R.J. Simpson

I thank the Minister for clearing that up. About the capital upgrades, I brought this up before; I was looking for a dollar amount or a percentage amount. The Minister mentioned there's money for the upgrades needed to turn kindergarten or elementary classrooms into JK classrooms. What dollar amount is associated with the monies that ECE has pledged to support school boards with? Is it going to cover all of the capital upgrade costs, and if not, what percentage does it cover and what percentage will the school boards have to cover?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back to junior kindergarten again. I understand, and the Minister can correct me if I'm wrong, but in daycares and day homes, there needs to be a ratio of 8:1 when it comes to children to adults, supervisors. Yet, the four-year-olds who are being put into junior kindergarten, that ratio is going to be 12:1. What is the rationale for significantly reducing that ratio when it's essentially the same children that we're dealing with? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I realize that there are some communities who have no daycare, no playschool programs, so I'll confine this to Hay River. Can I tell my constituents that, if we're going to put daycare, playschool operators out of business, that it's for the benefit of our children because they're going to be getting a higher education in junior kindergarten?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back to junior kindergarten. There's still a lot of confusion about this program, and I'd just like to try and clear it up for my constituents. I'd like the Minister of Education to just let us know what's the difference between junior kindergarten programming and, say, the programming at daycare and the difference between junior kindergarten and kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today, I want to recognize the accomplishments of four outstanding women from Hay River, and to thank them for going above and beyond to serve their community.

Carolyn Carroll is the principal of Harry Camsell Elementary and Princess Alexandra Middle School in Hay River. This week, she was recognized as one of Canada's outstanding principals along with 39 other principals from across the country by the Learning Partnership, a national organization dedicated to publicly funded education in Canada. She's been teaching in the NWT for 30 years, and the last 20...

I'll now rise and report progress.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll be following up with the Minister to get some specific numbers for Hay River. Another issue is that in Hay River the buses are full; there's not room for another 30 kids. So is that factored into the funding for JK or is that something the school board is going to have to deal with either by cancelling busing or buying a school bus or some other means? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The fact is, in the classroom or in the room that these children are in, there's going to be less supervision. Will the qualifications for a JK teacher be any different than our other elementary school teachers because we are dealing with an age with different challenges than any other age in the school system?

The Hay River Playschool takes three- and four-year-olds. It's probably going to shut down after decades. That's an option. That's a real option that could happen. So I just want to make this as simple as possible: are kids coming out of JK going to be smarter than if they were in a playschool or a daycare program? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

So is the level of education going to be higher in junior kindergarten than a child could expect in a daycare, in a playschool, something like that? That's really what I'm getting at.