Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of places to start with today, and by golly, I think I’m going to give the Education Minister the pleasure of my questions today.
May I remind the Education Minister that in Yellowknife the education boards are administrative boards and not advisory boards. Now, in the capital, the YK school boards raise approximately 20 percent of their funding from their tax base.
Perhaps the Minister can explain the funding formula in this situation where YK schools raise part of their own money to educate our students and the difference between the other schools that don’t need to do this, because we need to know what’s changing as he’s out there poaching money from our schools to fund other programs that he dreams up.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure where the Member is getting that poaching word from, but we’re dealing with the public purse and we’re dealing with the public funding that we contribute to all school boards across the Northwest Territories, 33 communities, seven regions. We will continue to do so and which will benefit our students.
Let me thank Robin Hood over there for that answer. I want to know from the Minister, is he in a position to fund all Yellowknife school boards at 100 percent, because it’s unfair that in Yellowknife the citizens are double taxed. For the education of anybody following this issue, you pay through your property tax and then that money can go to the school boards where it doesn’t apply elsewhere in the Northwest Territories. The citizens of Yellowknife are being double taxed on this issue. Is he prepared to fund them properly, 100 percent?
Again, we’re contributing to all the school boards across the Northwest Territories based on enrolment across the North.
But the fact is, that’s not a straight line funding formula. He has one for the communities, and then he has one for the regional centres, and he’s got ones for Yellowknife. By the way, you have a large funding formula for the communities – which I support because it’s important – and I certainly say the fact is the problem is he’s taking from the large centre of Yellowknife to fund them. He should be asking for money.
By the way, on that note, has the Justice Minister ever had the courage to come to committee or the Assembly, for that matter, and ask for the proper money and funding to fund JK from the very start, rather than going and poaching the money from other school boards?
Mr. Hawkins, that is a different line of questioning to a different Minister. Were you asking the Minister of Justice or the Minister of Education? Minister of Education. Mr. Hawkins, rephrase your question to the Minister of Education, please.
See, Mr. Speaker, you’re so correct, because this is such a frustrating issue. I happen to look at all of them, and they all look the same because they all give the same answers: nothing.
The Education Minister is the one I’m, frankly, pointing at right now. Thank you for pointing that out. Frankly, has the Education Minister ever had the courage to come to the committee or the Assembly to ask for money to properly fund this program from the start, because I don’t know how he’s going to do more with less money.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’m going to remind all the Members about respect for each other in regard to answering and your tone of questions and that. I know it’s heated and I know it’s sensitive, but respecting one another in this House to make a common good for the people of the territory. Mr. Lafferty, Education Minister.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The answer would be no. We’re using internal resources.
Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t know how you get more with less money, and he’s spreading this around. But all of this problem really began, this epic journey, all the narrative of when the Department of Education gag ordered the superintendents in the fall, so none of us really knew what was happening, so maybe let’s start getting to the bottom of this issue by working backwards.
We’ve talked about how we got here through the process of funding, how we’re getting there and the problems. What about the problem about gagging the superintendents from the start on this particular issue? Why would the Department of Education tell the Yellowknife superintendents they couldn’t tell their boards, which in essence, as I said at the very start, they’re administrative boards, not advisory boards, so those superintendents were put in a horrible position. Why would the Education Minister do that to our superintendents? They’re accountable to the people. What is the Minister being accountable to in this regard?
This Minister is accountable to the general public of the Northwest Territories. We did work with the superintendents where they gave us an idea of instead of just 10 to 12, cover all aspects K to 12. We listened to them. We made those changes that reflects on that. Also, 16 to 1, if they’re beyond that there’s new money with PTR that we are going to influx into the school boards.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The time for oral questions has expired. Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to opening address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Mr. Nadli.
