Thank you, Mr. Chair. What is the impact on children themselves of this change in funding? It sounds like it is primarily administrative. Is that correct?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The impact on children actually should be better services with the implementation of junior kindergarten, which made accessible early childhood development programming to all communities in the Northwest Territories, where that wasn't an option before. The licenced childcare centres actually got increases last year to provide extra money for infants and children who were needing support. Ideally, the impact for children should be better services. That, of course, will take an evaluation period. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought this was the federal money. I didn't realize it was the JK money. I appreciate the Minister clarifying that this is, in fact, the pot of money for junior kindergarten. From which level of government does it come? I thought it came from the territorial government. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funding that comes for junior kindergarten is from both the GNWT and the federal government agreements. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am now going to move down the list to inclusive schooling. I see an $800,000 decrease in the amount of money allocated to inclusive schooling. Can the Minister please explain that change? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $916,000 decrease for inclusive schooling was a transfer. We transferred $639,000 to the mental health resources to Health and Social Services to fund the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu for their mental health counsellors, which again fall within inclusive schooling. Then we did a transfer of $279,000 to the mental health resources to fund the Deh Cho and the Tlicho Governments, as well. It is just transferring the money so that we can provide the mental health services support that is going out to all schools. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Green.
Thank you. We will see further increases in this area as the rest of the mental health support worker program in the schools rolls out. Is that correct? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.
Thanks. Next, I have Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to these new child and youth care counsellor positions, have you got any feedback to see if it is working in the communities that presently have started this new initiative? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are currently working with the Sahtu and the Beaufort-Delta to get ready for implementation there. The implementation so far has seen a rollout in the Tlicho and the Deh Cho with the combined, on-the-ground youth counsellors in schools as well as the travelling team that was providing services to smaller schools. From what we understand, things are working reasonably well. The positions have been staffed where there were vacancies. I think there may have been some turnover already, we understand, in at least one community.
The counsellors are there. They are on the ground. They are being welcomed into the school environments and oriented to be fully part of the school team. Things seem to be going well. I don't have specifics in terms of numbers of counselling sessions held in that level of detail with me; I just have a fairly high level of information around success to date. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my concern is: has the department been coming back or evaluating this? Right now, my challenge is I am hearing different things. I know two positions aren't filled. Then there is a demand on the staff. Will you be looking at making sure this is the proper process? Because, again, we have come out with this great idea, but if it is not working, what are the mechanisms in place that you can guarantee that this stuff is working? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely, it is important that we do evaluations of any new program that we are rolling out, so we commit to doing that. I do want to just say a little bit that change is something that is never usually accepted very easily. I am sure that when we rolled out the Northern Distance Learning, there were comments or complaints, as well, and yet it is proven to be very successful, so initial comments on change should not be something that we evaluate it on. It should be a formal evaluation process that is carried out at the end of each school year to see if they are working, and we will commit to doing those evaluations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I agree, people complain about change. It is not what we are looking for, but I am talking about the impact on our students. That there is my biggest concern when, you know, right now I know, in the riding I represent, we are two positions short, so that is putting a demand on the other two who are doing the job, and the travelling team. So, again, are we providing the best service? That there is my concern, that, if we are not providing the service, we are not doing the job for the youth. If we are talking the end of the year, when will we see the reports on the success or the challenges that we face with this new implementation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. According to our records right now, in Fort Simpson we have one child and youth counsellor that is filled. In Fort Simpson, we have a clinical supervisor, which is critical. That is filled as of January 2019. Kakisa, I will just go on, has one position filled, a child a youth counsellor. Fort Liard has a vacant one, and that is the one we are talking about and it has been reposted. All of the other ones are contracted services for Jean Marie River, Nahanni Butte, Wrigley, and Sambaa K'e. The only one that we have vacant, according to our schedule there is only one, and it has been reposted. The reality is we would like to be able to have indeterminate employees all the time; that is not reality in life. Positions do come and go. People come and go. Positions are there, but people come and go, so we are trying to hire as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I agree that people come and go, but Fort Liard hasn't had that position filled for a long time, so that is a concern for me, and especially the community. I would just like to go on to the SCIP. We are on to our third year, so what have we learned for the last two years? Are we waiting until the very end for a three-year pilot project and then we will move forward to do an evaluation? Have we done an evaluation on the last two years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. An evaluation is being done based on years one and two of the implementation, and it is going to be released early in 2019-2020, so we are in the process of doing that. Or sorry, 2019-2020. The one thing I do need to say, though, is that I have met with the education leaders, the board chairs, the board authorities, or education bodies, and their superintendent, and I have also met with the NWT Association of Teachers, and both bodies have said this is a great program and we need to continue it. So it is an informal evaluation, but it is word-of-mouth by organizations that represent, and they are saying they appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am not arguing it is a great program, but if all you are going to see is the teachers and the union and the boards, what about the parents? Have you guys reached out to the parents and asked them how? Because I have heard a number of parents who don't like the SCIP process and that, so again, you know, I understand the teachers and the union and the leaders like that, but what about the parents, and how does their feedback fit into this evaluation process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As part of the evaluation that we are doing right now, we have submitted a survey to parents asking about the SCIP program and their feedback on it, as well. They will be part of the evaluation. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is great to hear, and I am hoping we will get feedback from the parents and that as we move forward. Coming back to distance learning, on the floor here I talked about, you know, it is very much about the peer courses and that, and then we are talking about getting it out there to the schools there, but what about the schools, i.e., in the smaller communities that only go up to grade nine? Right now, that is all they offer and after that, grade 10, 11, and 12, they either have to go to Fort Providence or Fort Simpson to go to school. How are you trying to work with these smaller communities to expand this program in there? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing that is important to state is that the education system is decentralized amongst 10 education bodies that are responsible are implementing, so we have to work really closely with them. It is not appropriate to impose things on it, so there is funding though. I hope Members know that there is funding. If schools in communities are only offering up to grade nine and they want to extend to 10, 11, and 12, the Department of Education, Culture and Employment does have funding to accommodate that. Like I say, right now, our priority is rolling out the 20 communities that we have on target and, once that is done, then I think it is a fair question to ask if we can expand that, too. Video conferencing is the way of the future, and I think it would be naive to say that we are not going to consider that in all of our education in the future coming. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Mr. Thompson.
Thank you. I will be real quick with the question. Previously, I have had a community approach a smaller community asking to get it, you know, to expand there, but what I am understanding is now we have to wait until we get these other 20 before we move ahead? Is this my understanding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Minister Cochrane.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Right now, we have 11. With the rollout of these extra four. That will bring us to 15, and then next year, we are looking at bringing it up another five, so that will bring us to 20 small schools, including the riding of Nahendeh.
I would love to be able to just say, like, "Yes, we are going to go live, and you know, it will be accessible to everyone," but it is very expensive programming and it takes a lot of work to actually do things like curriculum development. It is huge. Getting the teachers trained and providing that is huge. Also what I thought it would be a small thing, but it became a huge deal, is getting school calendars all on par is a huge obstacle in this, so it is not as easy as just saying, "Make it happen." It takes a lot of background work to actually make it happen. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Cochrane. Next, we have Mr. Simpson.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see that the NWTTA professional improvement, that line item is allocated $2 million. Could the Minister please explain how that money is used? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Simpson. Ms. Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The funds reflected in the main estimates are provided to the Teachers' Association in accordance with the collective agreement negotiated with them. There is an amount set out there that we actually provide to the Teachers' Association to administer for professional development for teachers. The Teachers' Association itself accounts for those funds, but they provide supports to teachers to advance their individual educational goals, so teachers actually apply to the Teachers' Association for those monies. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. Simpson.
