Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned in my statement, I cut back on the questions here because I see a lot of answers in the Minister's statement for Education, Culture and Employment, and I was very impressed by the contents of that statement, which I will share with the Sahtu leaders. I see renewed vision in this statement, and that leads me to my first question, Mr. Speaker. In preparation for community engagements to the post-secondary framework final vision and goal, when is this material going to be made available? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We just finished collecting the data. I believe it was at the end of March, actually, that the survey was finished. We're compiling it. It was pretty open-ended, so it is a lot of work, actually, to get the 750. It wasn't just ticking off boxes. They were open-ended questions. We are compiling that now. We will be providing it within the next few months.
I feel that the best way of working in consensus government is actually working with committee. What I am proposing, and I haven't actually, but I'd be sending a letter to committee and asking them to meet with them to be able to look at the draft framework prior to, actually, a finalization. The more we work better together, the more effective our framework will be. You can expect that within the next couple of months, that I will be sending a letter to committee, and that we will be bringing this forward to do the work that we need to do. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My next question is: is the Minister willing to make herself and staff available to, in the absence of this framework material, have engagements in Sahtu communities?
We do have regional representatives who are in the Sahtu who can actually make themselves available at any time that the MLA would like them to go in and to approach their community. Myself, though, as a Minister, might be a little bit tougher. I would have to check with my staff. My last review of my calendar says that I am booked up, and in fairness, I have even had to talk to other MLAs and say that I can't do constituency tours for four or five days, because I don't have that. I am working day and night and weekends now. We have a lot of work to do. I am willing to be available if I am available, but I don't think that I have more than one day available in my calendar per week going forward.
Thanks for that reply. As mentioned earlier, if the Minister's party will include the Minister and staff, if the Minister is taken out of that party there, will the department heads look at travelling dates to the Sahtu communities to pass this message on? I see nothing about renewed vision, as I mentioned earlier, and getting that communication out to the communities is the gap that we need to fill in excelling the aspirations and good feeling of our students. When will the Minister make her staff available?
What I am hearing in that statement is that we are not doing a good enough job of actually getting out there and letting communities know. I do apologize for that if that is the truth. We do have regional representations. I will mandate that they actually get into the communities. All of them, not just the Sahtu. All of them should be going out and talking to Indigenous governments, municipal governments, principals, teachers, superintendents, et cetera, to be able to promote and answer any questions on their programs. If we are falling behind on that, I will make sure that that is a priority of mine, to make sure that our regional reps are getting into the communities and doing their jobs.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I look forward to working with the Minister on a proposed schedule of dates and the individuals. Will the Minister commit to doing that, as well, so we can take advantage of the end of the school after graduation month in June, so that the message could come from the Yellowknife head office to the smaller communities? Thank you.
I will commit to working with the MLA, but I also will commit to actually challenging the MLA to come to me and explain to me why, in his opinion, not on the floor here, but in his opinion, that our regional directors don't have that ability, because that is what their job is. I am willing to meet with the MLA and discuss why it should be that headquarters would have to go into the regions versus the people whom we have hired to do that. It might be a bigger issue. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions for the Minister of Education, considering that early childhood development is a very important way of doing business. I think that the numbers are that the government will save $7 to $10 on every dollar spent today of future money that could be spent on that particular youth or child.
I would like to ask the Minister a question about attendance. My understanding of attendance in junior kindergarten and kindergarten is that, initially, step one is that the students will decide whether or not they are going to attend. It is not compulsory that they attend. Step two is they do enrol, and they do attend, but they are not treated like the other students. Even if they are enrolled in junior kindergarten and kindergarten, they don't have to attend. Is that correct? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In all fairness, I mean, we try to get all children into programming, because the greater the chance of success, actually, if you do have early childhood intervention. The act is pretty clear, though. In 12(1) of the Education Act, it states that a child who is six or under -- and I am going to paraphrase a bit, because I have summarized this from the act, but that is the section. It might not be the exact. Children who are older than six and under 16, the act is very explicit, shall register for school. Then 19(3) says children may register if they are under that age.
What that says is that it is compulsory for children who are between six and 16 to register for school. Children who are outside of that age, under six or over 16, may, but they don't have to. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
There is no requirement for anyone under six to register, but my question is: if they choose to register at four and five, at that point, the registration is out of the way, are they treated like all other students insofar as attendance goes?
The act in section 27(1), again, I am going to paraphrase because I didn't write it all down. It says that children who are between the ages of six and 16 shall attend, and actually, there is a financial penalty if they don't attend. I believe it is $100; we don't want to make students afraid of school. It says that the parents shall ensure that the child attends, as well. Under that, there is nothing that says that they have to; so, no, children under six or over 16, it does not say that they shall attend.
I am still not clear on, once the person does register, whether or not they have to attend school. I am going to ask the question a little bit differently. How does the funding work? If you have students who are JK and K in your school, I am assuming that it is a per capita funding for students. How does that work? If they register, but don't attend, are they counted in the funding?
The calculation of the funding for JK and kindergarten is the same, when it comes to people in seats, as the older grades, grade 1 to grade 12, and that is any child who is registered by the end of the beginning of the school year, end of September, I believe, that school or that school board or authority is provided funding for that child seat for the whole year. The calculation is done once a year at the end of September, and it carries forward through, and then it is done again at the next school year. Any child who moves in between there, if they register and they decide to drop out, or they don't attend regularly, that counts as actually still paid for that child to be there. It isn't a jeopardy for the schools, if the child does attend or not.
In saying that, though, I have made a commitment to look at the funding formula, do a complete review of it, and those things will be taken into consideration.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, assuming that the education system is beginning to engage students who are four and five years old, I'd like to ask the Minister if students four and five years old who don't register need to have a viable alternative?
No, at this point, I don't believe. I mean there could be other acts that I'm not aware of, but I do not believe, personally, that there is any act or law that says that a child that is not enrolled in junior kindergarten or kindergarten has to have a viable option. In fact, within our Income Support Program, one of our productive choices says that, if you're parenting a child under three, you can actually stay home with that child, because lots of research shows that the best early childhood development for a child is to actually have their family around and their parents, ideally, with supports. No, there isn't a requirement that, if your child is not in junior kindergarten, you have to have something else. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Earlier today, I made a statement about land use planning in the Wek'eezhii management area. To be clear, while I take issue with why GNWT is picking up all the costs related to this effort, I support land use planning there. The Tlicho agreement refers to a land use planning body being established by agreement. Can the Minister of Lands tell us whether that body has been established, and what it is called? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Lands.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Government of the Northwest Territories and Canada are currently concluding consultation on the draft terms of reference for the Wek'eezhii land use planning committee and planning office for the public lands in the Wek'eezhii.
I want to thank the Minister for confirming that there will be a Wek'eezhii land use planning committee. Can the Minister confirm who will sit on this committee and whether it has the same general functions and duties as the land use planning boards established pursuant to the federal Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act?
It is currently proposed that the Government of the Northwest Territories, Canada, and the Tlicho Government will sit on the land use planning committee. The general functions and duties of the committee will be the same as those pursuant to the MVRMA. The Wek'eezhii land use planning committee and planning office will develop and recommend a final plan to governments for approval.
I want to thank the Minister for confirming my understanding of how the committee is to work, and similar in function to these other boards. One of the features of the land use planning boards for the Gwich'in and Sahtu settlement areas is that they continue on into the implementation phase of land use planning by checking on the conformity with proposed land uses once a plan has been approved. Can the Minister explain whether the Wek'eezhii land use planning committee will have a role in the implementation of any land use plan approved for that area, and tell us what that role would look like?
The proposed role of the land use planning committee in implementation is similar to that of other planning boards; that is to say, following plan approval at committee's ongoing roles, a plan implementation will include determination and conformity of proposed activities with the approved plan where proposals are referred to the committee to make the determination, consider requests for exceptions to the plan, where the plan provides for such a role; monitor implementation of the plan, and carry out periodic reviews, and make recommendation to the parties to amend the plan.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. Again, I'd like to thank the Minister for confirming my understanding of how this committee is going to work. The legal authority for completed plans in the Gwich'in and Sahtu settlement areas are set out in some detail in the Mackenzie Valley Resource Management Act. Section 22.5.3 of the Tlicho agreement says: "The parties may by agreement establish a land use planning body and a mechanism for the preparation, approval, and implementation of a land use plan that applies to Wek'eezhii, other than national parks." Clearly, the authority of such a land use planning body over implementation is found in the Tlicho agreement, but there's not a lot of detail of how land use planning will be done or implemented. Can the Minister tell us whether there is any other statute or regulations that will provide guidance or legal authority to improve land use plans under the Tlicho agreement?
The Tlicho agreement is the legal instrument, and it will be coordinated with the MVRMA through section 24.1(f) of the MVRMA. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last year's shipping was affected by sea ice in the Beaufort Sea, and it looks like, this year, forest fires may affect the delivery of goods to Nunakput communities. Mr. Speaker, can the Minister of Infrastructure give an update on the department's contingency plans to ensure that petroleum products and dried goods get delivered to communities along the Mackenzie River and also to communities in Nunakput? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I've said in this House over the last couple of days, first of all, we moved up the sailing season to try to alleviate the situation. We've been working with the fuel supplier, and now we have these fires that have started in Alberta which throw some of those plans into jeopardy, where we'll have to go back and rejig this. As I've updated the House today, we're working with our fuel supplier and looking at trucking things to Hay River in the short term, depending on how long it takes CN Rail to ramp their system back up and get their services available to Hay River. We'll continue to do that. If that becomes an issue, we're going to be looking at trucking, like we said, around the Liard Highway.
One of the things that I didn't mention yesterday, that I forgot to mention, actually, is about what we're going to try to do for the IRC communities, and we need to get this information out. I believe the department has posted our schedule, as I've said, and I'm glad that the Member has asked us this question, because he can post it on his Facebook page and help us get the message out there, as well. Because we're changing our sailing season, we want some people to be well aware of that because we're moving the dates up. We want to stage all the IRC, our coastal community stuff. We want to stage that stuff in Tuktoyaktuk by mid-July with all our barges, and be loaded, and tugs ready to sail, as long as sea conditions are safe at that time. That's going to change the dates a bit, so I want the community members to be well aware that that's going to change a little bit, so they've got to try to get their freight to the terminal in Hay River a lot sooner.
We're going to work closely with the Coast Guard, as I said yesterday, to hopefully have their vessels there to have adequate ice-breaking services to help support us if need be. We will continue to work with the communities and the IRC and the residents of the coastal communities to make sure that these goods are sitting, as I said, in Tuktoyaktuk in July, mid-July, to do that. If the fires become an issue, the long-term trucking plan is to continue to work with them and the railroad. I will continue to update all Members in this House. I know we're only sitting for a few more days next week. I can probably update the House next week on where things are at, as well, but throughout the summer, we'll continue to try to get the message out there the best we can, and maybe email all Members on this situation.
It's good to see that the Minister and the department are working on the fly on issues like this, as sometimes they may get bigger and bigger within a 24- or even 12-hour window as we see the fire growing in the territory. This fire is getting bigger every day, and I'm concerned that this may have negative effects on the communities in the Far North. As we've already experienced phone and fax line issues in remote communities, my question to the Minister: has the Government of the Northwest Territories thought to FireSmart and important infrastructure like communication towers, fibre lines, and other means of communication we rely on in the Northwest Territories on a daily basis?
As I have updated the House, we are monitoring these fires in Alberta as closely as we can and working with the Alberta government. The Alberta fire crews are taxed right to the max. I think that they are trying to protect as much critical infrastructure as they can right across the province. There are a number of fires going on there. They are doing the best that they can, and we thank them for what they are doing and are certainly glad that crews will be able to go out there and support them as well.
We are not aware of any impacts on communication infrastructure serving the North at this time, but we will keep a close eye on the situation. One of the other things, I guess, based on this question, that has come to my thoughts sitting here was, you know, the Yukon government is looking at putting their fibre line in from Tsiigehtchic to the Yukon as a redundancy line. I know that is not in place right now, but that is something that will certainly be a welcome addition, to have redundancy built into the system around that type of infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following documents entitled "Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 2, 2019-2020"; and "Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2019-2020". Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Tabling of documents. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I hereby table two documents, one entitled "Role of Caucus and Regular Members' Caucus in Nunavut"; and "Discussion Paper on Parliamentary Group Model." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
