Thank you, Mr. Testart. I am going to allow a reply. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we want to make sure that the jobs that we are going to have over the next 15 years… that the program services that Aurora College provides will be reflective of those jobs that are going to be needed. We will be at the table. We will be sitting with the Aurora College executive to make sure that we are working to meet the needs of the Northerners.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Questions. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Just a couple of questions to follow up on my colleague from Kam Lake. It is my understanding that Dechinta and College nordique have submitted proposals to the department for core funding to help them get established. I think those proposals have been in with the department for several months now. I am just wondering whether the department has responded to those proposals and what that response might be or when we can expect to get our responses. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned earlier, the Skills 4 Success Action Plan that we are going to be rolling out here and hopefully bringing back into the House in the fall is going to be reflective of all our partners, stakeholders, whether they are businesses, Aurora College, moving forward. We want to make sure that action plan gets done and that the business case from all areas is looked at. Hopefully we will have their input into creating this action plan as well, which we did commit to working with all our partners on the development of this action plan.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for that and for his response. It seems to me then that the department hasn't formally responded to these two proposals but anticipates taking those into consideration in developing an action plan for Skills 4 Success. Is that the case? Is the Minister actually going to respond formally in writing to these two proposals that have been submitted to the Department? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have our staff that are working with both College nordique and Dechinta. We will respond with a formal response to their proposals. This is the first time we have had a comprehensive report as such, the labour market needs assessment report that came out. To make sure that we do it right and that we do get our resources in the areas that need to be done, we have to get that action plan done first. That way we can have our program services reflect that. We will respond with the formal response to both institutions. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. I will ask the Minister to add more clarity to that. You are not quite answering the question as I see it. I am looking for a time frame or a date, Mr. Minister.
We could give a formal response, but it is simply going to be saying what we are here today as the action plan. We have to get that done first. We could give a formal response this week, early next week. We still want to work with all our stakeholders when we are developing this action plan and making sure it is reflective of the comprehensive report. That will be the next steps. Yes, we will get a formal response out this week or early next week.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate your efforts at chairing this meeting. I appreciate the response from the Minister. Why I am raising this is that I have had representatives from both Dechinta and College nordique contact me in an effort to try to find out the status of these submissions. That is why I am pressuring the Minister to find out what is going on with the proposals. I understand he has now committed to getting back to them within a week or so and that is great. If the response is that those proposals will be considered in the context of developing an action plan, that is fine. These things have been outstanding for a while now. I think we should make more of an effort to respond to them in a timely fashion. I think that is what I have heard from the Minister. Once again, I do appreciate your effort at chairing the meeting. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Minister.
Yes. I appreciate that. As I mentioned, our staff is always in contact with both College nordique and Dechinta. I believe our representative has spoken with them in the last two weeks. Any information like that… I appreciate that Members are bringing this to the table. We want to support our partners. We appreciate the work that both institutions do. There are some areas that need to be considered as well. That is the legislation that needs to be done. We also have to make sure that we are doing the things that were asked for. There was a motion in the House in the 17th Legislative Assembly that we are looking at working on. There are a lot of things that have to come into place. As I mentioned, our representatives did meet with the organizations in the last two weeks. We are keeping in touch. It is not like we are not talking to these organizations, which I hope people don't think we are doing because that is what we are doing. Just to let everybody know that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. O'Reilly. Questions? Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am just wondering if we can get some distinction on, under grants, page 67, labour market agreement for persons with disabilities. There seems to be a significant reduction from $198,000 to this year's proposed $69,000. Further down, under the contributions heading, similarly, we have labour market agreement for persons with disabilities, contributions previous year was $802,000. This year's proposed $281,000. If we can get some explanation around those two areas that would be much appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We did give somewhat of an explanation yesterday. We will go back to my assistant deputy minister, Mr. Olin Lovely, to get into a little bit more detail. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing Mr. Lovely.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. As you see in the 2015-16 revised estimates, you have $198,000 under grants and $802,000 under the contribution, and that was money that we received as part of the $1.25 million for labour market agreement. As mentioned yesterday, we took a $650,000 reduction as part of the GNWT-wide reduction exercise. The reduction here is reflected in those numbers for 2016-17. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to confirm, the $1.25 million that we are referring to, was that federal transfer funding that we are not receiving this year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Minister.
Yes, that is correct. We are receiving $600,000 though.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Nothing further. Questions? Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and standards, operations expenditure summary along with detail on 67. Total activity, $49,718,000. Agreed?
Agreed.
Page 68. Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and standards, active positions, information item. Questions?
Agreed.
Agreed. Education, Culture and Employment, students loan fund, information item on page 69. Questions. Agreed. I would say none. Page 70. Education, Culture and Employment, education authorities programs and services, information item. Questions? Mr. Thompson and Mr. O'Reilly.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the Minister please explain how the budgets are developed for the regional education councils? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We give all the education authorities targets to meet every year and then they supply us with what they feel are going to need to do the work. A little more detail, I will actually ask my deputy minister to get into a little more detail.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing Deputy Minister Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the Member is probably aware, there is a funding framework that goes with how we fund the various boards that is linked to any wage or salary-type information as well as benefits as well as enrolments is a key input to that. That is the basis on which we come up with an initial estimate across the various components that go into the contributions to the boards. Then the boards take that and develop their budgets off of those estimates that we give them for the initial amount, working within the framework that we give them for the total. We do give them the detail on what the funding for the framework provides under the various components: administration, inclusive schooling, Aboriginal language and culture-based education, as well as the territorial schools portion, which are the teachers, and then the boards work to develop specific budgets. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Thompson.
I thank the deputy minister and Minister for their answers. In regards to this here, does this include junior kindergarten in the budgets in the salaries in here? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
Yes. A lot of the questions that we talked about yesterday when we were going through this, and the other K to 12 system as well. As this is an information item, it is in these areas as well.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you for clarifying that. In regards to your guys' benefits and salaries, where do you guys earmark these numbers? How do you calculate them? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
I will go to my deputy minister for that one. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Minister. Recognizing Deputy Minister Stewart.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The wages and salaries are based on information that we get currently from the boards in terms of the incumbents that they have. In terms of benefits, it is a percentage of those salaries that we use to calculate the benefit amounts. It is a similar system than what the GNWT currently uses in terms of the rates that are used in those sorts of things. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Stewart. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I would like to thank the deputy minister for his answer. When we talk about incumbents, is it based on their actual salaries or is it based on a calculation by the department for the next x numbers of years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.
Yes. I know we have the NWT association as well as the education authorities that have representatives under the collective agreement as well when we are looking at those areas as well. I will go to my deputy minister for more detail. It is right across the territory in terms of how the teachers are being funded. But the benefits, all those areas, we did give a brief presentation to committee in some of the ways we are going to be looking at fixing some of that, the way we fund our teachers. I will go to my deputy minister for more detail. Thank you.
