Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Okay, I accept that, and I believe that is important for our staff, to be able to have professional development and to bring folks who are experts together to talk about these things. I will leave it alone. I was just trying to figure out: is there a conference that happens every two or three years that results in a larger travel budget, or something? That is okay. I am going to let this one go.
I want to turn, though, to the next page, which I believe contains the contributions to the district education authorities. I know, in last year's budget and I think it is reflected in the business plan, as well -- I know it is reflected in the business plan -- there was to be a reduction of $200,000 on school administration to the district education authorities. Can the Minister just tell us where that work is at? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was part of the reduction exercise that the department did, and this is the final year of that exercise. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I understood that there was going to be some kind of a consultant hired to look at potential for shared services amongst the district education authorities. Can the Minister tell us the status of that work and whether the district education authorities are onboard for this reduction of $200,000? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are in the process of developing a response to those shared services and that exercise we did on the shared services, so we are just currently developing a response to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks --
Minister Moses?
Sorry for the confusion, Mr. Chair. Once we get that response formalized, then we will send a letter to standing committee, and we will be sharing that with the education authorities, as well. It was the discussion that we had our last education leaders meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I recognize this is work under way, but the problem is we are going to have to vote on an appropriation bill maybe before we even get the report. We are going to have to vote on whether we are ready to accept this budget for the department, so when is this report going to be made available? If the report is finished, can the Minister share the report with us and then share the response from the department afterwards? Once again, we seem to have a problem with getting information from the department. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses, to the report.
Well, before the formal response, and I understand the Member's comments about voting on the page, the preliminary results that we are seeing are that it is not feasible at this time, with the shared services. We will get something to the Members, and that is something that we will be sharing with the education authorities. What we notice is that all of the education authorities do different things in terms of how they run programs, how they fund their schools, and it is hard to keep one standardized throughout the NWT. Initially, those were some of the early, ongoing results, but we will get something formal to the Members and something that we will share with the education authorities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I do appreciate the Minister passing along that information. So, if the preliminary results seem to indicate that this is not likely going to work, are we still cutting the funding to the DEAs to $200,000, or is the Minister suggesting that we should put that money back into the budget? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The education authorities already knew this was happening. This is the second year, and it was already out of their budget coming into this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, I guess I am concerned that we are continuing to cut if the results of the study seem to indicate that there are no costs savings. So, at the end of the day, the district education authorities are going to be left with less money to work with. That is not what I had hoped from this budget, but I think this is just part of the Cabinet's reduction strategy again, and I do not agree with this cut. I do not expect a response from the Minister. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses, did you want to reply to that?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I will have my deputy minister just comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Deputy Minister Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The shared services exercise that we undertook with the education authorities was never intended or never had an objective of resulting in budget reductions. That was not one of the outcomes from it. It is an initial effort at trying to streamline our processes and look at ways to have common approaches to administrative processes.
As the Minister indicated, what has come out of that so far is that there are really quite disparate practices with HR management, with charts of accounts, so we really need to take a step back and do some more basic work around how we approach administrative processes and try to come to some common understandings on that front.
That is a separate exercise from the work that we undertook to achieve reductions to our budgets, so last year there was a $600,000 reduction to administration, and this year there is a further $200,000 reduction that is reflected. The education authorities worked with us to understand that and to implement it in a manner that was as feasible as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Deputy Minister Haener. Any further questions on this activity? If not, going back to page 41, early childhood and school services, operations expenditures summary, $193,848,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
We will move on to page 46 to page 48, income security, operations expenditure summary, $50,801,000. Questions to this activity? If Members want to make reference to which page their questions are referred to, thank you. Yes, go ahead, Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are about page 46. The department increased the Senior Citizens Supplementary Benefit for the first time in many years last September. I am wondering if the Minister will consider indexing this benefit so that it retains its value to seniors according to the cost of living.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that particular item, we usually work with Canada on this one, with the Senior Supplementary Benefit, so we cannot commit to that at this moment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister commit to advocating to have this benefit indexed to inflation? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This supplementary benefit here in the NWT was the first time we increased it in a number of years. We are always looking to find ways that we can get extra funding from outside governments and other governments, possibly the federal government, but at this time, we will have have discussions on that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am unclear what the barrier is to the Minister advocating for indexing this benefit to inflation. Could he please elaborate on that? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a number of programs that we have for seniors across the Northwest Territories. With our consultations and our discussions with the NWT Seniors Society and the Yellowknife Seniors Society, we have had discussions since the beginning of this government. They were pleased with the increase that they did receive from the Department of ECE. Those were our discussions that we had with them and their comments, and they were happy to have that increase. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this exchange underlines the problem of communication with ECE, particularly with the Minister. I'm now going to ask for a fourth time if he will advocate for indexing this benefit so that the value of it keeps up to inflation. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses, to the question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do appreciate the Member's passion for seniors and supporting seniors aging in place and throughout the Northwest Territories. We can have those discussions with the Government of Canada. It will be a bilateral agreement and discussion, but I cannot say what the Government of Canada will come back with. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you to the Minister for that. I guess that is as close as we are going to get. The Senior Home Heating Subsidy is a popular program because it offsets one of the greatest household expenses. Is this program due for changes of any kind; income testing, increased accessibility, or any other changes? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we have reviewed the Senior Home Heating Subsidy. We also had this discussion with NWT Seniors Society and the Yellowknife Seniors Society in terms of enhancements that we will be making to the program. If everything goes well, we will be making those enhancements in the new fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I note that there is no increase in money in the budget for this item. What enhancements is the Minister talking about? Thank you.
