Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] We have Bobby Weyallon in the gallery. I would like to recognize him in the House.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Miltenberger.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would just like to quickly recognize the two Pages from Fort Smith, Mackenzie Villeneuve and Pyper Rehm, and Ms. Rehm’s mother, Gladys Rehm, who are here for the week, and I thank the Legislature for the opportunity to have them here.
Thank you, Mr. Miltenberger. Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize Danny Gaudet and Leonard Kenny, as well, from Deline.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have a constituent here today who we rarely get to see in this House because of his busy schedule, but he is here today. Mr. Edward Sangris, chief of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to recognize two members of Yellowknife Education District No. 1, if they are still up there behind me, Mr. Al Cook and Ms. Heather Clarke. There were here earlier. Welcome to the Assembly. I’d also like to recognize two Pages who are here today from Range Lake North School, but they live in the riding of Frame Lake, Brian Johnston and Elijah Lange.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I too want to recognize some visitors in the gallery today. From YK1, I know we have Al Shortt. I think Ms. Bisaro referred to him as Al Cook, but it’s Al Shortt. Heather Clarke, as well, welcome. I also want to recognize Chief Leonard Kenny from Deline, Danny Gaudet from Deline, also Ed Sangris, chief of the Yellowknives Dene, and also David Wasylciw who is with us today as well. Welcome to all the visitors in the gallery today.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all I would like to thank the Premier, the Minister of Education and the Cabinet very much for their appropriate response today through the Premier’s statement in the matter of Junior Kindergarten. Mr. Speaker, putting this rollout on pause for now until we are certain that we have checked out all the possibilities is welcomed and appreciated very much.
On the topic of going forward and doing the assessment and a thorough investigation of how we’re going to roll this out eventually, I’d like to ask, what are the chances that we could put this under a different title than Junior Kindergarten? Junior Kindergarten speaks to basically adding a grade to a public school system, and really I think what we are trying to do is build on community infrastructure where that’s appropriate. In other cases, where there may already be developed early childhood development opportunities in that community, perhaps it might be the role of this government to enhance those. So I’m just wondering: is there any flexibility for putting this under some other guise than just Junior Kindergarten, which speaks to an additional grade. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Those are discussions that we had just a while ago about the title, Junior Kindergarten, versus potential other names. We are going through a comprehensive review, as the Premier indicated. We do have some time to discuss those matters. Right now we are currently delivering into 23 communities. The title, obviously, is Junior Kindergarten, so those are just some of the discussions that we need to have as a department and with the communities as well. Mahsi.
I will take comfort in the words the Minister used, “a comprehensive review.” Because I think if we are comprehensive, we have to look at the existing infrastructure, facilities, programing in the communities and decide what is best on a community-by-community basis.
In the statement today it indicates that communities who have already begun the Junior Kindergarten program, and we hear that there’s everything from some communities where there’s one little person taking that, to communities like Mr. Blake’s, where there are 14 four-year-olds that have entered the school system. So in those communities where they may wish to dial back the rolling out of this program in one of those 23 communities, I could see it being difficult for the school board and the DEAs or DECs to say, hey, you know what, we really can’t do this, we don’t have the resources, it’s effecting our teaching complement, for whatever reason, and dialing that back. It may be problematic for them to communicate, like, you know, come and get your kids now, we’ve decided we’re not going to do this.
So I’d just like to ask the Minister, what kind of support could the department offer in the way of communication with those communities that may want to withdraw from this, to support them to work their way through that process? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, as I stated in this House, we do have a steering committee, a dedicated team that provides support to these 23 communities and we’ll continue to provide that through my department just based on the announcement today. Those are the communities that we need to focus on. Whether the option of continuing or not, as the Premier indicated, that’s a decision that we’ve made, and at the same time, those are some of the reviews that we’ll be undertaking, as well, throughout the next eight months that we have. So that’s what we’ll be focusing on. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
When the original Junior Kindergarten plan and program was ruled out, it caused, I guess, some instability and uncertainty, insecurity in the way of programs on private operators, NGOs. So, just to be clear, all of those folks, as a result of this announcement today, should not be looking for other jobs or moving on or making plans to dispose of their assets, that seriously, they can stop today and wait now until they have a chance to have input into what the program will look like going forward.
I just want that message to be very clear because I’m afraid about the fallout from the original plan. When people aren’t certain of things, sometimes they make other plans. So I’d just like to reiterate and have the Minister confirm himself that these people that are listed here, the education authorities, Aboriginal Head Start, licenced day home operators, that these folks should hold on, that they will have an opportunity to be consulted before anything further happens. Thank you.
As I stated in this House, I did make a commitment to reach out to those operators and the stakeholders and that’s exactly what we’re doing through the Premier’s statement. The review, obviously, will go beyond the 23 communities and engage the education authorities, licenced daycare centres, day homes, Aboriginal Head Start programming and stakeholder groups. We also have to keep in mind there are parents we have to engage with, as well, and the general public over the coming months. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just want to again say thank you to the Minister and his department for putting this on pause until we can get it right.
Will the Minister keep us apprised? I will be very interested to see what the 23 communities do, and I’d like to ask the Minister if he’d keep us apprised of the feedback he gets from those communities. Thank you.
That is obviously part of our goals and objectives, to keep Members informed on our progress of our review of the 23 communities where JK is being delivered over the coming months. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today Members alluded to what I like to refer to as a small sliver of success for the stakeholders of Junior Kindergarten. The Executive Council, led by our Premier, has failed to address the most important aspect of the current rollout of Junior Kindergarten. Who is going to pay for this? Although a recent dispute on the actual financial impact of Junior Kindergarten rollout has been occurring publicly between both Yellowknife school boards and the department, the issue, Mr. Speaker, is not the mechanics of the calculation but the final agreed to amount. In the end, the three-year cumulative funding reduction of just under $2 million is hitting the mill rate taxpayers of Yellowknife. This is the real issue. Since this announcement came today from the Premier, it is to him I will be addressing my questions.
We know the original rollout to the 23 communities for Junior Kindergarten was done with an ill-conceived funding model, with no new money from the GNWT budget and cleverly funded with surplus monies from school boards and authorities.
Can the Premier tell us why the funding component for today’s announcement was purposely referred to as a “no change approach”? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, when the Program Review Office reviewed the education budgets, they determined the education system was over-funded by $17.5 million a year. The Yellowknife school boards had large, accumulated surpluses such as $2.5 million with YK1 and Yellowknife Catholic School Board had a $1.4 million surplus. So the funding model at this time that we put forward is it would not change for this year and next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Premier assure the House that there will be a moratorium and all changes to the pupil-teacher ratio affecting all schools, that all surpluses, monies from school boards, authorities and councils not be clawed back and that this year’s Yellowknife funding reduction of $649,000 be returned to the rightful school boards? Thank you.
The funding for the 23 Junior Kindergarten programs for communities will be absorbed by all education authorities through the re-profiling of existing funding, as I indicated in the letter to the standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m not quite sure what we just heard, but I assume that was a “no” response to my earlier question. To be clear, it appears the Premier is okay that both Yellowknife school boards be saddled with funding reductions every year while we delay the evaluation of Junior Kindergarten well into the 18th Assembly. Again, is this what the Premier clearly supports? Thank you.
The Member wants to focus on Yellowknife, but all schools will see the re-profiling of existing funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make the last one easy for the Premier. With the end of this session, we know the GNWT is about to embark on next year’s main estimates for operational expenditures. The GNWT has a golden opportunity to place new budgetary dollars towards existing rollout of Junior Kindergarten.
Can the Premier assure this House that new money will be set aside for Junior Kindergarten? Thank you.
We are talking about one-time impacts. I will focus on the two Yellowknife school boards. The two boards will have to pay in 2014-15 and 2015-16. These one-time amounts are for 2014-15: YK1, $372,000; YCS will be $277,000; and in 2015-16: YK1, $274,000; YCS will be $525,000; keeping in mind the surpluses that YK1 has of $2.5 million and Yellowknife Catholic School Board has $1.4 million. Assuming the review comes out very positive and assuming in the 18th Assembly the two school boards will decide to go forward, the ongoing impact, as we see it, would be $100,000 for YK1 and $436,000 to YCS. If you look at YK1 whose budget is $31 million a year, their ongoing reduction – and we’re only talking about year one and two – is about 0.3 percent of their total budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for Premier McLeod. We all acknowledge, here in the North, that we need to bolster the economy here to ensure we have a vibrant society. At the same time, there are also dire social needs at the community level. As I stated a few minutes ago, new spending to address the goal of healthy, educated people free from poverty is meager next to the spending on the Inuvik to Tuk highway.
How does the Premier justify the gross discrepancy between spending on infrastructure and spending on our people’s well-being? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the last time I checked, this government spends about 70 percent of our budget on social programs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The basic needs of people in the communities are ensuring they have food and shelter. My colleague just expressed a need for school councillors. School boards’ budgets are being shifted towards communities. This week in the House, the supplementary appropriation requests are being considered. The government is asking for an additional $40 million for the Inuvik to Tuk highway and $20 million for offsetting energy costs.
Why is it so easy for the Premier to find money for these projects while other pressing issues are left completely unaddressed? Mahsi.
I believe the Member is referring to our capital budget. We spend $1.6 billion on programs, so we are spending a lot of money in all of those areas the Member identifies. Thank you.
My final question relates to the results of the Early Development Instrument, or EDI. I mentioned the EDI results because they’re a decisive measure of whether our people are healthy, educated and free from poverty. Mr. Speaker, on indicators of things like communication skills and physical well-being, our smallest communities are challenged. They are miles behind their peers in other parts of Canada.
How does the Premier balance his unbalanced focus on infrastructure when our children are so ill-prepared to face the world? What is the Premier doing to ensure people in small communities are healthy, educated and free from poverty? Mahsi.
As a government, we just rolled out a number of policies. We came out with an Anti-Poverty Strategy where we provided $500,000 to address this. We are spending money on housing. We’re going to spend $21 million on housing over the next three years, and we continue to provide support in all of the 33 communities in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.
I’m going to use the opportunity of oral questions here to talk about the issue I raised in my Member’s statement, which is the regional economic plans and how will they be implemented throughout the Northwest Territories.
My question to the Minister of ITI is as such, as I’ve already stated. I want to know a little detail about these particular plans before we get into, sort of, the harder types of questions. I think we need to know how much money is being spent on each plan and which regions will be focused in on these plans in this budget cycle. Let’s start with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t have the detail the Member is requesting on what is going into each region. I do have figures on what the government is spending on the Economic Opportunities Strategy this year. It is just about $2.5 million. Last year it was $1.5 million. But for the detail, I can get that to the Member. Thank you.
