Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister agree to begin the process of evaluating junior kindergarten as a long-term objective, but starting now with his department? Thank you.
We are both just over five months into the territorial-wide implementation of the junior kindergarten program throughout the Northwest Territories. I did commit to standing committee and I have committed to the evaluation of the program on an ongoing basis, so, yes, we will commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment. Earlier in my statement I mentioned the significance of the Mackenzie River being the second-longest river system in North America, but there is almost nothing to signal the Deh Cho to tourists and nothing at all to tell them about the river's history and great importance to all residents of the NWT. In my Member's statement, I suggested a larger sign, a bigger sign, and a roadside exhibit. It might also be a good picnic spot. What is the process to begin such a project? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Member's point is well taken. I travel this highway quite a bit, and there is no signage there talking about the Mackenzie River. The Mackenzie River is important, not just to his region, but to the whole Northwest Territories. It is how people travelled in this country for years and years. I think it is a good idea to celebrate this type of feature, but it is not something that will happen overnight. I suggest maybe to the Member that we find someone within his riding who we can partner up with, a group or an organization. We can have a look at this thing. Contact our regional office in Hay River, and we can have some discussions.
I do not think I will be able to top off my colleague from Nahendeh's accomplishments with the previous Minister, but I will try. As the Minister might be aware, I know we did have a position before called economic development officer position, but that position was pulled. I would like a commitment to work on this roadside attraction. I think the Minister is onto something good. Will the Minister's department get started on a roadside park? That would be a popular attraction on the south shore of the river. Mahsi.
This question is perfect for me, for Infrastructure and ITI. We are committed to our parks system and investing in them in the Northwest Territories. Maybe this is something, again, we can have another discussion about this whole thing and have a look at how we can maybe move this thing in stages. Maybe we add it to our existing parks system, but I think it is a conversation that I am willing to support, and we can have those conversations. Again, I ask the Member to contact our regional office.
It has to be acknowledged that tourism is a growing industry, and we are trying to take advantage. That is the main point. I expect the organizations in Fort Providence, museum staff in Yellowknife, and Dene Metis organizations would have good suggestions for material to be included in the roadside exhibit about the Deh Cho. I have heard the suggestion of perhaps advising an interpretive centre. Will the department consult these parties to plan the exhibit?
Again, I agree with the Member. It's three times in a row. A project like this I think would be great for the region and will highlight travel through the Deh Cho, like I said, and highlight the Mackenzie River as such and whatever else we want to promote for the Deh Cho region. Again, I ask the Member to find someone who wants to drive this in his region and contact our department. We'll have a serious look at it.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for his enthusiasm. It's great to know. I think the key question is, you know, if he's committed, there's an interest. The key question is: when can the work on this facility begin? Mahsi.
As the Member knows, we're in our budget process. To have a new park or something like that just doesn't slide into the budget just like that. At the minimum, at the very minimum, this project will need some planning, a consideration of costs, a project description, and these sorts of things. The Member is also, you know, asking the question if we will support that, and I gladly will support it moving forward, but he is going to have to get his constituency or people in his constituency to buy into this. I'd like to hear from them on what they have to say about it and have someone try this locally and we will look at supporting it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm looking forward to launching my kayak at the Michael Nadli Deh Cho Park. Not in 2018, but in 2019.
Mr. Speaker, on a more serious note, I have a follow-up question for the Minister of Justice. He talked about the importance of "justice delayed is justice denied." One way of measuring that in the rental office context is to find out how long it's taking between the hearing and the issuing of the court order. That's a metric that would be useful to have reported on an annual basis. Can the Minister commit to asking the rental office to do that? Thank you.
Masi. Minister of Justice.
Yes, Mr. Speaker, I can commit to asking the rental officer to do that.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a petition supporting the matter of using lottery money to fund the arts.
Mr. Speaker, the petition contains 314 electronic signatures of Northwest Territories residents and, Mr. Speaker, the petitioners request that the Government of Northwest Territories amend the Lottery Act to allow for lottery money to be disbursed to artistic endeavours. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Members, pursuant to section 21(1) of the Legislative Assembly Retirement Allowance Act and section 11.1 of the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act, I wish to table the "Annual Report, NWT Legislative Assembly Pension Plans, at March 31, 2017."
In accordance to section 21(1) of the Retiring Allowances Act and section 11.1 of the Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act, I hereby table the "NWT Legislative Assembly Pension Administration Report, Retiring Allowances Act and Supplementary Retiring Allowances Act, at March 31, 2017."
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Hay River South, that Bill 5, An Act to Amend the Summary Conviction Procedures Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. The motion is in order. To the motion. All those in support? All those opposed? The motion is carried.
---Carried
I will now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Mr. Beaulieu.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee would like to consider Tabled Document 63-18(3), Main Estimates 2018-2019, and continuing on with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, followed by the continuation of the Department of Executive and Indigenous Affairs, time permitting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. First, a short recess.
---SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to continue our deliberation of Tabled Document 63-18(3), Main Estimates 2018-2019, and we will pick up where we left off yesterday, which is Education, Culture and Employment, early childhood and school services, on page 41. Minister, do you have witnesses you wish to bring into the Chamber?
Yes, I do, Mr. Chair. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses for the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right is Sylvia Haener, my deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and to my left is Mr. Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. When we left off yesterday, there was a bit of confusion, and I was wondering if the Minister or his witnesses would like to address the issue that we were discussing yesterday and perhaps try to clear some of that up. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, it was in terms of the internal reallocation of the inclusive schooling dollars for junior kindergarten, and I will ask my assistant deputy minister, Mr. Olin Lovely, to go into detail for a little bit of an explanation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just to clarify, in any given year, enrolments will go up and down. The funding formula will go up and down based on that because enrolments are a major component of that framework.
This past year, we saw enrolments go down by 1.8 per cent, resulting in money that would normally go back to the Department of Finance. Rather than do that, we sought direction and received approval to reallocate that money internally and put it towards including junior kindergarten students in the inclusive schooling formula.
The number of students in junior kindergarten in 2018-2019 amounts to $881,000. As we progress further down the years, if the complement of students in inclusive schooling goes up, the funding will go up. If the complement of students in inclusive schooling goes down, that funding will go down.
We have provided that information to education authorities. They are budgeting based on including junior kindergarten students as part of their ongoing operations for inclusive schooling. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Part of the issue was that the Minister said that the mains were printed before the change was known about. Could the department elaborate on some of the timelines so we have the dates of when the number of students was known, when the Mains were printed, and so on, just for clarification? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I know Members were looking for the hard-line item in the main estimates here. Maybe I will go back to the assistant deputy minister to show you where the money came from, from the program detail lines, for a little bit more clarity. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. If we turn to page 41, the total amount that we give to the education authorities is comprised of the schools line item for $128,822, the inclusive schooling component for $26,724, and we also have money in the previous activity for Indigenous languages of around $8 to $9 million. Sorry, it's right here on this page; $9.5 million will go to the education authorities, plus the minority-language education and Instruction of $2.6 million.
Each one of these items that I have mentioned will fluctuate based on the enrolments in the schools, and what we ended up doing is that we took the funding from schools of 128. We took the $881,000 out of there, and it will be moving down to inclusive schooling so that that money will now be about $27.5 million.
The reason for it not showing up was the main estimates were printed in December. The approval for the junior kindergarten funding reallocation was done later in January. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Since this is new information, I will allow committee Members to speak twice to this activity if they wish. First, I have Mr. McNeely on my list.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. When adjustments are made, such as the 881 after the print shop is done, is it the department's standard practice to have an amendment to the numbers presented in the printed mains? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
