Thank you, Mr. Chair. If I can use Colville Lake, a family of four, as an example of our food increases projected over the next four years, moving from $1,061 today to $1,435 April 1st; $1,744 April 1, 2016, and ending in ‘17-18 at $1,996. That is just the food allowance for a family of four, reflective of the actual cost of food in Colville.
The clothing allowance will move from $226 currently for a family of four up to $293. The incidental allowance over the four years will move from $129 for a family of four in Colville Lake to $229 for a family of four in Colville Lake.
The way we have implemented increasing the food allowances across the Territories by every community was a different distance from a true market basket measure, and so we have moved the communities that are farthest away from a true market basket measure up quicker than those that are closer to the market basket measure. Colville is a good example of a community that was farthest away and we are moving it closer at a quicker pace than other communities, but we can provide all the communities and all the changes at all the communities in all the different areas for the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Heide. Mr. Yakeleya.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the additional information and thank the Minister for the commitment to look at the issue in the Sahtu. I realize that there is some work that is needed to be done, and certainly through the assistant deputy minister, you guys have come through with some good numbers for us in the communities. We appreciate that.
I guess the point that I want to make, there are certain individuals in our communities that certainly look forward to the help in seniors’ heating subsidies or the early child benefit or even student financial services and the income assistance as required by some of our people. The main point that I want to close off, is that we want to contribute to our own well-being in the region. We appreciate that government is there. It takes a lot of money every year for our government to commit to the needs in our region and we want to have them move off a dependency type of an attitude and so we want to pay our own way in society, contribute to society. That is what happens when you don’t have economic development happening in our region. We become dependent on government. They become our bank, so to speak. We would like to move away from that and pay our own way through society. I am going to leave it at that. I have no questions for the Minister. I just wanted to make note of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. I will treat that as a final comment. Committee, income support. I think I have Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have one other question that I forgot earlier around the Student Financial Assistance program, and certainly it has been mentioned a number of times over the years that I have been here. It seems to be, up to this point, the department has basically said no, we can’t do it, but I am referring to students who leave high school, who are not ready yet to go on to a post-secondary institution, no matter what it might be, whether it be a technical institution or whether it might be a college or a university. They require some upgrading of the courses that they have taken in high school. My understanding, to date, is that student financial assistance is not available for students who happen to be doing upgrading.
I would like to know from the Minister if that is the case, and if that is the case, is there any appetite on behalf of the department, as Mr. Heide put it and hopefully there is, is there any appetite to open up financial assistance to those of our NWT residents who wish to do upgrading so they can get into the program of their choice? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. For that response I will go to Mr. Heide.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently the SFA program is restricted to post-secondary studies only. If a student is doing upgrading of high school classes, they wouldn’t be eligible for student financial assistance. Currently, under the Skills for Success, one of our areas that we are looking at is supports to learners. One of the suggestions we’ve had over time is adult ed upgrading should have a student financial assistance-like program attached to it, and we’ll be exploring that as we move forward with the Skills for Success.
Thanks, Mr. Heide. I am very glad to hear that there is something being considered. It doesn’t have to be under Student Financial Assistance. So, if there is an opportunity for a student who needs upgrading before they can go on to a post-secondary institution and there is financial supports available to them through the Skills for Success or whatever other program, that’s a great thing.
When might people expect that that support, that program would be up and running? Thank you.
Our current schedule for Skills for Success would be to table the framework in June of this year. Following that and following discussions with Members and input from Members, we will develop an action plan that will move forward on a systematic basis as funding is available.
Thanks. I’ll just confirm there’s no money in this budget, I presume, for this kind of a program, and is the department aiming for money to support upgrading students in the ‘16-17 budget? Thank you.
As always, we will be looking across our department to spend our money we currently have wisely, before we come back for more money, but we are definitely looking at providing adequate supports to students and learners.
When?
As I stated, we will have the framework by June of this year and an action plan that will detail when following that.
Thanks. I guess I have to wait for the action plan. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, we’re on page 71, income security, operations expenditure summary, $43.424 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 72, income security, grants, contributions and transfers, total grants, $11.136 million.
Agreed.
Thank you. Page 73, income security, active positions, information item. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see an increase of five positions here. Can I be advised what they are? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We made some changes to our income security area where we want to have people entering the workforce as part of our target initiative, and we have five employment services officers into the regions. We have slated one for each of these communities: Fort Smith, Inuvik, Norman Wells, Fort Simpson and Behchoko. So, five in total. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.
That’s good. Thanks.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, again, we’re on page 73, income security, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 75, labour development and standards, operations expenditure summary, $10.195 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Labour development and standards, grants, contributions and transfers, total contributions, $565,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 77, labour development and standards, active positions, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 78, Student Loan Fund, information item. Any questions?
Agreed.
Page 79, education authorities, programs and services, information item. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I’m just curious that there is an increase in this budget, about $400,000 or so, $500,000 maybe. Could I get an explanation as to what this increase is attributed to? Thank you
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi. The overall increase, obviously, is a Collective Agreement that we have to abide with, and it’s an area that we need to work with. So, it’s a Collective Agreement. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So the impact of junior kindergarten is not reflected in these education authority contributions? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll go to Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the junior kindergarten, the impact of junior kindergarten is included in these figures. Thank you.
We’ve been advised that there will be a reduction probably in the cost of the implementation of junior kindergarten in the ’15-16 school year. So I can anticipate, then, that the Collective Agreement increases are larger than the comparison of one school year to the next. It would also include, because there’s a reduction in JK. So it’s gone down because of JK, but it’s gone up because of? Maybe I’ll ask what the Collective Agreement increase is in dollars. That would be easier. Thank you.
The amount that we provide to education authorities, the total pot is $149 million. Of that $149 million, we’re internally funding junior kindergarten. So there is no reduction to the total pot because of that. It’s just how it’s reallocated among education authorities. In terms of what we provide for forced growth for a Collective Agreement, it’s $846,000. Thank you.
Thanks. I thought I understood how JK was funded, but now I’m confused again. Mr. Lovely said that it’s funded internally. Can I get an explanation of what he means by that? Thank you.
The total pot is limited. We have $150 million. It’s how we reallocate that internally from one education authority to the others for junior kindergarten. Thank you.
That’s good. Thanks.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Committee, again, we’re on page 79, education authorities, programs and services, information item.
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 80, education authorities, programs and services, active positions, information item. Mr. Moses.
