Thank you. We'll now go to junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, beginning on page 52 with information items on page 53 to 55. Questions? Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to reiterate that, you know, in the South Slave I'm very proud that my community is a leader in education, and education is extremely important to the South Slave. And a couple of things that I want to talk about today is, you know, I always when we're always talking in AOC or other places about the small communities, we used to have a leadership program that was run by in Fort Smith, where they had an extra teacher and they had house parents, and it was only based only for the small communities. Very successful.
We got lawyers out of there from the Tlicho. You know, I know that the former Commissioner's daughter was one of the people that was in that program. There was a lot of success with that program. And everybody a lot of those people that were in those programs, including the now grand chief of the Gwich'in, they all went through this leadership program. And a lot of the I'm just wondering if the Minister would consider, you know I know it's late in our mandate but education is probably one of the most important things that you could give a child, not only as family but as a government. And we have to think about that again to ensure that the small communities that we have, you know, children that go there and they have house parents, they have their meals there, and they have programs that are extra, they have tutors at night, they have a teacher at night on staff, and we start mentoring some of those leaders the future leaders of the small communities.
And some of those future leaders were also that went through those programs became Premier, became Ministers, became MPs. I think that's extremely important that we start looking at that whole concept again.
The other concept that I really want to talk about is the Phoenix program. The Phoenix program in Fort Smith has got to be expanded to the small communities because I think that I know that the teachers in Fort Smith are very dedicated to this Phoenix program. And in the last few years, the Governor General medals were granted to students who took the Phoenix program. It wasn't the people that all graduated from grade 12 but it was people that were from the Phoenix program. And I'm very proud to say that, you know, when students go back to school and achieve that, the Governor General's award from the high school, it's a big feather in their hat. And I'd like to see that expanded to other schools. I think it's extremely important.
I consider Fort Smith a leader with the education system, and we're the education capital of the Northwest Territories. I've always said that. And education is the one thing that all of us want to push on our children no matter where they are. Whether they're from we've had people even from like, a lot from the smaller communities and from the larger centres that come to Fort Smith, and we really appreciate when they come. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And I appreciate the Member's comments about the leadership program. And I have spoken with people about programs like that and, you know, what it sort of what happened in the past, why we don't have it, and what we can change to do going forward. So, you know, I'm definitely not opposed to that. It is late in the government, as the Member mentioned. And it is on the department's radar. I think that once we get into our discussions with Indigenous governments about the future of the education system and governance and how it all works, you know, that's one of the areas that could be explored.
And in terms of the Phoenix program, you know, the Member's correct that it's a valuable program. There are other programs in the territory like that Phoenix program. And they are available to small communities as well. It is something that the local education authorities would initiate, and we have supported smaller communities to begin programs like that.
There's a lot of different things happening around the territory in terms of education. The education bodies have a lot of initiatives that they've come up with on their own, and there is sharing of that information among education bodies. But I think this is one example of where perhaps we can highlight that a little better and share that information with the other education bodies so that they become aware that perhaps they can access funds to provide these types of programming in their small communities, because it is a possibility right now. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Did you have any further comments, Member for Thebacha?
I just want to recognize the dedication of the staff of PWK and of the elementary school in Fort Smith. You know, a lot of that time and effort, even in the Phoenix program, they can bring their children there at night. And a lot of the programming is done at night. And, you know, the staff are very dedicated to what they do at both schools.
And the one thing that is outstanding, of course, is the replacement of the 65yearold school with the elementary school. There's got to be a start at some point. And, you know, I don't want to take away from any other school. Any school that's built for the betterment of students in the North is a plus. I'm not going against any other place except that that was a federal day school that and there's a link to the residential school. I was part of that; I went to school there also. And I just want to make sure that we keep those things in mind, and I'm sure that the Minister has a good overview of what happens, and it seems like he does. I will tell you when you're not because that's just the way I am. I've always been very honest about what I feel because I'm very happy about what's happening with education. And it's up to the whole community to make to make sure that the child is developing in the right way. And we all have to take part in that.
And a lot of my volunteer work was at the high school because everybody likes to volunteer for the elementary school. So all through the years since 1995, my volunteer work was with the high school, and everybody says oh, the kids are older. So I always did a lot of volunteer work with the high school, and I just want to commend the people that are there. And I know this coming year we're going to lose an important person at that school, and that's Al Karasiuk, he's retiring. And that guy, I mean, you know, he's he'd go around the clock with the students if he had to, to make them successful. And I really appreciate that.
And education is the most important thing you can give. You can have everything else in the world but if you don't have the grounds for and the background for the education, it could be a big, big problem. And education's the most important department, I think, for the future of the NWT and the economy. And I just want to thank the Minister for all the things that he said in the last little while, even with the other things that we just discussed. I didn't go into because everybody else was involved in that. And I think this is a well thought out department. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Sure. Well, I appreciate the comments from all the Members. And the Member's correct, it takes the whole community, needs to be involved and engaged in education. The government can't do it alone, absolutely not, so. And I will say that the Member's correct. In Fort Smith, they do value education. They have a lot of longterm educators who are able to mentor a lot of the younger educators that come in and so they don't run into the same issues that you might see in the smaller community where your whole staff, you know, has one or two years of experience. So they are you know, they're lucky that way and then they foster that environment so I have to agree with the Member there. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. And I see here at Indigenous language and education, okay, it's the same all the way across, and it's good, because it is important to have Indigenous language or education. This is compared to the early years of residential school, it's good that we have that. That's the only way that's that's another way of keeping our language alive and support it. And it's beneficial. I know that it is beneficial. But I just wanted to ask the Minister in general, because I did miss the other one, but I wanted to know if the Indigenous language funds can be transferred to Indigenous government because they are the authority over language and culture. I think it's appropriate to do that, you know, and I just wanted to know what the Minister thinks of that.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And there are funds that are provided to Indigenous governments, both from the federal government through the GNWT and from the GNWT. This funding right here is specific to schools. And the reason it's broken out in its own line item is because we provide the schools with essentially a lump sum of money. We provide the education bodies with a lump sum of money and we say, you spend this however you need to spend this. There's very strings attached. There's two strings that are very attached, though. We say that this portion, you have to spend on Indigenous languages and education. And this other portion you have to spend on inclusive schooling. And so we do that because we want to earmark the lump sum that we're giving these education bodies for Indigenous languages and culture. So I don't want to remove that component from here and take, you know, $10 million out of the $12 million out of the education system and that especially the money that funds that cultural component. So that's my answer. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
No, I am not saying that remove this because we do need this in schools. In the early years in residential school, it had an impact on a lot of our people, you know, because a lot of them lost our language and way of life. And so I will not ask, you know, to get rid of this in school. But I'm just saying that in general, like, here Indigenous language and education secretariat, you know, some of these cultural and heritage, why not transfer some of those to the Indigenous governments so that they can run their program or, you know, like, that they see fit based on you know, according to their culture and needs. So that's what I'm asking for. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And I know if we go back into the culture section that we've already passed, that's where those funds are. And the Indigenous governments, you know, we provide them with funding for language and culture. But we also want to do something as a government. I mean, if we gave them that money, the next call would be why aren't you doing anything for languages and culture; put money in the budget for languages and culture. So that's the money that we have there for languages and culture. I will say as we, you know, work on modernizing the education system and the governance system, we can have we will have those discussions with the Indigenous governments about how language and culture are incorporated into schools. So what the Member is bringing up are discussions that will be had. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Monfwi.
Yeah. No, no. As long as they're going to be having that discussion, that's okay, that's good, I'm happy. I hope we make some progress in this area because I strongly believe that, you know, Indigenous government running, operating some of these programming and services is good, you know, because they are our language is important to our people. So that's why I was just suggesting that. So thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my first question is in regards to education renewal and innovation. This line item appears to have come down a little bit. And my concern is that in the following fiscal year, hopefully the 20th Assembly which will be part of that fiscal year, will be able to dive right into the education renewal. And so I'm wondering if the education renewal, in fact, some of it comes out of here or is it largely centered within the corporate management section? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So the budget is here, and it is decreasing because this education renewal and innovation was a fund used to try different things, to try to renew and innovate. And so a number of those projects have become permanent, and now they have funding elsewhere. So things like northern distance learning, that's no longer funded out of here; that has its own pot of money. So as they move from being sort of experiments, they move into getting their own permanent streams of funding and that's why we see this dwindling. And this was also a tenyear strategy I guess, and we're must be in the last year of that strategy now, or very near. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering why we wouldn't maintain a consistent value or dollar value in this pocket so that ECE, especially, you know, given what we just heard from MLA Martselos in regards to the importance of education, why we wouldn't, rather than having a tenyear strategy innovation, just be constantly innovating in the way that we are delivering education in the Northwest Territories. And so I'm wondering why that's not a fixed amount that is constantly there for us to continue to do better. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And I think that speaks to the need for why we don't need this, because we are constantly innovating. We don't just need this sort of projectbased innovation fund; that's what we do. I heard someone the other day saying that, you know, the government doesn't acknowledge the negative issues or the, you know, problems with the education system and they're not doing anything about it. And I looked at what we had ten years ago and what we have today. We didn't have junior kindergarten. We didn't have northern distance learning. We didn't have career and education advisors. I have a whole list somewhere of these things that we didn't have. So there has been massive changes in the last ten years. And, I mean, I see what's happening on the horizon. There's going to be massive changes in the next ten years as well. So there's constant innovation. And that's also, you know, why I do appreciate the system of governance that we have where education bodies have the freedom to innovate on their own. When you travel to different regions and different schools, they are doing they are innovating in ways that are supporting their students. They're very tailored innovations. And so that still does occur. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm sure that a lot of the changes that happen from here on in for a few years in regards to education will be largely driven by the Education Act amendments. And so I'm wondering where that funding is coming from; is that found in corporate management and not here? And I'm wondering if the Minister can provide clarity on that one. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So there was funding for that, like in this current fiscal year but that is sunsetting. Originally, this project was supposed to be completed by the end of this term and so that funding is sunsetting. But going forward, from what has been learned during this process the department has a better handle on how things work and will be able to fund that work internally going forward. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you for that clarification from the Minister. I just don't want to leave the 20th Assembly without dollars to do the work that needs to be done for that one.
I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why there's been a decline in the education operations and educator development fund? It looks like there is about a $200,000 decrease there.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So the department increased capacity with two employees who worked student record employees. So they were responsible for ensuring that all of the requests for day school records were handled. And, you know, they were very busy and we actually brought in a bunch of other staff from throughout the department to help with that as well. But that those jobs, or those funds are now sunsetting as well because that the deadline for those for that class action has passed. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my next question is in regards to the inclusive schooling line item. That line item seems to stay quite consistent year after year. And from what I'm hearing from parents, even in Kam Lake, there are a lot of concerns about, you know, where kids are finding themselves after COVID and a lot of kids who didn't receive assessments that they would have received before they aged out of the system, a lot more challenges with kids falling behind in school, and just a real need for more inclusive schooling supports. And so I'm wondering why that line item is staying the same when our need for inclusive schooling supports is only growing. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. That number is relatively consistent because it is based on the school funding formula which is based on the number of students in the territory. And so that number hasn't varied greatly so that's why you see that consistency there. The Member is pointing out that, you know, there's often discussion about the need for more supports for inclusive schooling. And so the department is, early in the new government I understand, going be undertaking a review of their supports. You know, we've run into a number of issues. And as we face some of the labour market challenges and we can't get certain people in certain with certain qualifications in certain positions, we need to rethink how we provide services. And so if we can't get certain people into certain positions into a school, what else can we do? So, yes, we're very live to that, and that work will be happening early in the life of the next government. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm very happy to hear from the Minister that they're looking at new ways of doing this. One of the things that I find very frustrating is when you hear year after year after year there's a vacancy, we're waiting for someone to fill the vacancy. How long do you wait for someone to fill a vacancy before you start looking at new ways to do stuff? And so I'm really looking forward to this review. I think it's really important. I think a lot of kids depend on the services that they're just not getting right now.
I'm wondering if the Minister can tell us about any of the ways that and this might be too premature, and I can already hear the Minister's words in my head, but one of the things that some jurisdictions are doing is partnering up with universities in order to deliver some of these services in schools, and departments of education in other jurisdictions are actually taking on the coordination of this so that they are playing a more proactive role in getting rehab services into schools. I'm wondering if ECE is actively looking into that and maybe considering doing that in the following school year? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So there are different ways of providing services in schools across Canada. Some jurisdictions do what we do and they partner with other departments. Other jurisdictions, the education the department of education will actually provide a lot of those, say healthrelated services like the Member might be referencing. And so we are looking at different ways of providing those services.
One of the things that we're doing is renewing the curriculum. And a lot of the services I guess, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to hand it over to the deputy minister, a former teacher who can better explain how inclusive schooling and all of these are related. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I think where the Minister was going was that because the department and education bodies, as well as the teachers association, as partners are all embarking on the curriculum renewal, that transition is, as you can imagine, very comprehensive and is taking everybody a great deal of effort. You know, things like training of staff, you know, changing systems, records management. It touches on every aspect of a system, including inclusive schooling. So, really, what we're trying to do is get that moved along to such a point that then once we're fully shifted toward British Columbia's curriculum, we're looking at British Columbia's inclusive schooling which really is related to the curriculum. So it's all interrelated but we're really trying to focus on that curriculum and student assessment transition before we begin with all of those other changes that are naturally going to follow. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So first I just wanted to start and I do apologize, if I'm repeating others. But the healthy food for learning program, great program. I can't say enough about having and helping kids have access to healthy food.
Given that we are seeing a high cost of inflation, which is affecting food prices, grocery prices, etcetera, and I've had actually people reach out about how important and more we need help here, I'm just wondering we're staying pretty stagnant; has there been any sort of assessment of, like, the needs of this program; is there more money that's going to be contributed; is it based on the funding formula, all of those types of things? So a little bit of information there. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And this number has been very stagnant. I don't know if it's changed for the last decade actually. I do know that when I was in school, there was no food anywhere. And now when I go and I tour schools, there is food all over the place. There's apples. When you walk in the door, there's sandwiches in coolers that students can go get. So there is a lot more food. This is one area where schools receive funding. There's also the Breakfast Club of Canada and there's a number of other organizations that all contribute. That being said, I agree that this is very important and I would love to see this increased year after year.
What is currently happening is the federal government is looking at a national food program for schools and so we are yes, we are basically waiting to see what they're going to do, and then engage with them on that. So I'm very hopeful, and I think that the future is bright for food in schools. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I know been a very very long week for all of us. That is great. I am not really reassured, though, by waiting to hear what the federal government says and what they're going to do in a national program. To me, again, people speaking to me that, you know or telling me, and even my mom's own, you know, history and experience as a teacher teaching grades 1 and 2, that when kids are showing up to school hungry they don't learn. And given that we're having such an issue in a lot of our sort of social programming areas and wellness areas, you know, in the North, I think this couldn't even be like, as much as it might be deemed to be adequate and you are seeing apples and bananas in classrooms, I would I can't believe it's adequate for 33 communities and all of the children that are that would be affected by this. So I just want to put in a plug for at least some inflationary increases or some extra money being found. And even if that means the kids are taking that extra food home at the end of the day, there's younger siblings at home, there's elders at home, it's not going to go to waste, so. More of a comment on that.
My next question is around the northern youth abroad. I know that obviously during COVID that was very difficult to have you know, have that program get executed. But, again, we're still seeing it fairly stagnant at around a $100,000. Given that we've had a lot of conversations with your colleague from MACA around opportunities for youth and children and really just how much, you know, having a chance to travel and see something outside of your realm, how important that is. I've only heard amazing things about the kids and youth coming out of this program.
Can the Minister speak to whether we can see or expect to see another increase coming there. Are there other areas that they access funding from the GNWT to support this program? Thank you.
