Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, in my Member's statement, I talked about the funding for the Divisional Education Authority for Deh Cho, which has eight communities. My first question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is: can the Minister please provide information on how the school funding framework works? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. How does the funding formula work right now? Right now, we provide money for schools to be able to provide services for JK to grade 12. It does have a funding formula that we feel is equitable, but it does also permit flexibility for the local decision-making that needs to be done by authorities.
Some of that is able to be flexible, such as our territorial school of monies. We also provide administration monies, but some of it is actually being changed, that it needs to be spent for things such as inclusive schooling and the Aboriginal languages. Those have to be spent on those areas specifically, but we try to be as flexible as possible.
Mr. Speaker, in my Member's statement, I talk about the disparity between different regions here. I talk about the Sahtu has five communities or four communities. Is it four? Five, five communities, sorry, and four staff. In my riding, we have eight communities, including the Deh Cho riding, and we only have two staff. Can the Minister explain: if all education bodies have provided funding on an equitable basis, why are there different staffing levels at different divisional education and culture?
Like I stated earlier, the funding formula is based so that it is equitable. There is money for administration et cetera, but there is money that is provided for the number of children in the schools. However, they are allowed to use that with some flexibility, and, therefore, some schools do decide to hire additional teachers; other schools decide to use it for other areas. There are also other monies besides, that come from the GNWT. A lot of the schools in the territory have access to our Canada's Jordan's Principle, which is providing additional monies for them. We need to get more schools to work with this, to work on this area. When we allow flexibility and when they can apply for outside sources of funding, that allows them the discretion to be able to hire additional teachers or not.
Mr. Speaker, when I talk about differences in funding formula and that, we are seeing a decline in our student population in the riding here. We lost 60 students this next coming year, so we are seeing a huge cut-back on positions and that. Can the Minister please provide what process is used to change the school funding framework?
The funding formula is reviewed on a regular basis. We try to work with our school authorities, school bodies, to make sure that it meets their needs, as well. In saying that, though, some things are addressed as the needs come up. For example, just after I assumed this position as Education, Culture and Employment Minister, when it was brought to my attention by the MLA from Nahendeh, who stated that we only had one teacher in small schools, that was an area of concern for me, and so I moved on that quite quickly to actually make sure that we have a minimum of two teachers in every single school in the Northwest Territories, so it is reviewed regularly.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for her answers to this point here. I guess my concern, though, is, when we talk about our divisional boards, when we only have two staff, we are going to burn those people out. They are going to be working really hard, and, you know, when you've got eight schools, it is very difficult for two people. They always going to be on the road, so it is a concern. When we don't even have the proper IT staff, you know, that is a concern.
Will the Minister make a commitment to do a cross-jurisdictional review of the funding formula?
It is a concern where we don't have enough teachers in schools. That is why, like I said earlier, I insisted that there be two teachers in every school. Some of our small schools, like the one I met with today, actually only have five students in it and now has two teachers in it, so we have to also be careful that we don't overload it so that we have more teachers than actual students at a time.
In saying that, though, we do need to review the funding formula. When I was in the constituency tour for Nahendeh, it was brought to my attention that other jurisdictions actually don't do the funding based on the same way that we do within the Northwest Territories. That was really interesting to learn, and so it taught me that this isn't a Canada-wide funding formula and that we need to review it. I have committed to the MLA, and I will continue to do that, is that we are looking at a cross-jurisdictional review within the next year, to see what other provinces and territories are doing and to make sure we are as fair as possible to our students in the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.
