Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins, your time has expired. Page 10-13, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, directorate and administration, operations expenditure summary, $10.521 million.
Agreed.
Page 10-14, Education, Culture and Employment, information item, directorate and administration, active positions.
Agreed.
Page 10-16 and 10-17, Education, Culture and Employment, activity summary, education and culture, activity description. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to start with the early childhood development aspects here. First of all, I note that early childhood and school services division is the title. Could I first learn, is early childhood development programs within that division, or does the early childhood just refer to preschool programs aspect?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The early childhood development, as it states here, there are certain programs under that. But I will have to get my deputy to elaborate more because there is detailed information respecting whether it be the division and the budget cycle itself. I have to get my director to explain or elaborate a little bit more.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. The Early Childhood Development Program and instructional support services are under early childhood education division…sorry, early childhood and school services division. It’s in the organizational chart on page – I don’t know if I can refer to another page – but 10-3.
Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you for that information, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. Devitt. My concern is, early childhood development is quite different than education. There is an obvious need for some integration at the later stages with the education. But it is so important, as the Minister knows, to, I would say, just about all of our broad government goals that it needs to stand in an autonomous way. Is there a plan to take this early childhood development aspect out of the school services division, which there is a record of completely overwhelming the early childhood development aspects, and developing their own, sort of, organizational infrastructure or early childhood development?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.
I believe this was brought to my attention. That’s part of the reason why we’re doing this education renewal. There are six pillars and part of the one pillar is to deal with the systems. I understand where the Member’s coming from. That’s an area that will be discussed through stakeholders and other educators, and providing that input, and if we need to make those changes then I have to work with my Premier and so forth, my colleagues, to make that a reality. That will be part of the discussion.
That’s all I was looking for, that we are looking into that seriously, so thank you for that.
Early Childhood Development Program, I see, is $7.7 million. Could we get a brief outline of how those dollars will be allocated and, if it’s possible, a comparison to the current fiscal year? That’s the $7.719 million under program delivery details and there were categories such as family centres and Aurora College training programs and so on that were used in the current fiscal year.
The $7.7 million that the Member is referring to, the breakdown, if I can have my director to give a detailed breakdown, if he has it before him. If not, we would have to provide that information. I don’t really see it in front of me, but we’re just going through, if you can give us a minute. Mr. Devitt has more detailed information as he just found the paper.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.
Mr. Chair, I don’t have all of the details in front of me but in terms of some of the larger amounts, the Early Childhood Program contributions are on the following pages is just under $4 million, and there’s another $2.1 million for the Healthy Children Initiative. We also have approximately $346,000 in other O and M in the program and the remaining amount is salaries for staff at headquarters and regional offices.
Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Bromley.
I appreciate that information. Perhaps the Minister could provide, at his convenience, a comparison with the current fiscal year so we know where the changes have been made. More specifically, the House approved $1.25 million in the current fiscal year in addition to what was originally proposed in the mains for this fiscal year. I’m wondering if the Minister will provide an accounting for how that $1.25 million was expended.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.
Yes, we’ll provide the comparable breakdown on the early childhood $7.7 million. We do have the $1.25 million that was committed the last go around. The breakdown itself, we can provide that to the Members as well. The first one is the ECE framework renewal. That’s what we’re going through right now, and also part of that will be coordination with the Northwest Territories different agencies and stakeholders and so forth. Child and family resource centre is another one for $250,000 for two communities, Tulita and Ndilo.
First, if I can reflect back. The framework renewal is slated for $200,000, the child and family resource centre is $250,000, and the early childhood community outreach. That’s another one, the public awareness, $670,000, we’re already advertising, call in, print and so forth. It’s got a list of activities on that page, as well, that we can provide to the Members.
Another one is Early Childhood diploma program through Aurora College, Early Learning Idea Program, zero to three years, $50,000. Also, the last one is the Early Childhood Environmental Rating Inspection Manual and training, which we are working on producing handbooks, for $80,000. That’s just the breakdown that we have before us.
Thanks to the Minister for that breakdown. I have some of that information. What I would be interested in, in particular, is how the expenditures have varied from what was planned at the beginning of the fiscal year, so I would appreciate that. I know the Minister made a commitment to have a fully qualified – which I assume means meeting the federal standards – early childhood worker employed at each of the two child and family resource centres. Could I just confirm that those fully qualified people are employed in those programs as per that commitment?
The $250,000 would offset the cost of those qualified people within that establishment. That was part of the plan, so we are working closely with both communities, Tulita and Ndilo, that have been slated for the $250,000.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. A final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m happy to get on the list again. I didn’t hear the Minister say that that commitment had been fulfilled, that we have actually two fully qualified early childhood development workers looking after children in these communities. Could I still get that confirmed? Thank you.
I’m not sure if we have that detailed information here but we are working with those two establishments, because part of the commitment that was made was to have qualified people within the framework. At this point, I don’t think we have that detailed information but I can provide that to the Member, where the status is at, if they hired those qualified people. We can provide that information. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Bromley, I will put you back on the list here. We are on questionings on 10-17. I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to follow up for my first questions on Mr. Bromley’s questions with regard to the funding for Early Childhood Development.
I noted in the Minister’s opening remarks he stated, in 2013-14 the department plans to spend $7.7 million, about $1.4 million more than budgeted in the 2012-13 Main Estimates. I thought about that. The main estimates were amended, I believe, when committee added $1.25 million to the main estimates. I would like clarification. If we have $1.4 million more than the 2012-13 Main Estimates in this budget, the 2013-14 budget, how much of that $1.4 million is new if we had $1.5 million that was added already after the fact to the mains? Am I correct that our newness is $15,000 give or take? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Devitt.
Mr. Chair, the changes are from mains to mains. I believe the adjustment was made after the mains that the Member referred to, was after the mains were approved so it is included in the difference between the two main estimates. In addition for 2013-14, there is a child daycare inspection coordinator position being added. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, I don’t think I quite understood that. If we are comparing mains to mains, we had the mains for 2012-13 that were a dollar, say. We have the mains for 2013-14 that are $1.4 million plus one dollar more, so we added after the revised mains from 2012-13 were $1.25 million bigger, from what I understand. Can I get that clarified? Are the revised mains numbers from 2012-13 $1.25 million at least higher in terms of education than the 2012-13 mains for education? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, on page 10-17 for early childhood programs, you can see that the change the Member is referring to, the reallocation of funding, took place after the main estimates were approved and is shown in the revised main estimates. Maybe that will help clarify. Thank you.
Thank you. Yes, I see that we went from… If I look at the revised mains to the main estimates, there is not very much of a difference there. Basically, from 2012-13 to 2013-14 we have a difference of $1.4 million minus $1.25 million, $0.15 million, so really the new money in 2013-14 for early childhood is minimal. Am I correct in that? Thank you.
The change is for the child daycare inspection coordinator which is approximately an addition of $138,000. There are other changes for collective agreements, but that’s the major change that’s taking place since the revised main estimates. Thank you.
Mr. Chair, okay, I think it’s as clear as mud. So really the $1.4 million more in this year’s estimates is a bit of smoke and mirrors. Really the addition is whatever number Mr. Devitt just gave me, which has gone out of my head already.
I’d like to know from the Minister, with looking at this $1.4 million that the Minister says is like new money, how are we using the $1 million that has been carried over from the 2012-13 revised mains. The money that the committee added to the budget last year, the $1 million or $1.25 million, how is that being used in this budget? Is it being used in the same way for the same programs? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The $1.25 million or $132,000 that the Member is referring to, we had to be creative and innovative when we had to go through the budget cycle last time so we can find the money from within. So that’s where it came from. I just outlined the $1.25 million where the funding will be allocated. There are five different key areas that I have laid out and I can provide that copy to the Members. Mahsi.
Mr. Chair, thanks to the Minister. No, I don’t need that. We have that information. I just wanted to know that it’s basically being used for the same programs this year as it was for last year.
I’d like to go back to… I started to talk about heritage and the requests from the various heritage organizations to the Minister. I didn’t really understand in the budget where cultural contributions show up. If I could get that clarified, that would be helpful. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that we’ll go to Mr. Devitt.
Mr. Chair, the cultural and heritage programs are under this activity, education and culture. The contributions are shown on pages 10-19 and 10-20.
Mr. Chair, thanks to the director. That’s helpful.
In terms of culture and heritage, I know I suggested to the Minister, in my statement last week, that we could give a higher profile to heritage than we do. We have a Minister’s Cultural Circle, but I’d like to ask the Minister specifically whether or not he would entertain a name change to those awards, if he would call it the Minister’s Cultural and Heritage Circle, just adding the word “heritage” in there. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. When it was brought up in the House, I did look at the criteria as well. The heritage is laid out as part of the criteria within the policies that we have that we follow. It captures the heritage as part of the program that we currently have. If there’s going to be some name changes, then that would be something that I may have to re-evaluate and talk to certain groups and whatnot. I did take that into consideration when Ms. Bisaro did raise it in the House and I’m currently working with various organizations as part of the process. Mahsi.
Mr. Chair, I have another question with regard to these heritage funds and the culture funds. They are on pages 19 and 20. I would like to know from the Minister how these funds are administered. Are they called cultural funds? If they are just cultural funds, are they administered through the department or is there a group somewhat like the Arts Council that administers the funds and doles them out? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, what I’m looking at is cultural and heritage. I believe that is the information that I have. Maybe I will get my director to maybe elaborate a bit more.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.
Mr. Chair, the arts and cultural contributions are administered. Some of them are administered by the department and the Arts Council, though, administers the ones shown on page 10-20 under NWT Arts Council. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I’ll sneak the last question in. So we really don’t have much of a profile in terms of heritage. The NWT Arts Council, I presume it’s called an arts council. So I presume that they don’t and their description doesn’t say much about grants for heritage. So there are donations for heritage centres, but that tends to be the operations of the centres themselves. So in terms of programming, it sounds to me as though the only funding in this budget for programming is cultural projects, which is $36,000. Am I correct in that? Thank you.
