Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to assure the House that I gave these questions to the Minister in English beforehand.
[Translation] My notes show that the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment was at the meeting of Yellowknife MLAs with the Yellowknife Education District No. 1 on December 13, 2018. We discussed the need to change the term of office for trustees. Has the Minister received a formal request from the Yellowknife district education authorities requesting changes to allow for a four-year term? Thank you. [Translation ends.]
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I was at the meeting with the Yellowknife Education District No. 1, so I did hear the concern brought up there. It has been raised to me verbally. At this point, though, I know that the Yellowknife Catholic School Board is also interested in submitting a similar request, but they haven't formally requested this until after their February board meeting, so I am expecting these to come forward immediately. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
[Translation] Thanks to the Minister. Does the Minister agree that the significant additional costs for the Yellowknife district education would be better spent on our children's education rather than holding their own elections? [Translation ends.]
Absolutely. We need to really look at where we are spending our monies for education and make sure that we are giving the best supports to not only school boards but ultimately to the students, because they are the ones who we are impacting and they are our future. I do want to say it is a little bit difficult because currently our act is structured so that the terms fall within the municipal government. Right now, it is structured within a two- or a three-year term, so it will be a little bit of a challenge.
[Translation] The situation for the Francophone school board is different in that its commissaires now represent two communities with different terms of office for their respective communities. The best solution may be to allow our district education authorities to set their own terms of office, with the approval of the Minister. I am sure the Minister is aware of this complication, but I am wondering whether her department has contemplated a solution for the term of office issue? [Translation ends.]
Yes, as soon as the issue was brought to my attention actually, we have been discussing it and how we can actually make it more efficient and make it work for the population. We do recognize, like I said, there are a few glitches within that that we have to figure out. For one, the Commission scolaire has a different schedule, being with two communities. That makes it an issue.
The other thing is that, if we change it right now, the current term for the Yellowknife ones are three years. Our municipal government is four years. Then how do we bridge that gap, or how do we let the public know that that is going to happen because these are elected officials. They were only elected for three years. We know that that can be a problem. We are on it. We are looking at it. We are going to start consulting, but we need to figure out a way that can protect the interests of all stakeholders.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
[Translation] Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks for the answer. I understand that there is a heavy legislative agenda finally before us. I am wondering whether the Minister is of the view that what should be a small change to the Education Act can be made during the life of this Assembly, and if not, how do we make sure it gets dealt with before the next election, which is due in 2021? [Translation ends.]
At first, I agreed. I thought it was a small change to an act, too, and I thought, "Can we get it done?" Then I asked the department. Wisely, the department kind of put me back a bit and they told me the reality is that we're dealing with, like I said, a couple of issues. One is that the Commission scolaire doesn't fit within the package as it is now. Two, how do we deal with the three-year term moving into a four-year term, addressing the gap and the public perception?
We are looking at it seriously. I cannot commit that it will be done within the next couple of months, but the good news is that we have a couple of more years until the next election. I think it is a point that should be brought forward in the transition report to keep doing this, so that we can actually have it dealt with before the election. It is not appropriate to be wasting our money and making school boards spend extra money when they don't need to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
