Mr. Speaker, in order to do that, we need to change our legislation, the territorial-wide PTR, so I would have to come back to this House to do that. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll continue on the PTR. I’m just wondering if the Minister can give me a definition of what PTR includes, because there are questions of whether our principals, vice-principals and classroom assistants are included in PTR. Are they included in the PTR?
Mr. Speaker, the number of educators used to calculate the PTR includes regular classroom teachers, principals, assistant principals and program support staff. It’s important to know that Aboriginal language and culture specialists are excluded from this PTR. Those are just some of the highlights. The principals are covered. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. About 17 years ago the Aboriginal Head Start program in Fort Providence was established, like other existing Aboriginal Head Start programs in the North. At that time it was the communities and the schools that worked together and basically developed a proposal to Health Canada and made a submission. That’s how the Aboriginal Head Start programs were started. It was basically a community initiative at that time.
I wanted to ask the Minister, can the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment explain why the decision was made to offer junior kindergarten right away in small communities where Aboriginal Head Start programs currently operate? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First, I’d like to congratulate the Aboriginal Head Start program for their 17 years of their journey on the program itself. As the Member stated, it has been successful. It’s part of the federal funding.
The junior kindergarten is an optional program to those communities that do not have educational programming. Those communities that offer Head Start programming or preschool, it’s still part of the option for parents to pursue, if they wish to do that. It is part of the option to deliver that in the communities. Mahsi.
Would the Minister consider delaying or suspending at least the options of communities that raise their concerns, and see if there’s going to be a pause in terms of trying to reflect upon the next step? Mahsi.
I believe it was in my Minister’s statement, as well, that if we delay junior kindergarten in those communities, obviously it will be detrimental to those individuals, whether they are four-year-olds in the communities.
Aboriginal Head Start has been very successful, but we have to keep in mind that I represent the whole Northwest Territories and I represent the population of the Northwest Territories. That’s the reason why we’re going forward as part of the option to deliver those programs into the communities that will benefit this JK. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
According to Ms. Reanna Erasmus, a few years ago she began working with the Head Start program. The plan was to have programs like Aboriginal Head Start in the communities, and then something changed. In the last eight months or so, the department stopped consulting with Head Start people and all of a sudden there was a junior kindergarten.
To the Minister: Why hasn’t the department sat down to determine how Head Start can inform the development of junior kindergarten in those communities? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, in fact, my department has sat down with the Head Start programming and there have been quite a few interactions. There has been correspondence, obviously going back and forth from my department to that organization, and I can provide that information to the Member, that clearly highlights all the days that they’ve met and the discussions that my department has had. Not only the Aboriginal Head Start programming, those individuals that we’ve met with engaged Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and early childhood development.
We have engaged with the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Based on the feedback came JK. Obviously, we are working with the Aboriginal Head Start program, and the JK is based on the Denendeh curricula as well.
Part of the process is we need to collaborate even more, so that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Nadli.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the key word is collaboration. The expectation that is, indeed, that as we’re going down this path, we would work together.
In Fort Providence there has been a JK pilot project running since October. We have Head Start running there as well. The children go to junior kindergarten in the morning and they come to Head Start in the afternoon. The program manager, Joyce McLeod, has had to contact parents and ask them to please come and get their children because they are very, very tired. So we know for a lot of the children, a full day is too much. That’s just one of the problems that are happening with the combination of junior kindergarten and Aboriginal Head Start, yet there has been no program evaluation. No one has called Joyce McLeod to find out how the junior program is impacting Head Start in Fort Providence. This is a big oversight, Mr. Speaker.
How does the Minister account for that? Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, those are the discussions that we need to have. I am going to Fort Providence and I will be meeting with that organization.
We have to keep in mind that you’re talking about eight communities. I am responsible for 33 communities and I want to deliver the most effective programming, that’s JK, into the communities. JK is based on Dene Kede and Inuinnaqtun curriculum that recognizes northern culture. It makes learning experimental.
This is the curriculum the program came out with. We have to make it a success in the communities. That’s what I’m committed to. In Fort Providence and other Aboriginal Head Start programming, we will be working with them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister of Education today to stand up and explain the changes that are coming with junior kindergarten. He needs to enlighten the community and certainly the territory that if you have a day home, they’ve been telling everyone it will be fine.
What evidence can he convey that it will be fine? Just a few days ago, I brought up in this House the departmental staff keep telling these day home owners, whether they are licenced or unlicensed or part of the Montessori program, you’re going to lose money and it’s time to budget better. I would like to hear the Minister’s perspective on how everything will be fine with his master plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the Member first raised that issue with me about day home owners, there was a misunderstanding where apparently my department told them they needed to be ready for these circumstances. I met with my department. I questioned them and they came back and are providing the support that’s out there. Through my department, we have a variety of programming. We will continue to support those day home operators as we did in the past for how many years now? We will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker. We want them to be successful. We don’t want them to be out of business. Mahsi.
I’m really happy to hear we are going to continue to support them, but we listen to the Minister of Education saying we support them by the amount of kids they have, so we give them money per kid. But if we’re taking the kids away, are we just going to support them because we want to support them?
It was the Minister’s staff who told the day home owners that you have to budget better and if you can’t do it, bring us your paperwork and we’ll budget for you. They also told them that they need to accept that there will be a loss and they need to accept it.
How does that work when he’s saying now he’s going to take care of them? Thank you.
As I indicated earlier through this session, JK is optional. It will be up to the parents to decide if they want to take their kids to JK or continue with the day homes. The budget, everybody has to budget, not only in my department but daycare operators, day home operators, they have to budget too. These are reporting mechanisms. We have to work with them. Those are some of the facts that we share with them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
We’ve heard the Minister on the record say we’ll take care of them. We’ve had staff tell these day home operators if they were better budgeters, the changes wouldn’t be noticeable. Mr. Speaker, all we hear is that JK is optional. That’s what I’m asking.
What is the evidence that people will choose to pay $1,000 a month per child to go to the day home versus go to a free program? That’s what we want to know. Where’s this evidence in this ludicrous statement that I hear over and over again that it will be up to the parents, it’s optional? They will choose to pay rather than take the free program.
I don’t know a single person who would pay $1,000 a month if the program was free across the way. Give me the evidence, I want the evidence, everyone wants the evidence, the public wants the evidence. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I don’t know how I can justify this, but the junior kindergarten that we’re rolling out into 23 communities and then going on to regional centres next year and the following year will be to Yellowknife. I’ve indicated in the House that my department will be working very closely with the daycare operators, day home operators and we will continue to subsidize them. We have done that.
Again, junior kindergarten is optional for the parents. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister continues to fail to explain the science behind his philosophy that if we can give free spaces away, but he’s convinced the option before the parent would be that they would rather pay $1,000. That’s their choice. So what we’re doing is sinking the opportunities created by these day homes, whether they are licenced or unlicensed or Montessori programs.
Would the Minister finally put the evidence on the record so we can have a true, fact-based discussion on this problem? Thank you.
The day home operators are not sinking. Maybe that’s the view of the Member, but in my view, we will continue to support them. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
My questions today are also addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment as a follow-up on some questions I asked yesterday about the Minister’s statement and the JK fact sheets he tabled in the House, and also on the package of facts that he tabled in the House. At the outset, I want to advise the Minister that I ask these questions not just for Yellowknife schools and school districts but for all NWT school boards and schools because they are all affected by the changes ECE has proposed.
Portions of the Minister’s statement were very disturbing to me. He made much of the fact that Yellowknife school boards will receive an infusion of funds, but conveniently neglected to mention the amounts that are being removed from their budgets. The net impact on YK and regional centre school districts is negative and I would ask the Minister to confirm that. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My department met with the school boards and called every school board to identify what their financial situation will be with each and every school board. Mahsi.
I guess I have to assume, since the Minister isn’t answering my question, that the answer to my question is yes, it’s a negative impact on school boards. Using numbers from the department itself, numbers that have been agreed to by school districts and also Education, Culture and Employment, Yellowknife Catholic Schools will see a reduction in their budget as follows: $277,000 in year one; $744,000 in year two; $1.137 million in year three. In year three, as the Minister stated yesterday, they will get funding for junior kindergarten of $960,000. The end result is a budget reduction of $177,000. Add in the one-time top up to keep PTR at 16 to 1, which the Minister and the school boards agree with, the net result is a budget increase of $580,000. The Minister left out the revenue losses that Yellowknife Catholic Schools will face, unfortunately. If you add in those revenue losses from the preschool program that they run, and I forget what the other one is, the net result is a deficit of $436,000.
I would like to ask the Minister, does he agree with me that this one school board, as an example, will suffer a considerable hit to their budget?
What the Member is referring to is revenue generation through business. That was at the discretion of the school board to decide a few years back to offer…now it will be called JK, junior kindergarten. So, obviously, again, it will be up to the parents to decide. The school board has two years to decide on that. So, Mr. Speaker, those are the discussions that we’ve had both with YK1 and YCS and NWT school boards on these implications. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
To the Minister, yes, they are numbers, but they are numbers that have been agreed to by the department and the school board. I made mention yesterday of some conflicting statements in the fact sheets. I need to ask the Minister again the same questions to clarify what his answer was and which one of the statements in the fact sheets is correct.
When a district implements a junior kindergarten program in the fall of 2014, for example, and it would not be in Yellowknife but one of our small communities, will the school district that is running that program receive funding for those new JK students in the year the program starts or a year later as is the usual practice now according to the school funding formula? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as has been indicated in this House, the PTR funding has been re-profiled across the Northwest Territories on a three-year phased approach. If an individual community is delivering the programming to the community and there’s a surplus of students that accidentally show up, those students would be identified through extraordinary funding through my department, my shop. We would provide that to the school board and it would be up to school board, at their discretion, if they’re going to hire an additional teacher or not, based on the funding we provide to them, based on the number of student enrolment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure if the Minister didn’t understand my question or if he’s trying to avoid answering it. I was not talking about extraordinary funding; I was talking about junior kindergarten students starting a program.
The Minister spoke yesterday about per student funding and he mentioned that as the NWT, compared to Canada, we get a great deal more. We do fund our school districts better than the provinces, but we are very close to the funding announced for our sister territories, which you omitted to mention.
In looking at the fact sheet, it looks like the per student amount includes capital funding dollars. If that’s the case, it’s no wonder our number is higher. Apart from having higher operating costs in the North, we certainly have higher costs to build in the North.
Can the Minister please tell me if the $22,000 per student figure that he quoted yesterday includes capital as well as O and M dollars? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated in this House, the $22,000 per student is one of the best in the country and we will continue to be proud of that and we will continue to invest even more in those areas. However we justify the number, we’re the best in the country. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m just going to follow up from some questions yesterday that were brought into the House, asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about the Northern Communications Society. I’ll switch it up here a little bit and give him a break from answering these junior kindergarten questions.
I recently had some meetings with some of the individuals from the Northern Communications Society and they informed me that there was a proposal given to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment back in December. As Members know, we didn’t go through a business planning process when we went through our operations budget for February and March. Not seeing it in the main estimates during our operations budgeting, I just want to ask the Minister, was that proposal incorporated into the main estimates for operations, and if not, what is the update on that proposal and can we see some kind of action on it in this fiscal year? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We have been working with the CEO of NCS over the years and working with the federal government on their behalf as well. We have bent over backwards to deal with their financial situation. We provide funding on an annual basis, based on the reporting mechanism. There are some challenges we’re faced with within their management, within the federal government, within GNWT working with both parties. We will continue to provide those annual contributions. The proposal has been submitted to us. We are ready to release the funding, but there are some areas of challenges we’re faced with within the organization, but we’re trying to resolve those at this point. The federal government is of the same view as well. We are working very closely with NCS on this particular subject. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
I recall maybe a couple sessions ago, or maybe a few sessions ago, I did bring up some questions about funding to the NCS. I know one of the challenges that occurred was their reporting. Yesterday in the House the Minister stated that the reporting was good and that they were getting reporting on time.
Can I ask the Minister, just for clarity for myself and clarity for the staff at NCS, what are those challenges and what kind of challenges are keeping us from giving this organization the funding to get our information from the government into the communities through five of the Aboriginal languages that they broadcast in to people of the Northwest Territories? What are those challenges?
Mr. Speaker, part of the challenge, obviously, with NCS is their financial situation due to the fact that revenue from the federal government is not consistent or delivered in time. Due to that fact, there is a deficit situation. If we as the GNWT provide funding, it gets chewed up by the deficit. We don’t want that. We want the money directly to the Aboriginal broadcasting so they can continue their job. Those are some of the challenges I’m faced with as the Minister when I want to release the funds.
Again, it’s a very serious issue that we’re dealing with, with the CEO of NCS, and we’ll continue to do that. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Knowing full well that this government does support the Aboriginal languages and that this organization in particular does broadcast in five Aboriginal languages, this government should take some responsibility in ensuring that information is given out to residents of the Northwest Territories through this media opportunity. We’re making decisions, waiting for funding from the feds when the feds might not even know how this organization is operating and the effectiveness of this organization to get the messages out.
I think the big problem with the NCS is that bridge funding from the end of the fiscal year to when they get that funding. I know that the government does do contribution agreements with them; they are looking at that proposal. Why can’t we speed up the process, knowing full well that they get their reports in on time and that they do give out good messages to residents of the Northwest Territories? Why can’t we get that funding to NCS sooner than later? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I think the real challenge is with the federal government because I believe they are a year or two behind. We provide funding, again, based on their reporting mechanism. That’s an area that we are working out with the management of the NCS.
At the end of the day, there is a challenge before us, but we are working very closely with the CEO to resolve that issue. My department met with the CEO just last week to identify some of the options. Once the information is available to me, I can definitely be sharing with the standing committee just an update of the situation with NCS. We want that organization to continue broadcasting in all official languages and I fully support that as well. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Moses.
