We'll leave it at that. Thank you, Member for Monfwi. All right, so seeing that we have no more questions for the information items. Thank you, Members.
Please return now to the departmental summary found on page 235, revenue summary, information items on page 236. Are there any questions? Member for Frame Lake.
Thanks, Madam Chair. I move that committee defer further consideration of the estimates for the Department of Infrastructure at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Committee, there's a motion on the floor. To the motion?
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? Motion is carried.
Carried.
Consideration of the Department of Infrastructure is deferred.
Thank you, Minister, and thank you to the witnesses. You may escort the witnesses from the Chamber. And we are going to take a recess. Thank you.
SHORT RECESS
I will now call Committee of the Whole back to order. Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 56119(2): Main Estimates 20222023. Does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment have any opening remarks?
Yes, I do.
Go ahead.
Thank you. Madam Chair, I'm here to present the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's main estimates for the fiscal year 20222023. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of $5.159 million, or 1.46 percent, over the 20212022 Main Estimates. These estimates support the mandate objectives while continuing to meet the GNWT’s fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.
Highlights of these proposed estimates include forced growth funding of $778,000, including:
an additional $645,000 to address the increased demand on the senior citizen's supplementary benefit; and
$133,000 to address the increased lease costs related to Aurora College.
The proposed estimates also reflect a total increase of $1.169 million to support new initiatives. This amount is comprised of:
$1.010 million to support the continued implementation of the action plan to improve JK to 12 student outcomes;
$159,000 to fund an additional position to support the Education Act Modernization Project.
The proposed estimates also reflect a total increase of $8.787 million for other adjustments which primarily includes:
$1.984 million increase to support the 20212023 Northwest Territories Teachers' Association's collective agreement;
$626,000 to implement enhancements to the 20222023 School Funding Framework to address the declining enrolments in Northwest Territories schools and to provide consistent and stable administrative and school support to small schools;
$500,000 to continue an infrastructure fund to assist early learning and childcare programs with the cost of property improvement or new construction needed to offer new or expanded licensed programming;
$322,000 increase to the CanadaNWT French Language Service Agreement;
$298,000 to extend the existing CanadaNorthwest Territories Early Learning and Child Care Bilateral Agreement;
$2.777 million for salary cost increases provided by the 20202021 Northwest Territories Teachers' Association collective agreement;
$2.684 million for salary increases across ECE in related to the 20212023 UNW collective agreement; and
$404,000 reduction to travel budgets implemented across the GNWT.
The increases are partly offset by a total decrease of $6.308 million reflecting funding scheduled to sunset March 31st, 2022 which includes:
$4.255 million for Safe Return to Class funding allocated in response to the pandemic within education operations and educator development;
$1.088 million onetime support for NWT students in response to COVID19 with student financial assistance;
$600,000 for onetime COVID19 support funding which was federally funded for labour market programs;
$115,000 funding associated with northern studies expansion;
$211,000 establishment of NWT school and community child and youth care counsellors Phase 3 and 4, a transfer of associated funding from ECE to the Department of Health and Social Services;
$33,000 for a portion of funding associated with northern distance learning; and
$6,000 for onetime technology setup funding for quality assurance advisor and student records coordinator positions.
That concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Do you have witnesses to bring in?
Yes, I do.
SergeantatArms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Minister, will you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To your left, we have Sam Shannon, assistant deputy minister of corporate services; and to your right, John MacDonald, deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome. Committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we'll defer the departmental summary and review the estimates by activity, beginning with corporate management starting on page 33 with information items on page 34. Questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I see here that about half of your budget, or $4 million of this budget, is chargebacks. Can I just confirm that that is the TSC chargeback?
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you, that is correct.
Thank you. Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have an oddly specific question. So here under ECE, it lists that we're you guys are paying TSC $4 million. Then when I go to the Infrastructure chargeback for ECE, it says $5.5 million. Does anyone have an explanation for why there's a $1.5 million difference? And I suspect perhaps it might be that the school boards also charge back TSC, and that's not showing up here but I may be wrong on that. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. Aurora College makes up that difference. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife North.
No further questions. Thank you.
Are there any other questions under corporate management? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I see that there's one additional staff member for corporate management. Can the Minister inform us as to where that staff member is going?
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. That staff member is being added to support the Education Act modernization. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I see that there is not a substantial increase to policy legislation and communication for that line item. So is that being funded from within? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. I'll just send that over to Mr. Shannon. Thanks.
Thank you. ADM Shannon.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The new position that's contemplated in the 20222023 estimates will be located in the planning, research, and evaluation division. This is one of three positions as part of the ADAC project or excuse me, the new one that's being added this upcoming year is in the finance and capital planning. There are two existing positions that came in last fiscal year, one located in policy, legislation and communications, and one in planning, research and evaluation. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Sitting on the Standing Committee for Social Development, we definitely get to spend a lot of time with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment because they do have a lot of legislative initiatives that they are working on. There are a lot that we are also anticipating, seeing one of which was the Education Act. Does the addition of one staff give them the human resources that they need to push this work forward? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So as was noted, we have in previous years increased the staff who are dedicated to this item and yes, we do have a lot of initiatives and they are across the department, and so they're not all supported directly by corporate services. There are initiatives that are being undertaken by the labour division and other areas. So we do have a lot but it is we feel as though we can undertake them and do it successfully with the contingent that we have. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, just in regards to the Education Act, that was one piece of legislation that we had anticipated seeing in the 19th Assembly. Can the Minister speak to the new timeline that ECE is working toward completing that work by? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So we had taken a different approach with the Education Act. You know, I would have loved to get it all done in four years and have the brand new modern act. But through our initial engagement, we realized that it's going to take much longer to really overhaul that entire act and so I expect that we won't see a fully modernized act until sometime in the next Legislative Assembly. However, my hope is that during this Legislative Assembly, we can make some more minor amendments to the Education Act to address some longstanding issues that are you know, not just housekeeping issues but not very not substantive perhaps but we believe they would make a difference in the years that we are modernizing the rest of the act. So we're breaking it into two phases. The first phase, I hope, will be complete this year, and phase or sorry, this Assembly. And phase 2, my hope is that it would be completed during the next Assembly but we are fully committed to fully engaging and codeveloping with our Indigenous government partners and so the time is it's unknown when it will be completed. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there any further questions under corporate management from Members? Member for Deh Cho.
Madam Chair, I'm just wondering if this is the section where we can discuss the curriculum change? No? I'm booted out then.
Any other questions under corporate management? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I guess I'm just curious with the change that my colleague was mentioning to the new curriculum, are we going to need to see a better or an increase to communications costs in other words to like get this messaging out there, to to assure parents that, you know, their I guess why we've made this change, assure the public why we've gone to this expense? I think there would be sort of I think there's going to be a lot of questions, and I guess I'm just wondering if we need more money for comms. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. Over the years, ECE has built up its capacity for communications, and I think it's really been put to the test over the past two years with a lot of significant and rapid changes due to the, you know, ever changing environment with COVID. And so I'm confident that we have the ability to communicate that, and I agree with the Member that we do need to communicate that. There's a lot of interest in education and every aspect of it, especially in changes as large as communications. And so we are you know, we will be working with the education bodies to ensure that the changes are communicated as they happen over the coming years. Thank you.
