We will provide the latest update of all those we have engaged because it’s very important that we hear from the day home and the daycare operators from their perspectives and their concerns that are brought to our attention.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the ECE budget tabled recently, it’s hard not to notice that the balance between forced growth and new initiatives is disproportionately balanced within the department’s budget plans. A question many of us have asked is, how is it possible to initiate such a monumental shift in program design with no new funding such as the Education Renewal and Innovation Action Plan? Moreover, with high school graduation right around the corner, many are still concerned with our territorial student outcomes.
My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I wish to ask the Minister about his budget for the upcoming year, which is relatively flat. Actually, when you factor in forced growth, he is dealing with fewer dollars than last year, yet we continue to hear how much change is forthcoming with the ERI Action Plan.
Can the Minister inform the House how is his department funding this new initiative?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the Finance Minister presented the mains and the business plan for 2015-16, he made it clear the financial realities of this government and as we move forward it’s going to be a very tough position to be in. The three-year Education Renewal and Innovation Action Plan was created to use internal and existing funding as much as we possibly can. We know that’s coming with other departments, as well, not only ECE.
In addition to the $150 million that we contribute to education boards across the Northwest Territories, we have identified $6.2 million over a three-year period. In 2014-15, $2.4 million; 2015-16, $2 million; and also 2016-17, $1.8 million. Those are the monies that we identified that will be well spent and invested into our education system.
I guess the devil will be in the details when we finally see this in action. We are being made aware that the Alberta Achievement Test, the only real assessment tool to gauge how well or poorly our students do in language arts and math skills, is being phased out.
Can the Minister tell us what tools will then be used to monitor a baseline for assessing student outcomes across the NWT?
We are closely monitoring the Alberta AATs. There have been some changes that are happening and we are working very closely with them. My department is currently looking at replacement of the assessment and including Alberta’s new tools for student learning assessment. That’s a new tool that they have developed which was piloted in several schools in the NWT this fall as well. We’re working very closely with Alberta. It is too soon to know if the new Alberta assessment is a good fit for the NWT, but those are areas that we will continue to push forward with Alberta and see what’s best for the Northwest Territories to develop our own assessment tool.
There is a feeling that the phasing out of the Alberta Achievement Test was a direct response to the continued low scores year after year in some of our smaller communities and that any new standardized test will only camouflage the real issues facing these struggling students.
How can the Minister guarantee that any new tools in standardized testing will be equally representative for all northern students?
The phasing out of the Alberta Achievement Test is an opportunity for our government to find other methods that we can work with that have a northern perspective. Tools that assist in student achievement are an appropriate way that takes into account our students’ realities and also their northern context. My department staff, ECE, is working to determine what is the best tool for the Northwest Territories along with working with Alberta and the standardized tests that are most applicable and suitable for our northern context for our small communities as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we are currently having.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the pathways to high school graduation rates, what does the Minister have, or in place, to improve these student outcomes?
We are being challenged in the Northwest Territories. We know that NWT students are graduating from high school significantly below the Canadian average. We’re fully aware of that, and our system is not meeting the standards. The whole Education Renewal and Innovation will definitely capture that. We’re fully aware of that and we’re developing tools to capture that as well. Along the way, it’s a three-year mandate, a three-year action plan, and we will be keeping the standing committee up to speed while we’re making changes along the way.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Human Resources right now. We’ve all been made well aware of the experience and certainly the security issues that have happened around Stanton Hospital where many of our staff have come under some scares due to a security issue. My fear, of course, is that Stanton may be more of a symptom of problems as opposed to a particular one. Rather than focusing strictly in on Stanton, which would probably be a mistake at this particular time, I want to look broadly across our public service and ask the Minister of Human Resources what would his department be doing, knowing that, I believe, in 2013 we’ve had a couple assaults on health and social services staff, and I know we’ve had some assaults late in 2014. What we’re noticing is a bit of a trend across the continuum of the public service, and I just want to make sure our staff are certainly safe and we’re doing the proper assessments.
Specifically to the Minister of Human Resources is: What type of assessment is being done to ensure our staff across the territorial government are working in safe environments and they have protection and access to resources to ensure their safety?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’m going to remind people in the public gallery to turn your cellphones off. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. These types of incidents can be brought up to the occupational health and safety committees. Each department has an occupational health and safety committee, so those would be vetted through those committees.
With this recent trend of incidents at Stanton or even downtown in some of our offices or anywhere else, for that matter, there’s been a bit of a trend. Has this not stimulated the need for this type of discussion to ensure that our employees are safe, and as such, what about the government taking initiative on doing an assessment to ensure our staff are not only safe but have the proper resources at their beck and call as and when necessary?
Thank you. As we do here in the Assembly, we go through a safety drill. My understanding is that each of the departments through that committee can do safety drills for their own departments or their own floors and offices. I’m not sure how recent or how often these safety drills occur. I can check with the Department of Human Resources who, in turn, will have to check with all of the departments and we can get an update on that. But that would be the process. Thank you.
Again, I appreciate the answer from the Minister, but we’ve got a bit of a trend here where some of our employees, be it at Stanton or at some of the downtown offices, and not only recently but there has been over a number of months in a couple of years that the staff have been in jeopardy or some type of peril because of these types of incidents. Rather than waiting for the occupational health and safety committee to make its recommendation or even to meet for goodness sakes, what proactive approach is the Minister of Human Resources doing and directing through policy to ensure our employees are safe rather than waiting until an incident happens and then figuring, well, maybe we should talk about it? Thank you.
As I indicated, it would be something that does go through the Occupational Health and Safety Committee. However, I can touch base with the deputy. I believe that Human Resources holds responsibility in the safety area of all employees in the public service. I’ll ensure that I hold discussions with the deputy minister, who in turn will discuss with the other deputies to see what type of safety plans are in place for the safety of our staff across the entire public service not only here in Yellowknife but across the whole territory. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the Minister for that because this lack of safety trend is quite alarming and it’s not just about one facility, it’s about all our territorial staff. I’m going to quote Minister Abernethy’s comment the other day, “Our staff are the most valuable resources. They are the backbone of our system and we need to ensure that.” I want to make sure that the Minister is very clear on exactly what he’s going to do and when we’re going to do it, because I don’t want to wait for yet another incident to happen for anyone to be standing by and saying I told you so. We don’t want to be talking like that. We would like to be speaking from a proactive point of view of how we’ve done this, how we’ve approached this and continue to be relentless for the safety of our employees. Seeing news reports that the employees only find out about these particular plans via Hansard is not a right approach. I want us to be as proactive as possible so we’re not talking about this in the future. Thank you.
Thank you. I agree. I will contact the deputy minister of Human Resources as soon as I am able to do so, most likely tomorrow morning. We will have that discussion and she, in turn, will contact the rest of the departments to see what type of safety plans are in place for the safety of our public service. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. The Member for Hay River North, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Education today following up on my Member’s statement. The questions that I have are about the junior kindergarten review.
Can the Minister indicate where that review currently sits in the review of junior kindergarten? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Bouchard. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. We are currently going through the review process. We’ve hired consultants to engage with the general public, the DECs, Aboriginal leadership, Aboriginal Head Start program in the communities, the licenced daycare and family day home operators, and more specifically on how the JK is being delivered in the communities. Also, there was an Arctic Aboriginal Head Start Council. Their programming, Aboriginal governments and the NWTTA is part of the process and the public engagement.
We’re expecting that report and the overall review to be completed by July 2015 and then we will sit down to figure things out from there, how it will look, and I will be sharing that with the standing committee. Mahsi.
Can the Minister please provide us with the information of who the consultant is? Can we publicly display who that consultant is, how they can be contacted for the public and DEAs to provide their comments sooner than later? Thank you.
Yes. We will provide that to the standing committee, who the actual contractor is. It’s a contractor that’s well known to deal with these matters in other jurisdictions as well. So they’re more specifically on the junior kindergarten area. We also have Dr. Andre Corriveau who’s working very closely with us on this particular file, especially when it comes to the health and social services area. This is a joint initiative between my department, Education, Culture and Employment and Health and Social Services. So we’re doing what we can to capture everything within that review. Mahsi.
As of yesterday the Hay River DEA had not heard from this consultant. The South Slave District Education Authority had meetings just recently and nothing on their minutes indicated that they had a meeting with the consultant.
Can the Minister indicate to me when this consultant will be in the South Slave area or the Hay River area? Thank you.
When we first initiated this discussion, obviously the terms of reference were shared with the standing committee and it’s also on our website. I will be getting back to the Member more specifically when they’re going to be visiting his community, along with other Members’ communities, as well, to gather their information and do the overall review. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bouchard.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has talked about their website. Will the consultant have a link to their website on how to contact them directly to provide their input through the website and through public process? Thank you.
Mahsi. If the information is not there at this point, we will make sure that it is available. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When the Government of the Northwest Territories did a needs assessment in the Sahtu region, the number one issue with the results of that assessment was the literacy skills of our young students either in school or who have finished school.
What is the Minister doing, what is this department doing to improve the literacy in our small communities in the schools that can show great results by giving some resources to the teachers? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to educating our community members, obviously literacy plays a key role at the community level. We work closely with our partners, as well, the NWT Literacy Council. We provide funding on an annual basis and they work very closely with the community. They’re always in the communities promoting literacy, whether it be in schools or at the community level.
In the Globe and Mail article it talks about the Aboriginal Literacy Pilot Project that dramatically improved the test scores in Ontario. I wonder if the Minister is aware of this First Nations reserve school in Ontario. It was struggling with the basic literacy test scores, and they have done a pilot project in that community that has greatly improved the results of these test scores for the young students.
Is this something that the Minister would be interested to investigate and to see if this could be done in the Northwest Territories in looking at a pilot project in the Sahtu communities?
When it comes to literacy, we’ve made some changes. We’ve had some pilot projects in the South Slave region. We’ve had literacy coaches. It’s been very successful to date and we continue to use that as an example for other schools as well.
The pilot projects we’ve done over the years, so we’ve seen some results out of that. Within our Education Renewal and Innovation, this will obviously capture the literacy component, and we’ll be discussing further with our key stakeholders where we can best invest in certain areas, whether it comes to DECs or DEAs. They are our true partners, so we will continue to work with them.
When the government did a test in the schools, we found out, shockingly, that in our schools in our small communities, 50 percent are operating below their grade level. That’s shocking.
So, I want to ask the Minister again, with him probably not having the privilege of reading the Globe and Mail I received, to look at a pilot project in our communities that would increase these numbers here. They’re doing it at the Hillside School on the Kettle and Stony Point First Nation and Walpole Island Elementary School.
Is the Minister willing to look at this, investigate it and say yes, this could be done in our small communities? Because we’ve got to do better than 50 percent of our students. We’re failing.
I fully agree that we have to do better. That’s what we’re eyeing and focusing on in the Educational Renewal and Innovation. We want to make some changes along the way. Literacy coaches, as I stated before, have been very successful, and we want to capture that in other schools, as well, because we want our students to succeed throughout the Northwest Territories. Those are the discussions that we are currently having. We’ll continue to do so with our key stakeholders and our partners. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Yakeleya.
Mr. Speaker, it says in the paper, kids are not learning to read and write by Grade 3, and if you don’t learn to read and write by Grade 3, you’re handicapped all the way through. That’s what I’m talking about, and the results show that 50 percent of our small schools are operating below their grade level. We are failing them.
I’m asking the Minister again, is he willing to look at the pilot projects that are done in Ontario to see if these pilot projects can be implemented in our Sahtu communities as a pilot project to improve the literacy skills of our students? Will he be willing to commit to look at that?
We’re always looking for opportunities and ideas and suggestions. What the Member is referring to is a document that, if we can get our hands on – I’m assuming that he’ll be tabling the document at a later time – we can access and work with it. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
