Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The element of surprise is well and true today. Mr. Speaker, recently the Yellowknife Catholic School Board has gone to the press and expressed their frustrations with additional pressures being placed on the district schools by the implementation of the Junior Kindergarten Program, and in the words of the school board, “we want to make sure that we're providing the best and the best school for our kids.” Right now they're looking to appropriate some portables from the YK1 School District. Has the Minister had a conversation about these resource needs and how does he plan to address it? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and we did see the concerns in the press earlier this week. I can inform the Member that we do have two schools that fall under the Yellowknife Catholic School Boards that offer programs from kindergarten to Grade eight. The school in particular that he's mentioning does have a utilization rate of 79 per cent and at 85 per cent then we start looking at extensions as well as renovations. Now, the other school that they have has a capacity rate of 58 per cent.
We will have conversations with the superintendent how to address those concerns from the Yellowknife Catholic School Board, but there's two schools that are in Yellowknife that are currently offering K to 8 programming and both of them are not at the utilization rates at the moment, so portables at this time I can't see being an option as it results to JK, but we will speak with the superintendent of Yellowknife Catholic School Board should one of the schools get to a utilization of 85 per cent or near there, and then we can start coming up with some unique and innovative solutions so that students that are under the Yellowknife Catholic School Board system can assure that they have a safe and healthy environment to get the education they deserve. Thank you.
I just wanted to ask the Minister some questions about those numbers on capacity. This is of course the Ecole St. Joseph School which is in my riding of Kam Lake, and the school board is reporting 522 students for 90 per cent capacity for the 2016-2017 enrolment year. The Minister's quoted some other numbers. Can he explain the difference between the school board's numbers and the Minister's numbers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The numbers that I have stated that the school in question is at 79 per cent, so we'll have to follow up with the superintendent and have our staff speak with the superintendent to make sure which numbers are correct. The numbers before me are 79, and if we are at 90 per cent and we are over utilization capacity, then we'll have to speak with the school board.
I appreciate the Minister will do some research into this. I think the bigger issue here is with the roll out of junior kindergarten, it seems that many of the school boards, both in YK1 or YCS, are feeling additional pressures, and I would like to ask the Minister if the department will be providing additional resources above and beyond what they currently receive to accommodate these new students and these new resource pressures on our schools.
That's exactly what we're doing with this survey. As I mentioned in this House during this session. We also got a motion that as passed earlier in the week supporting the roll outs of a junior kindergarten and making sure that those surveys that addressed the concerns that are brought forward will be meeting the needs of the school, and we're having our engagements with the schools and the communities to ensure that they have the resources needed to implement junior kindergarten.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Now, I wasn't sitting in this House on the last Assembly, but I did pay attention. I feel like some deja vu. The last time this was attempted, surveys were sent out, consultations were done, and a plan was still adopted that left many schools outside of the ability to provide exactly what the school board is looking for, which again, Mr. Speaker, is providing best resources and the best schools for our kids which is exactly what we and the department agrees with and what the resolution puts forward, but to get to there we need a clear and costed plan and resources committed to this.
Will the Minister commit to providing that costed plan to this side of the House and to school boards that takes into account this gap in resources that the schools are asking for? Thank you.
The gap in resources, I'd like to hear if it is anything specific. We've been out engaging, we've been hearing the responses that needed to be met. We've addressed those needs and the concerns, but for the gaps I'd like the Member to let me know where they are rather than some of the projected numbers where I actually have some of the actual numbers in front of me. We're still putting that plan together as the motion said earlier this week. So in two days, I don’t think I could get a plan together from what the motion said, but we will have that in time for implementation in 2017-2018.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
