Thank you. Next on my list I have Member from Monfwi for pages 46 to 48. Questions.
Thank you. My question was regarding what MLA Morgan was referring to, education authority contributions. It says that, you know, money is allocated based on previous school year. So it is based on enrolment formula. So I just wanted to ask the Minister if there's a breakdown of regions, you know, which region is most impacted that, you know, there is a decrease in this budget. So, yeah, just which region is most impacted?
Thank you. To the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to be clear, we did not decrease our contributions or change the funding formula. The funding formula is enrolmentbased, so it would be based on the number of students attending a school based on the numbers provided by that particular education body and particular school. And as far as you know, if the Member is asking how enrolment numbers changed year after year for schools in her region, I'd be happy to access that information but it's not information that I have at my fingertips right now. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Well, it's not huge, but it's just that it would be nice to know the numbers because and you did state that before that due to enrolment and, you know, like, the contribution went down. So I just want that's why I ask is that which region, you know, is most impacted. And also it's not we're not part of North Slave so, you know, with Tlicho regions, I would like to know for that very reason. And I know that last year and this is regarding the postsecondary. I know last you know, because of the Aurora College transformation, so teacher education program and social work program, you know, they don't offer that program anymore. But I believe previous Minister did say before that it was going to be up and running maybe this school year or next school year, because I thought he said 20242025 that they're going to start accepting students. So I just wanted to know if and when the Aurora College is going to start accepting students for teacher education program and social work. Because those two are very important. And I know that we do have problems with retaining and those were a success for many of the small communities, students coming from small communities and they were using that program more, and we did have a lot of graduates and a lot of them went on to obtain their master's and PhD. So I just wanted to know when the Aurora College is going to start accepting students, you know, for teacher education and social work program. Thank you.
To the Minister to the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to go back really quickly, I do have the number for the Member in terms of the change in enrolment for Tlicho region, and it's 4 percent. So a decline of 4 percent for Tlicho region schools.
And then in regards to the degree programs from Aurora College, Aurora College has spoken about having their first degree program be general studies, and they pushed that back by a year. Originally, they had intended that that would start this fall, and so that would mean that it would start next fall. Beyond that, I do not have that information as of yet from the board of governors of Aurora College.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Monfwi.
It's good, thank you. Thank you for the information, which I'm sure there's people listening and our leaders are listening too as well. So it's good to know that number.
And, yeah, so minority language education a second language, well, that's for French. But I know it was in the budget that Aurora College was going to be or it was part of their budget where they were going to deliver a diploma program for language. Why that program never went further or, like, it was never the department never did anything about it knowing the importance of the Indigenous language and, you know and now that department is creating ADM for language and culture. So I want to know why the department never proceeded to offer that program? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department did have money set aside in the budget anticipating that that program would be developed and come forward and had hoped it would come forward sooner. And so it has been part of ECE's budget for a number of years and money that they have received/approved by this Legislative Assembly for that purpose. Given that the program is not yet in existence, that was identified as a potential cost savings to the department and dollars that could be directed elsewhere so that we're ensuring that we're directing it to where it can best be used. And then once a program does come forward, then I would be able to go to FMB again with a submission, a costed submission and timeline for that delivery. So it's not the department of education that would develop that program and that curriculum for Aurora College; it's Aurora College that is doing that work.
I think it is worth also mentioning programs that are within the department of education, like the mentorship apprenticeship program and the scholarship programs as well, that have really taken off over the last number of years and have seen record enrolment, and so just a huge thank you to your MAP coordinators and also our mentors who are doing that good work. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Monfwi.
Thank you. Thank you for the information. Treaty simulations, it's a onetime funding for treaty simulation project. Can you elaborate more on that, please. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would have to phone a friend for that one, but I believe it is worked into federal and GNWT agreements with Indigenous governments. But may I please pass to the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the deputy minister.
And apologies, I think I will also have to access assistant deputy minister Shannon BarnettAikman with the will of the committee.
Yes, you can bring her in, the ADM.
Mr. Speaker, if possible, can I commit to getting that back to the committee. Thank you.
Yes. Okay, we'll continue on. I'm going to go back to the Member from Monfwi.
I'm done with this part.
Thank you. Next on my list, I got the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I too would like to raise the minority language education and secondary language instruction, in particular or the French sorry, the French funding, which is decreasing by I believe my calculations around one point just shy of $1.5 million. And I understand that's a sunsetting from the French language cooperative agreement. The Northwest Territories is has a great reputation and success rate for producing bilingual students through its JK to 12 system. Sorry, I'm getting all my numbers lined or my letters and numbers lined up. So and this is great. I worked with Canadian Parents for French. I still do. Minority language education, in particular French language education, is an important part of the Canadian identity, and it's great to see our government supporting this. But there's a huge need for bilingual teachers in Canada, and if we're going to be successful in attracting and retaining them, we need to ensure that we have robust financial resources supporting our school divisions to ensure they can attract and retain the talent we need to continue these very successful rates of graduation of bilingual diplomas. So what are we doing to offset the loss in funding from the sunsetting agreement? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister to the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I absolutely agree with the Member. I know that we are both products of being able to be in French language schools in this territory and are able now to pass that on to our own children, which is definitely a privilege and one that I would like for Northerners to be able to continue.
So within that funding, the Member is right. There's a sunset of funding related to the CanadaNWT Cooperation Agreement on minority language education and second official language instruction, and the Member was totally in tune with his math as well. $1.453 million is that sunset, and that was sunset of funding to College Nordique. We're in the process in the department of renegotiating our federal funding agreements for all of our language agreements, and that minority language education is included in that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is that anticipated to be restored to the level of support it previously enjoyed? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd like to pass to the deputy minister to be able to speak to this. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Mr. Chair, of course that is our fervent desire, but in negotiations one can never be certain of the outcome. We're hoping for a positive outcome and anticipating that that could occur by as early as summer of this year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Awesome, Mr. Chair. That's great news. I wish you the best of luck. And if you need any letters written, I can certainly help out.
I just want to point out with this as well, often when there is an announcement around minority language funding for French languages, for French language education in the Northwest Territories or other programming, there seems to be a tugofwar between Indigenous language funding and in a sense that Indigenous languages are being left out of that, but these are completely separate programs and separate funding streams. And I think it's really important we support all of our official languages to the best of our ability. And if there's cash out there, we should be trying to get it and invest in all of our languages. It just happens to be a lot of federal support for French language funding, and I think what all minority language groups have in common is that they are minority language groups and we can they can find ways to support each other, especially if they're properly funded. So I really do support minority language education, and I hope this we continue to see success in this area of education.
I have other Members have already spoken about other concerns I have around education. The one thing I will add is can the Minister just update this House on how the STIP day or the STIP program is working. I know as a parent with children in various grades that the increasing number of days off on the calendar often will create a lot of strain on just the availability of time for parents to, like, manage their schedule. So it seems like these calendar days continue to increase. I know that this was a way to offset costs and continue to support teachers so there's fewer burnouts and we continue to make the North a good place for teachers to work. And and I know we continue to pay them, I think, the highest in Canada, which is all very good. But I know parents I talk to and, you know, one of those parents is my wife, can often be frustrated when there's another day, another week, where oh, you know, we missed it, something wasn't communicated, and now we have to make arrangements that we didn't anticipate. So how is that program going? Are instructional do we have enough instructional hours? What's the feedback been like so far? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, absolutely I hear the Member that, you know, understanding where your children are when you're at work and that they're cared for and managing that is incredibly important. You know, we just talked about child care for sure, and so I hear the Member on that one.
Mr. Chair, right now well sorry, in the previous Assembly, it was expected that there would be a statutory review of the STIP days. That evaluation was deferred indefinitely at that time. It was originally deferred because of COVID. There just wasn't the amount of hours required in order to review that. And then beyond that, there just hadn't really been what was considered kind of a normal school year. I would say as far as how it's going, it really depends on who you talk to. So if you talk to the teachers, they definitely appreciate the added time in order to serve the purpose of providing them with daytoday time in order to do things like report cards. If you talk to parents, of course, it is definitely more of a challenge.
How education bodies have decided to manage that time has definitely been up to each of them. For example, there's an education body here in Yellowknife who has chosen to attach that to Thursday afternoons in order for parents to have that consistency of time. It has also meant that that particular education body has stepped away from PD days and being able to use those Thursday afternoons for that purpose. And I know that there are other school boards who have done the same. And so it really depends on who you talk to. And as we know, with limited options for child care it does become a challenge for parents for sure. So thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that response. Are we going to undertake that review? Like, I understand it's been deferred indefinitely, but now that we're not in emergency circumstances and we do have time, is this an area the Minister thinks is worthwhile to reevaluate? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, STIP feedback still comes forward ad hoc through different evaluation parameters from education bodies and from open communication with education bodies, and then beyond that calendars are still developed to meet legislative requirements, for example for instructional hours, and then, of course, we have the collective agreement parameters for a number of teacher workdays and stuff like that. And if but, yes sorry, I've been passed a note. Yes, we can consider doing that as well. But I'd be curious to know I feel like the Member has another ask and so I'll pass back to him. Because I'm curious as to where he will go with that.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
I was passing back to the Member, sorry.
To the Member from Range Lake.
Yeah, thank you. Well, just do it. So in the I mean, I was part of the I was one of the MLAs who passed the statutory review, so I think it's important to do it. I think one thing we learned from COVID is when kids are out of class, education results suffer. All the evidence, all the science is showing us that, that if I could have, like, ten more seconds just to conclude my thought but, like, that is where the science is showing us that when you pull kids out of the classroom, academics suffer. And they still have not recovered from all that time that was lost during the pandemic. So I am extremely skeptic that more time out of the classroom is going to be useful, so I would strongly encourage the statutory review to be put to come back and for it to be implemented within the life of this government. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Any further questions on items pages 46 to 48? Any Members? Okay, I don't see no further questions, please turn to page 45.
Education, Culture and Employment, education, operations expenditure summary, 20242025 Main Estimates, $236,524,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Okay, I'm going to go to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the activity education in the main estimates for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
