Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll give the Minister an opportunity to respond. Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All those will be taken into consideration.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, 10-35. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On 10-35, I have a quick question, and I’m not sure it’s an easy answer. That’s what I have certain fears over. When I consider the funding of the Beau-Del at $28.5 million versus the South Slave Divisional Education Council at $24.7 million, and then Yellowknife Education District No. 1 at $23.4 million, I’m just trying to understand the spread of what’s the funding model based on and is there a short or simple answer that we can provide to that. Because I know that other municipalities don’t necessarily collect municipal taxes and forward them on to the schools, so it looks like the Beau-Del is being very well funded and I’m just trying to understand the discrepancy of what it’s based on.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We’ll go to Minister Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The school formula funding is the prior year September 30th student enrolment, and use prior year salaries adjusted for current year. Based on the Collective Agreement, there’s an increase. There’s also an adjustment to the cost difference due to freight, travel, cost of living and the program costs. I believe Mr. Moses alluded to that on the cost of living. Also, the block funded, some of the discussions, it’s within the funding formula that’s highlighted.
Perhaps the Minister can explain why the South Slave Divisional Education Council would be funded more than, for example, a Yellowknife school, if it’s based on freight and costs, because, of course, we all know that the costs of operating there is cheaper than it is in Yellowknife and they have fewer teachers by the number, 15 compared to the Yellowknife school district, yet they receive more money. Maybe we can get some clarity on that.
We can obviously share that detailed information with the Member, but it is based on formula, and you have to keep in mind that there are, I guess you can say, three school boards in Yellowknife versus one school board in the South Slave region. Those are just some of the discussions that we’ve been having with the formula funding. As I stated before, we are reviewing our formula funding through the education renewal and innovation, so these are the discussions that we continue to have.
I would have thought that the Commission scolaire would have been counted in the Hay River area or South Slave area as well. I would think that there would be two. In Yellowknife I would think we’d almost count four, considering we have paired off the Ndilo district, individually of course, and, of course, maybe five if you count Detah as well. That said, if the Minister and the department are willing to provide a detailed briefing note, I’ll start with that and I’ll be prepared to move on today.
But I do want to highlight one area, which is I’d like to see what taxation revenue is seen as a stream in those other authorities outside of the Yellowknife ones, and including, obviously, the Yellowknife, to ensure that it’s seen as fair, because of course, we all know that the citizens in this tax-based municipality contribute to the good running of our schools and I just want to see where this is equitably and fairly transposed off to other districts.
We’ll definitely provide the detailed breakdown of how the formula funding is based on per region, per community and DEAs, DECs.
That also includes the taxation revenue, of course?
Sorry, I forgot that part. Yes, absolutely. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins, any other questions? I am seeing none. Committee, we will continue here with 10-35, information item, details of funding allocated to education authorities. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 10-36, information item, education authorities. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 10-39, information item, Aurora College funding allocation. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions here. I’ll start with the numbers on page 39. There’s been about an $800,000 increase in the budget for Aurora College from this current budget year to…sorry, the academic year to the next academic year. Can I understand what this increased funding is for? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The increase is due to the fact that there is a Community Skills for Work, $290,000, provided to the college; Teacher Education Program is approximately $70,000; and also the UNW Collective Agreement, $404,000. There are also lease costs of $112,000, and then Geoscience Field Assistant Training program, $54,000. So that adds up to roughly what the Member has alluded to. Mahsi.
Perhaps if Members could get that listing, that would be helpful.
The notes indicate that, Note 4 says, “The above excludes $600,000 budgeted for supplementary reserves.” Could I understand what supplementary reserves we are referencing? Is that the GNWT supplementary reserves or is that a reserve for the college? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, yes, we will be sharing that information with the Members, that detail. The supplementary reserve was originally allocated in 2008-2009 to cover utility costs for Aurora College. Since April 2010 the reserve fund has been used to offset expenditures mainly in the early childhood and school services section. Mahsi.
So is there money in the supplementary reserve at this time? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that answer we will go to Ms. Martin.
Yes, the supplementary reserve, right now, is under the Aurora College line item but it is being used to offset the early childhood and school services expenditures.
And the amount that’s in the supplementary reserve at the moment? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, based on the $600,000 is in the Aurora College, as I said earlier. It’s not Aurora College line item under contributions to Aurora College.
Ms. Martin, could you repeat that number for Ms. Bisaro please.
Six hundred thousand dollars that is right now in the supplementary reserve is shown in the grants and contributions under Aurora College. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Martin. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I guess now that I know there is $600,000 that the college is using for early childhood, and I don’t disagree with that, but we’ve got a reserve for the college but is it not okay for a school board to have a reserve and I’m having difficulty with equating those two philosophies.
I wanted to ask the question of the department. I think it was over a year ago now, the federal government made an announcement and there was a large amount of money that was given from the federal government to the college for, I believe, adult education. I would like to know if I could get a bit of an update on how that money has been used, if it has been used, and where that program is at. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we will go to Mr. Heide.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This was federal funding, the CanNor funding, of I believe it was in the neighbourhood of $6 million. That was to fund adult basic education programming and is being used to fund adult basic education funding, I would imagine. They don’t report to us on the expenditures of that money; that would be reported back to the federal government.
Thank you, Mr. Heide. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks to Mr. Heide. So you’re saying that Aurora College does not report to the government, they are reporting directly to the feds. Is that correct?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. That’s correct because the federal funding came directly from the feds and, obviously, we are still working with them on program delivery, but at the end of the day, they have to report to the federal government. They don’t report to us on the federal money, but they report to us on our territorial funding that we allocate to them. Mahsi.
I just have one other question in the section. It’s my understanding that, I think the Minister is well aware… I’ll back up. I think the Minister is well aware that I have an interest in student housing at the college and the lack of it. My understanding is that the college is doing a housing review at this point. Could the Minister confirm that and advise me where the review is at? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, that’s correct. It has been under review by the program review office. Mahsi.
Would I be able to find out when that review might be available?
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we will go to Deputy Minister Eggenhofer.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the terms of reference was recently concluded and we hope to have a first draft of the review sometime in late spring. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Continuing on with questions on this, I have Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Chair, I have a question in regards to the facilities of Aurora College. I do have a 2007 report on the 10-year facility plan. The plan is for 2007-2016, and in the report it does give a list of the community learning centres on page 32 and its projection, I take it as a projection, and the go-forward planning. When will the new updated report be coming out, because it says the population projection for 2014 for Fort Good Hope is 496 and I think that’s a little bit shy of what’s in the community now. They also have a list of the years the learning centres were being built and how old they are by 2016 and they have a list of a category of adequate or inadequate.
I know that the Sahtu communities are going to be experiencing some heavy activity with the oil and gas industry, so I want to know, because some of the people in the Sahtu are saying they would like to have some cook preparation food training programs but our centres are not built for those. Sometimes it makes it difficult to have other organizations get involved in it, so it listed all the community centres down the Mackenzie Valley. Will this report be updated to the reality of the situation now in our communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Obviously, 2016 is coming very fast and I’m sure it will be looked at. We will be looking into it further. The college, again, community learning centres falls under that item, so we will be working closely with them when they are going through that review process of their facilities, so I am glad that the Member is referring to that. It will be addressed with the board of governors as well. Mahsi.
I appreciate that. I am certainly looking forward to any type of correspondence from the board of governors or the Minister himself. We know that we approve the funding for Aurora College, we approve this, this is the money that they are going to get for infrastructure. They don’t come to us and ask for money, they go through the Minister. We know that. It’s up to us and that’s what I’m asking. The buck stops right here with this Minister and Aurora College. That’s a given.
I want to ask for more, stronger, I guess you can call it, commitment, or working together or working closely, but we see that Aurora College 10-year is still to be planned, is going to be upgraded because the projection of 2014 they have in Fort Good Hope is 409. That is way off. If you are using that number to determine what kind of facility you have, then that’s not being true. I just want to raise that point. That is a point. I know you guys are doing this work. I just want to raise that. Somebody didn’t know about Fort Good Hope within this circle here and they’re going to say, yes, this is the number we’re using, so this is the number we will pull out. It should fit, but you don’t have anything like Tulita built in 1994, but do they know that Tulita, Norman Wells is a hot activity for oil and gas development. We need skilled workers. We need the facilities to train those skilled workers. We are looking for a Sahtu tech institution, that type of thinking. We need to start now with the Minister. That’s what I’m looking for, some type of plan. We only have so much time in this government here. That’s what I want to say, Mr. Chair.
I agree with the Member that it needs to be updated. The numbers, if it’s well off, then it needs to be addressed. I will be addressing that with the board of governors. I will be meeting with them. Mahsi.
Mr. Chair, there’s not much I can say other than wait until the Minister reports back on the updated facilities. I really want to see a region-by-region plan on the facilities. Colville Lake is not even in here. I don’t know where it qualifies. Is it a learning centre or training facility? It’s not a campus for sure. That’s what I mean. This is outdated. I appreciate what the Minister’s saying. I wish him the best that he can come back to us with an updated facility plan.
The questions I have, we could go on, but I want to leave it at that. I think that I have said what I have to say.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I will allow the Minister a comment there. Minister Lafferty.
