Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier today, during my Member’s statement, I mentioned the declining enrolments in Yellowknife. I was wondering if the Minister could please outline for us the enrolment levels for all of the Yellowknife schools for 2008-2009 school year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. The honourable Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Specifically for Yellowknife district, first of all, J.H. Sissons is at 57 percent utilization; Mildred Hall is at 56 percent; N.J. Macpherson is at 57 percent; Range Lake North is at 68 percent; Sir John Franklin is at 98 percent; William MacDonald is at 43 percent, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Mr. Speaker, I forgot a couple more schools. Ecole St. Joe’s is at 80 percent; St. Pat’s, 111 percent; and Weledeh at 82 percent. Mahsi.
Thank you. Those are the 2008-2009 numbers, I believe. Are the numbers fairly consistent for the 2009-10 fiscal year and do we have some sort of projections on where enrolments are going to be going over the next, say, four or five years? Thank you.
Mahsi. With the projection of the enrolments, as the Member alluded to earlier, the enrolments are going down and we do have our department working on a five-year plan. Not only that, but we do have a consultant that’s working on the 10-year education facility plan for Yellowknife, all schools. So those are areas that we’re very concerned about, the enrolment and how we can deal with those issues and come out with solutions. So those are the areas of focus that we have with our department.
Thanks to the Minister for that response. The Minister made reference to a 10-year plan. I’m wondering if the Minister could go into a bit more detail about what the intent of that review and that plan is for us.
This particular piece of work will deal with enrolment, the data that will be collected the past years and also on a going forward basis, the past four years and also future direction for space planning. So those are the areas that will be focused with the group. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Your final supplementary, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thanks once again to the Minister for that. I was wondering if the Minister could please tell us, when he refers to group, who does he mean, who is in that group, and if he could give us a bit of a timeline as to when we might see some results from that review come forward to this Legislature. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When I refer to group, it’s the team that’s in my department with the school boards that we’re working with, because we have to gather information and data from them and the consultant that collects all the information. So that is the team that we’re working with, and that information we’re hoping to be completed by the end of the fiscal year. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.
