Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Can the Minister explain how the department determines the level of funding of the education councils? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. On an annual basis, it’s all based on student enrolment, the formula funding we’ve had in place for quite some time now and we follow that process. The funding goes directly to the school boards and at their discretion, such as how many staff they want to hire, programming in the schools and so forth. So we work closely with the schools at that level. At the end of the day, we provide funding to them based on formula funding of the student enrolment. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister explain where we are going to be losing the seven positions in the Beaufort-Delta Education Council?
Again, Mr. Speaker, the Beaufort-Delta, the decision is made at the regional level in the communities. We, as a department, work closely with them as well. As you know, we are going through some changes. We are engaging the communities, stakeholders, on educational renewal and part of that is discussing accountability and the overall school system. So part of the discussion we are going to be having is capturing that line of discussion. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
That was actually my next question. Will the department review its funding formula to recognize the unique needs of the small communities? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
A really good question. This is an area that we are undertaking right now. Part of the criteria, the six pillars that we are discussing are small community schools. That would capture that and also the accountability when it comes to funding. Those are the discussions that we are engaging in. We’re hoping by this fall we’re going to have a product to release to this House and also the general public about what we heard and we want to move forward on. So I‘m glad the Member is raising the profile, because it is part of the discussions as we move forward. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.
The last question I was going to ask is what was the timeline in which you expect this report to be done. Can we expect these changes for the loss of those positions? Can we assure those teachers who have moved to the Northwest Territories that their positions won’t be lost in the fall? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Teachers are our most valuable asset in the educational system. We’ll do what we can. We also work closely with the NWTTA and BDEC with our department to try to retain those individuals in the communities. We are going through the engagement process now, so my department will be working closely with BDEC, and the NWTTA is also involved at that level. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
