criteria. We’ll continue to monitor this area as well.
Post-secondary PYs, whether it be wellness coordinators, as Mr. Beaulieu alluded to, the higher rate of success the whole North will benefit. We truly believe in that too. Post-secondary is an area of interest to our department because we need those post-secondary students to come back and run this government and organizations in the communities. There have been some changes. SFA, as you know, is currently well beyond the review. We’re listening to the Members and to the community-at-large; the students most specifically. We’ll do what we can in that respect.
Apprenticeship programs in small communities, need for tradespersons and apprentices. As you know, the Apprenticeship Program has an increase in funding and even into the regional communities. That will continue.
The Member also stated the possibility of hiring, I guess, or creating employment in small communities. I think that $925,000 is a good start and having the Apprenticeship Program in small communities will create opportunities as well. Having a partnership approach with the communities, the corporations. Just GNWT alone cannot do this successfully. We need partnerships in the communities. So this overall will be an interdepartmental approach with community partnerships.
CTS in the schools. The Member has approached us on various occasions. We have initiated some schools with CTS. We feel that if we deliver more CTS into schools, it will be beneficial to students in the communities. Similar to the ones we have here in Yellowknife and other communities.
Those are just some of the main areas that the Members have touched on. Of course, I’m looking forward to more detailed information as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty, for those comprehensive remarks. Does committee agree that we now go to detail?
Agreed.
Page 10-7, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, operations expenditure summary, we will defer until after the activity summary. Page 10-8, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, information item, infrastructure investment summary.
Agreed.
Page 10-9, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, information item, revenue summary. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just have a question here in regard to the revenue for early learning and child care. There is none in this proposed budget. Could I ask why?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. That $272,000 that was earmarked for 2010-2011 and funding from Human Resource and Social Development of Canada, the federal funding to support early childhood programming is due to sunset March 31, 2011. So it was the federal funding.
Okay. So what was that $272,000 used for and are we dropping programs because we don’t have that revenue? What’s it being used for in this current year and how’s it going to impact the 2011-2012 budget?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Daniels.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The $272,000 that we got from the federal government has been integrated into other early childhood development supports that we have available in a range of different programs. We don’t anticipate having to decrease our activity. There will be smaller amounts of money but we’re hopeful that we can continue to support the range of programs that we do have available.
Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Ms. Bisaro. Thank you. Committee, we’re on page 10-9, Education, Culture and Employment, department summary, information item, revenue summary.
