Thank you, Madam Speaker. I really had questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, but of course, after hearing the Minister of Education’s statement on Early Childhood Development Action Plan, I think he deserves the honour of my questions today.
My question, first off, is we shouldn’t be calling this an action plan. We should be more or less calling this the early childhood development vision.
I’d like to ask the Minister, how does he intend to pay for this vision? He’s pointed out that there is no costing, no assessment, whether it’s new money, whether it’s re-profiled money, or will the pressures be coming down on our school boards, forced to find the money for this additional year of education? Who is paying for it and where is the money coming from and how much money?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. This is an area that we are embarking on, a new initiative. We’ve been talking about this junior kindergarten since the Aboriginal Student Achievement a few years back now, and it’s based on the engagement process that we’ve heard from the parents, the Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, and the past and present MLAs that were part of the process. These are the discussions that we’ve been having for quite some time now.
It’s before us through the Early Childhood Development Framework. The action plan will be a tabled document today. It does capture an area that junior kindergarten is part of that action plan.
Through the budget process there’s been an earmark of funding allocated to that, new money, and there’s also re-profiling, as the Member alluded to. The re-profiling, we’ve been discussing that with the school boards, the school board superintendents, and we’ve had their feedback, and so those are discussions that we’ve been having.
We are rolling out the program this fall, 2014, and capturing the small communities, 29 communities at the get-go and then phasing it in over three years. That is the overall plan to cover all communities throughout the Northwest Territories. That is the overall plan. These are some of the priorities of this Legislative Assembly’s goals and objectives, so we are moving forward. Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, the next question of course is: How much money is the Minister talking about? He said there is new money in the budget; he said there would be re-profiling, so let’s get down to the nitty-gritty and let’s find out what this is going to cost.
What is the program going to cost? How much new money is being put into this potential budget that may or may not be passed – and I’m not sure it has the support of all Members thus far – and how much money is being re-profiled and what are the impacts of re-profiling of those dollars? Thank you.
Madam Speaker, when the Member first came out with the question, there were a couple of areas that he touched on, a wage top-up subsidy was one, new money that is coming in, approximately $511,000, pending approval of this budget through the Legislative Assembly. With junior kindergarten we talked about re-profiling of funding, and again, working very closely with the school boards. This is an area that I am pleased to announce the implementation is starting this fall. It is phased in over a three-year period. The funding that we’ve been talking about is over a three-year period and is a small impact into our overall PTR that we have been talking about with the school boards.
We have to keep in mind that through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and through our engagement with our Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, they want us to do something different within our overall departments, what we can do better with what we have, the funding. We have to be creative and innovative. That’s why we came forward with the standing committee presentation this fall about the various initiatives that we want to undertake. One of them was this whole establishment of junior kindergarten. Over the three-year period, we’re going to be looking at approximately $7 million. What we’re looking at is the impact on some of the school boards will be upwards of 1.2 percent of the overall budget, so there are areas that we need to seriously look at as well. There’s surplus that we need to seriously consider. I can show the surplus of all the school boards for the Northwest Territories, and here we have fiscal constraint within our budget, so we have to gather all the information, take all those into consideration as we move forward. But we are moving forward on this junior kindergarten, 29 schools to begin with this fall and other regional centres next year. The following year will be all Yellowknife schools. We are going to be capturing all Northwest Territories schools with the junior kindergarten. Mahsi.
Madam Speaker, just using my good old NWT simple math here, I divided $511,000 into 29 communities that they plan to roll this out to, and I guess $17,000 really goes a long way, the way this looks, and I’m not really sure what this is doing. In other words, this is more discovery money, really, at the end of the day, with little result.
I have yet to find any Member who believes in the idea that re-profiling money from the school boards is right. I have yet to find a Member who thinks that the PTR ratio needs to be adjusted.
What type of support does this Minister have from actual Members of this Assembly on this side of the House? I have yet to find out. It seems like they tend to forget about what it’s like to be over here. I think they have told committees that they’re going to do this, not hey, what do you think? Can I get an answer on that, Madam Speaker?
Madam Speaker, as Legislative Assembly Members we’re obligated and also responsible for the people of the Northwest Territories. We’ve reached out to the people of the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities, the leadership, the parents, the grandparents, through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. This is building on that. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the action plan that has been brought forward will certainly highlight the importance. We have all these stats, through the renowned researchers across Canada and internationally. Those are some of the areas that we continue to focus. With our department working with the Assembly Members, this is an area that Members refer to $511,000 and 33 communities, that’s an area that I wish top-up for those staff or early childhood workers. That’s separate from junior kindergarten that we’re introducing into the school system.
This is a new initiative that we’re embarking on based on the input from the parents, based on the input from the general public. Members ask if there is any support. We sought support, we sought guidance from the general public and there is support. Based on the feedback we are going to be receiving from the MLAs, at the end of the day we’re going to see how much support there is when going through this budget.
There is support from the general public in the Northwest Territories to move forward, especially in the small, isolated communities. Ten of the communities do not have a licensed child care program, so it will certainly benefit them. With Yellowknife, they currently deliver they call it pre-kindergarten but it is a Junior Kindergarten Program within their existing establishment at cost for the parents. This will be at no cost for the parents, what we are pursuing. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Sorry, Madam Speaker. I thought it was my third question, but the Speaker is always right. Even when the Speaker is wrong, the Speaker is still right.
Ohhh.
I said even when, not when. I said she is still right. So, Madam Speaker, who is always correct, I still don’t think the Minister gets this. He calls it an action plan, but really it’s a vision with no action. He says he has support for the program. Of course, he can have support from everybody. I want to give you more. Yes, everybody is going to say, “sounds great, give us more,” but it’s our job to ask the question, how are you going to pay for this? Where do these crazy ideas fall out of the sky and how do you plan to implement it? It’s not about giving better education. The question is really about how you are going to afford this. You just keep saying we are going to give you the best things in the world. Well, who wouldn’t want it?
Madam Speaker, the Minister has no idea how he’s going to pay for this. He has reached out to the public, of course the public likes this idea because we’re going to give them more.
What support does he have from the school boards about cutting their PTR and the effects that might have, and what support does he have from Members on this, because I’m not hearing an action plan, I’m hearing dreams of sugarplums and fairies and everything will work out fine, and don’t worry, we’ll get it done. Thank you.
Thank you for that short, final supplementary. Mr. Minister.
Mahsi, Madam Speaker. As I stated before, the overall $7 million that we’re talking about over the three-year period, dealing with all the schools across the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we are going to be servicing is re-profiling from the PTR. We’re still above the legislative target that we have for PTR, so what we’re proposing is delivering this this fall and then continuing on to other regions, other communities in the following year and all Yellowknife communities in year three from now.
Again, I have to reiterate that Dr. Stuart Shanker gave us the stats that junior kindergarten is the way to go. Not only him, a renowned international researcher, but other researchers have indicated to us. We made a presentation to Regular Members, as well, that this is the way to go. It’s not just us as a department saying that, it’s not just the Minister standing here saying that, it’s the parents that are saying that as well as the grandparents and now we’re moving forward.
I believe this is a very beneficial initiative that we want to move forward on. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
