Debates of March 3, 2020 (day 13)

What is the wish of committee, Mr. Norn?

Steve Norn

Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. Committee wishes to deal with Tabled Document 30-19(2), Main Estimates, 2020-2021, with the Department of Justice, and then the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Mahsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Norn. We will resume that work after a short recess.

---SHORT RECESS

Good afternoon, colleagues. Colleagues, we are considering the budget for the Department of Justice. We left off on page 279. I'm wondering what the wish of the committee is with the Department of Justice. Mr. Norn.

Committee Motion 3-19(2): Tabled Document 30-19(2): Main Estimates 2020-2021 – Justice – Deferral of Further Consideration of the Estimates for the Department of Justice, Carried

Steve Norn

Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Mahsi cho, Madam Chair. I move that this committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Justice at this time. Mahsi cho, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Norn. I see the motion is being distributed. Is there any discussion on this motion? Seeing none, can we vote on this motion? All those in favour, please indicate on the motion to defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Justice. All those in favour? All those opposed? Motion is carried.

---Carried

We will defer further consideration of the Department of Justice. We will now turn to the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Does the Minister have any opening remarks?

Yes, I do, Madam Chair, thank you. I am here to present the 2020-2021 Main Estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $8.858 million, or 2.7 percent, over the 2019-2020 Main Estimates. These estimates support our fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending while matching the modest expected revenue growth over the coming year.

The increase is primarily related to forced growth funding. The proposed estimates reflect:

$5.866 million for collective bargaining increases in the department, Aurora College, and education bodies;

$2.033 million to address increased demand on the Income Security Program;

$269,000 to provide for an adjustment to the funding provided to education bodies for student transportation; and

$129,000 for a new time-limited position to address the increased volume of requests from the public for day school student records.

The proposed estimates also reflect a total increase of $1.052 million to continue initiatives approved in prior years. This amount is comprised of:

$604,000 for the expansion of the Northern Distance Learning program into 20 communities in 2020-2021;

$319,000 for the continued implementation of a Territorial Student Support Team that provides specialized health and mental health supports and guidance for school staff programming for students with complex needs; and

$129,000 for the continued development of a grade 11 and grade 12 Northern Studies curriculum.

The increase is slightly offset by a decrease of $636,000 in total to reflect funding scheduled to sunset on March 31, 2020. The sunsets reflect year-over-year changes in departmental activities under both the Canada-NWT Workforce Development Agreement and the Canada-NWT Early Learning and Child Care Agreement; the ending of time-limited funding to assist education bodies to implement safe school plans; and the year-over-year changes in departmental activities of the Skills 4 Success territorial support team.

These estimates continue to support the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly by:

increasing student outcomes by providing students with access to high-quality education and supports, regardless of the community they live in or the size of their school;

increasing employment in small communities through strategic partnership with federal and Indigenous governments;

advancing universal childcare by working with the federal government and childcare operators to increase availability and reduce the costs of childcare in all our communities; and

working toward the creation of a polytechnic university by continuing engagement with Indigenous governments, communities, industry, and other key stakeholder to inform wide-ranging improvements to Aurora College's governance, programs, and students supports.

That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Do you have any witnesses you wish to bring into the House?

Yes, I do.

Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses.

Thank you, Madam Chair. To my left is Ms. Rita Mueller, the deputy minister of the department; on my right is Mr. Sam Shannon, assistant deputy minister of Corporate Services; on my far right is Mr. John MacDonald, the assistant deputy minister of Education and Culture; and, not sitting with us right now but waiting in the witness room for his time to shine, is Mike Saturnino, the assistant deputy minister of Income Security and Advanced Education, who I will, with your permission, call upon at the appropriate time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Members, we will now turn to the main estimates document, and I will open the floor to general comments on this department, Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Are there any general comments on this department's budget? Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I guess just a general comment that might not be expected, but I will say, just for the record, that, compared to some of the other increases that budget saw, it was somewhat disappointing that the education department saw the lowest percent increase. I know that a lot of the increase was due to forced growth, but there was some addition of increases across departments, and it would have been nice to have seen that reflected instead in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, especially with our interest in increasing trades and increasing graduation rates across the Northwest Territories. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister, would you like to respond?

Thank you, and thank you to the Member for the comment. With such a large department, with such a large budget, an increase that would be a large percentage in another department might not show up as such a large increase here, but I appreciate the Member's support for education and advancing the priorities of the Assembly. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Any further general comments on ECE? Seeing none, we will now move into the detail. We will go back to the main page, and we will pick up at the first of the key activities, corporate management. Are there Members who would like to comment on corporate management key activity for ECE? Are there any comments on corporate management of ECE? Seeing none, I'm going to call the page. Education, Culture and Employment, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, total, $10,059,000. Does committee agree?

Speaker: SOME HON. MEMBERS

Agreed.

Thank you, committee. Let's now turn to page 35, corporate activity, culture, heritage and languages. Program detail begins on page 36. Are there any questions on the corporate activity, culture, heritage and languages? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. I'm just wondering if the Minister or staff can tell us about the feasibility study to retrofit the museum. What is the status of that work, and is there a plan to actually retrofit the museum? I know we're talking about the O and M budget, but I think this feasibility study was partly funded out of the O and M budget last year. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you, and I appreciate the Member bringing this up. I know he has always been a strong advocate for the museum and all it does. As many of the Members know, the museum is getting on in age right now. I did a tour of there not long ago. There are sections of it where there are dehumidifiers that have to be emptied nightly by security guards. The space is an issue. The Prince of Wales Heritage Centre serves a central agency function for the GNWT, storing many of its archives, so we have a lot to store. In addition to all of the cultural treasures that we have in the territory, there are just a lot of documents, and space has become an issue.

As to the feasibility study, I know that is a capital issue, but perhaps I could have my assistant deputy minister, Mr. MacDonald, elaborate on where we are with that.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. MacDonald.

Jay Macdonald

Thebacha

Thank you, Madam Chair. At this point in time, ECE has completed the functional program assessment of the facility, and we are looking at different alternatives for what the new facility would look like. We are hoping to have a schematic design as well as class D estimates in place by April 2020, this spring, and present that to our Minister for discussion and for some direction for us to proceed after that. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair, and thanks to the Minister and his staff for that information. Can the Minister commit to sharing that study with the standing committee, and options that the department might come up with, before they go to Cabinet for a final decision? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you. Yes, that can be shared with standing committee. I think it likely has to be shared with the Cabinet, but not for decision, prior to going to standing committee, but I have no problem doing that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I really appreciate that. I guess one of the things that is sort of in the back of my mind is the fact that we don't have a territorial visitors' centre. If anybody has been to Whitehorse, they actually have a spectacular one that is right in their downtown area, and it does serve the interests of the whole Yukon. Is there some thought being put into, perhaps, different partnerships or co-uses or however we may want to frame it, in terms of other government needs, given sort of the central location and the function that the museum has played over the years in terms of tourism and so on? Can the Minister tell us whether those sorts of possibilities are being looked at? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Anything is possible, but for details on what sort of discussions have happened, I will turn it over to my deputy minister, who is well versed in that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. MacDonald.

Sorry, my deputy minister, Ms. Mueller.

Thank you, Minister. Deputy Minister.

Speaker: MS. MUELLER

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Member knows, right now our museum is very well visited over the year. Many, many tourists, many of our NWT residents have pleasure in going into that beautiful facility, but, when looking at the future, there is a lot of possibility to even create more spaces, in a variety of ways, that would be open to the public and also to specialized groups, arts groups and so on, so that is being discussed. Primarily, though, a lot of the work that has been done to date is really looking at the functions and the requirements that we have for archives and for the collections that we have and ensuring that we have the proper air systems and so on, so that is really an important feature of our discussion to date. Thank you.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, I guess the other thing that is sort of bubbling away in the back of my mind, too, is that, with a polytechnic university on the horizon, Yellowknife does need a real campus and that it would be great to be able to combine maybe the sort of things that could and should happen in a polytechnic with some of the things that do happen at the museum, as well. Because there is certainly a lot of interest in language revitalization, and the museum and some of the staff there do take strong roles with that, given the artifacts and some of the heritage items there and so on. I hope that is something else that the department will consider, is links with a potential polytechnic university. Is that something I can get some comment on? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you. The Member was talking about synergies between a polytechnic university and the museum. I haven't really put much thought into that, but I think that would be an avenue, perhaps, to pursue, especially in terms of capital funding. You know, the federal government or other entities might be more open to supporting a museum project if it does have that association, given that there is also a research component, as well. The territorial archeologist is in that facility, as well.

I just want to temper everyone's expectations here, that this would not be a cheap build. We have a lot of needs in the territory, and a building of this magnitude, that has to be built to these specifications, would be quite expensive, so I am not saying that this was going to happen anytime soon, even though something has to happen soon, but I just want to let the Members know that this is not a done deal and that it's going to be a large, large expense if it happens. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes, and I take what the Minister says, that there are some very specialized requirements for a museum. There is also a great example in Whitehorse where Yukon archives are co-located with the Yukon College. They have an arts centre there. It's a wonderful kind of facility. It's a little bit out of the downtown area, but I think there is another example of how we can do things. I just want to move on to one other question, and that is the name of this facility, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. Is that something that we might look at, you know, finding a better name for, something that reflects our culture here more appropriately? Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That, it seems like it would be a simple fix, but for some of the details on this, with your indulgence, I would like to hand it over to Mr. MacDonald.