Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I do yeah, I do note that I actually have notes for myself on Aurora College on the next page. It can be where we're going night after night here, it can be hard to keep track of all our notes. But, you know, the line item is here also so it seems like a fair place to also ask the question.
Just to be clear here, the Minister suggested that Aurora College had almost $2 million in reductions simply with vacant positions that weren't filled, is that correct? Or is there maybe a bit more to that story?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that's not a hundred percent of the story. That is definitely the primary driver for their reductions, but it is not a hundred percent. But I can definitely say that their selection of what dollars that they were not going to use and suggest for this exercise were intentionally not tied to transformation. But for additional detail, I would like the opportunity to invite another assistant deputy minister to join me at the table.
Yes, proceed. Thank you. I'm going to go to the assistant ADM.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my right I have Mr. Mike Saturnino, who is assistant deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment as well.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as the Minister mentioned, when we sent this to Aurora College, they intentionally looked at what it was that they could look at that wouldn't impact programs, wouldn't impact the core services that they offer. And so they did look at vacancies. They looked at upcoming retirements. They looked at term positions and also positions that were within the organization that were perhaps more corporate in function and less around academics, and that's where these reductions were primarily driven from. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to continue on now to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I have a couple of questions. The first one I'll talk about the northern distance learning, and I note it's $850,000 decrease to that. That is a program that I know was piloted out of Inuvik for students in remote communities to be able to access the academic programs they needed through online services. Can the Minister speak as to what that reduction of $850,000 is a reflection of? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in reflection of the fact that a lot of students use northern distance learning and its importance to their education, it was ensured that any reductions to this program would not prevent students from accessing the program. And so the cuts are primarily to use more virtual meetings, so instructors and such that at one point would travel or students who would travel, that has been turned into more virtual settings. And then there's also some changes to technology uses on the back end. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Minister Cleveland. So just then to confirm, the reduction of $850,000 is not a reduction to the program itself or the services that it offers? It's still going to maintain at the same levels it was maintaining when we spent $850,000 more last year?
Thank you. To the Minister to the question.
That is correct, Mr. Chair. Students who currently access northern distance learning will still be able to access northern distance learning. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My other question since you have Mr. Saturnino with you is on the college, was the so I've spoken previously about the Centre for Learning, Teaching and Innovation and how important that is for the college to get their accreditation to be able to develop the programming they need to become a polytechnic. I guess my first question is was the Minister and your department aware that this program was actually running and that the funding from CanNor was sunsetting after three years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, yes, the department was aware that this program was operating and was also aware that the program was a funded program through CanNor and that it did have a sunsetting time period. Any desire to have ECE support renegotiating that was not reached out to the department for. But I'd like to also pass to Mr. Saturnino as I think that the Member is eager to hear from him as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the assistant ADM.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, so the department was aware this was an initiative that was introduced when the president role was being shared with the associate deputy minister of postsecondary education renewal. And so, of course, there was a higher level of a good level of communication happening across the department. We were aware of this initiative and what it was for, which was to build capacity within the college to support staff. And so that was the what it was intended for when it was introduced initially in 2020. And so we were given notice that the program was ending, and, of course, you know, were in discussions with the college as it was closing but as the Minister noted, there was no request to continue with it. I'm aware that they did approach CanNor and sought to get additional funds, but their request was not supported. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
It's surprising, because when the president of Aurora College sat in front of committee, it certainly was made very clear to us that if there's one thing that they could get to continue would be that $500,000 funding to ensure that program continued on. So I'm a little surprised that it wasn't brought forward to the department as well. The department obviously is aware that they do require that funding for that training, that particular program, to ensure that they can qualify the programs would qualify the insurance requirements to become a polytechnic. So has the department had any conversations with Aurora College around that, around again, as part of the polytechnic transformation process, the importance of having that program continue?
I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I received a letter from Aurora College chair on Thursday indicating that they are requesting funding to reinstate that entity. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's nice to know that the chair of the board has been listening to session the last couple of weeks. Obviously, he feels there might be an opportunity. Yeah, no, that's it for me on that, I think, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate it. And, yeah, we look I mean, again, that funding, I think, is crucial, and I hope the department's considering looking at that program and maintaining that program so, again, we can continue down the path of getting to a polytechnic, where we need to be. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Are there any more questions for information item on pages 46 to 48? Yes, I got a Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate the questions and comments from my colleagues on postsecondary education, so I will pick up the baton here and focus on JK to 12 education.
So we see some significant reductions in JK to 12 education system services and student services. System services is reduced by about 25 percent actually both are, and student services. And then we see reductions in contributions to education authorities.
So my question is how will this affect students on the ground at the end of the day? And just to back up for a sec, I just want to point out, so earlier there was comments that because there was a focus on just reducing positions that were vacant or retirements, that that wouldn't impact programs. And so I don't think we can make an assumption that because someone's retiring and we're not replacing them, that doesn't impact the program. It doesn't affect a staff person in that we don't have to fire someone, for lack of a better term, but it will impact the program in that if we're letting someone retire and no one's replacing them, that, by definition, impacts something. So I just want us to be clear that just because we're not creating affected employees, that's not the same as not impacting programs. Anyway, but the question at hand here is about impacts to JK to 12 education in terms of those significant reductions. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to start off by just pointing out that the two or kind of apples and oranges because one is talking about JK to 12 education; the other's talking about Aurora College, and they're very separate. In regards to the Member's question about the reduction for our territorial schools and administration, that number is enrolment driven. And so while I did, as Minister, use that number to bring to my colleagues within this fiscal sustainability exercise, that is a number that goes up and down year after year because it is based entirely on enrolment. And so that is where that number came from. It was not anything different or outside of the traditional school funding formula. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to clarify, so my comment on the issue of whether retirements would impact programs, that was just sort of globally in general whenever we talk about retirements and vacancies.
Anyway, so is the Minister suggesting that enrolment has gone down by 25 percent from last year to this year? I mean, and it's also significantly lower than the previous year. Is that what we're talking about that student enrolment has gone down 25 percent in the past year?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister to the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, no. I'm looking at the actuals from 20222023 of $139 million to the main estimates of 20242025 which are $136 million $136.6 million. So not a 25 percent reduction in attendance. I'm talking about that particular line item. If the Member would like me to give her information on additional line items, I'd be happy.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay, thanks for clarifying that. The line items that I wanted to focus on at the moment are under junior kindergarten to grade 12 education system services, the first one, which goes from $8.1 million to just over $6 million from last year to this year's main estimates. And maybe you can explain the difference to me. But further down in the list, there's JK to grade 12 student services, which goes from $6.1 million to $4.6 million this year. Can the Minister (audio) will impact services or whether that's primarily due to a drastic decrease in student enrolment?
Thank you. To the Minister to the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in that top line item there, the $8.2 million to the $6 million, that line item reduction is due to some fiscal sustainability reductions. So for starters, there is a sunset of education renewal and innovation funding but from our fiscal sustainability plan, there's also a switch to virtual meetings related to committee meetings and a reduction of the number of training sessions as well by our student support and wellness programs. There's also a trueup of mentorship allowances and substitute wages to support the budgets under the school funding framework as well. And there is a discontinuation of an education operations coordinator, which is a headquarters position, a discontinuation of an Indigenous language and culture coordinator position as well as a discontinuation of a junior kindergarten to grade 6 curriculum co-ordinator. We were also able, in this line item here, to reduce the number and frequency of training for northern teachers. So previously principals did an annual inservice, and so what we have looked at doing is actually combining that with a summit at a conference in order to save some dollars there and bring that together with some other PD that happens. We've also reduced the number and frequency of training for oh sorry, I'm repeating myself. And we've also discontinued, for example, our or sorry, switched to virtual meetings with education authorities in order to save some additional funding. And then that, of course, is offset by some federal dollars we received for the national action plan to end genderbased violence as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so were these reductions done in consultation with education authorities or based on recommendations from those education authorities or I understand some of these are with you know, solely within ECE, but there may be impacts on education authorities and the work that they do. So can the Minister speak to any consultation that was done there or recommendations from the authorities?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department did put out a call to education bodies as a whole to ask them, you know, what would work, do you foresee a possibility to offer up some dollars from your budgets. And without any surprise, of course, the answer was no, which we a hundred percent respected because, like many members have said, you know, our foundation to our economic foundation begins with educating our youth. And so we absolutely respected that. But what the education bodies did offer up were some suggestions of where to create some savings within the department. And so those recommendations were absolutely listened to, and some of those recommendations as well included switching to virtual training sessions or meetings because sometimes when we're taking teachers out of, especially small communities, it can be incredibly disruptive to the learning of students. And so some of those suggestions were definitely incorporated within this budget here. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, well that is somewhat reassuring to hear. The question so on page 46, we look at the budgets for building Skills 4 Success in the NWT, and that has gone from $3.368 million last year to it looks like nothing this year. And so can the Minister explain whether that funding appears somewhere else in the budget? Is it a shifting around of where funds are coming from or going, or what programs are we losing if that program disappears?
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that was a sunset of a federal program that was not reinstated, and there was a significant impact to labour market programs across Canada and one that we have heard a lot about from provincial and territorial labour Ministers across the country for sure. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so my understanding is that we have an action plan, the Skills 4 Success Action Plan, that is supposed to go from 2021 to 2025. So are we able to continue on with that action plan and accomplishing the goals that we've set for ourselves without any funding in that line item this year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I would like to just say for the record that we called our program Skills 4 Success first before the feds and, unfortunately, the two are not related; they just share a name. So when the federal government came out with their funding program, it had the same name as our existing strategy. So the two are not related. Our strategy still exists, but that federal funding has sunset. Thank you.
