Thank you, Deputy Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If I can get those numbers of exactly where the money lands after the applications are decided on? Next area I would like to talk about is the heritage centres. I think, in there, we are talking about emerging heritage centres. I think about Hay River with our little centre there. Does the department encourage the preservation of artifacts in the local and regional communities, and how so? Hay River, for instance, I will use that as an example. We have had people bringing in artifacts and different items, and we store them there. The funding that I see that you have allocated here is $491,000, which doesn't appear to be a lot of money. Is that for Yellowknife, or is that for other organizations or communities, as well? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister.
That is distributed to heritage centres outside of Yellowknife. For example, Hay River received $60,000 a year; I believe Norman Wells receives $118,00; Fort Simpson, $55,000; Fort Smith, $198,000; and, actually, the Yellowknife Historical Society received $60,000 of that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think part of our priorities is tourism and increasing tourism outside Yellowknife. Is the department going to look at increasing the amount of funds going to these regional centres? Again, I will use Hay River as an example. The heritage centre had applied for $180,000, but that was through ITI. They got it knocked down to less than half. I am wondering if they can go to one pot and to the other, which might be this one, to get some more money, because I think there is a real opportunity there on the tourism side in the smaller communities, but we have to have something to give the tourists when they arrive. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister.
Thank you. We are definitely putting thought into that. Our mandate is very heavy on increasing tourism outside of Yellowknife, helping build up local tourism infrastructure. That isn't specifically through ECE, but we all work together. The arts strategy is also going to look at how we can build on the strengths in the different communities. The regional economic plans that I think are happening throughout the departments will also inform that.
In Hay River, there is a great facility. It is an old building, and it needs some capital work. It would be a shame to just see that place shut down because they didn't have that funding, because they see a lot of people come through those doors every year. I take the Member's point that we need to support those types of organizations that do drive tourism. When people leave and they tell their friends about Hay River, I am sure they always speak about the museum. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Hay River South.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. That is my concern, that building is old, not that old. I worked in there when I was 12 years old. Anyway, it does need work. There are a lot of good things in there. There is a lot of participation, a lot of volunteers. We have also expanded. The operation has been expanded to include a part of the old Hay River hotel, which needs work, and more room, as well, for artifacts or for crafts and for those type of items. I would encourage your department and the Cabinet, as well, to look at how we can maybe provide more funding to the regions to expand. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member for Hay River South. Minister.
Thank you. There are always plans to do more. It often comes down to money. The government has been supportive of that centre. The Member mentioned the old Hay River hotel. That was donated by the GNWT. I believe there is a marine vessel that is making its way over to that museum at some point in the near future, as well. That came from the GNWT. We are contributing where we can, but I agree with the Member that it would be nice if we could do more to support those organizations. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Members, are there any further questions for this key activity, culture, heritage and languages? Seeing none, I am going to call the page. Education, Culture and Employment, culture, heritage and languages, operations expenditure summary, 2020-2021 Main Estimates, $18,613,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, we will now turn to page 40. Early childhood and school services, beginning on page 40 with an information item on page 44. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. This time around, I might start at the bottom of the page. I have the same question in regard to travel here. I am wondering if the Minister would mind speaking to the changes in travel costs. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister.
Thank you. Recently, we started working with the territorial support team, which is a group of professionals centred in Yellowknife. There are three positions right now, and they assist teachers in schools with instructions for children with higher needs. There is a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, and a mental health specialist, and they travel around the territory to the schools to do visits. They also offer remote support through telephone, email, et cetera, but that's what that increase is reflective of. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I am very supportive of this initiative, and I'm wondering if there are plans within Education, Culture and Employment's long-term strategy to expand this program to other regions of the Northwest Territories so that, for example, they have a team based out of Inuvik? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister.
Thank you. That would be ideal. That is what we would hope for, that we could have these supports in every community, or every region, at least, but the fact is that it's expensive. The cost of travel would be dwarfed by the cost of having these people in all of these regions. I'm not sure if that answers the question. We would love to, but it's not feasible at this point. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Have the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Social Services sat down together and looked at the cost in regard to medical travel for these types of services, for students who are travelling outside of their home community to places like Yellowknife or to places like Edmonton to receive these types of services, to see if the cost can be offset by costs we're already putting out for medical travel? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister.
Thank you. No, we haven't done that work. This is particularly a team to support the principals, teachers, program support teachers. It's an interesting thought, and we can look into it, but we haven't done that to date. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I'm going to move up to the line item for fees and payments. The line item for fees and payments has changed significantly over the years, in a positive direction. It's gone from $2.475 to $4.19 million. I'm wondering if the Minister can elaborate a little bit on that line item. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. I'm guessing we bought something big. If you give me a moment, I might be able to find out what that was. What that is, is a reallocation of funds from fees and payments to contract services, and those contract services are used to pay for the itinerant team, which is child and youth counsellors who travel to different communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much for that, Mr. Chair. I'm going to keep moving up the page, here, in the interest of time. My next question is in regard to inclusive schooling. Any of the educators I've spoken with across the Northwest Territories, or even within our school boards here in Yellowknife, have said that the need for funds for inclusive schooling is probably their greatest funding need, and I see that the line items are fairly status quo here for the inclusive schooling line. I'm wondering, given that our need for inclusive schooling continues to go up, and the supports required for students in the Northwest Territories continue to go up, how does the Department of Education, Culture and Employment feel that they will be able to meet the needs of students across the Northwest Territories with a status quo budget? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. We have a line that says "inclusive schooling," but that doesn't mean that all of our efforts related to inclusive schooling are contained in that line item. We talked about the child and youth care counsellors; we talked about the territorial support team; what we're doing with education renewal and innovation. All of that is related to this idea of inclusive schooling. As well, the mandate talks about renewing the Education Act, doing work to review inclusive schooling and address some of the issues that have emerged over the years. Virtually everything we do in education in the JK to 12 system is to address inclusive schooling, because it's not just a thing; it's a way that we operate and it's a way of educating. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I notice, on this page, there are the NWTTA Professional Improvement dollars, as well. I am wondering if we will expect to see a review of the STIP days come out of the Department of education this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. STIP, yes. The review that was legislated is scheduled to be complete by the end of the calendar year. It's always an ongoing process of determining how this is working. I mean, each calendar year, or each school year, schools have to fit this into their schedule, and so we've been learning every year. Part of the education renewal and innovation report that just came out was a review of STIP, as well, so we've had that review after a few years, and we're going to have a final review at the end of this calendar year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response. My next question is in regard to early learning and childcare. One of the priorities of the 19th Legislative Assembly was affordable childcare, accessible and affordable childcare, and I notice that the budget for early learning and childcare has come down a little bit. I'm just wondering if the Minister would speak to that, please. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. That is due to a sunset of the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My last question, and I'll let someone else talk here for a bit: does the Department of Education, Culture and Employment do exit interviews with its teachers? Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you. The department doesn't really employ teachers; the teachers are employed by the education councils and education authorities, but we do teacher surveys. Perhaps for more detail I can go to Mr. MacDonald.
Mr. MacDonald?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, just to build on what the Minister said, the teachers are employed by the various education bodies across the territory, so ECE does not participate in the hiring process or exit process for those individuals. However, we do conduct teacher surveys to help understand what types of issues are working for them, as well as where their challenges may be. In fact, in that recent education renewal and innovation evaluation, as well as in that STIP evaluation, there were teacher survey components to that, so that we could help understand what some of the challenges were that our teachers were experiencing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. MacDonald. Next, we have the Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a number of questions that relate to early learning and childcare. I understand that the three-year agreement of federal money to create new spaces and lower fees is just about ready to expire at the end of this month. Can the Minister say what was achieved in the first three years of this agreement? Thank you.
