Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today I brought up the issue of poaching hard-earned cash surpluses from our district education school boards in Yellowknife to fund the territorial Junior Kindergarten Program.
As I indicated today, this method of paying for school rollout initiatives is only penalizing school boards that have sound management in place and I believe this will only breed resentment. My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Prior to making this decision, can the Minister inform the House, did the department undertake a full-scale assessment of potential negative impact on Yellowknife school boards? Specifically, did the department anticipate an increase in the mill rate for Yellowknife taxpayers? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Yes, my department has been engaged and has conducted a review of the implications for junior kindergarten in each school board across the Northwest Territories. We have also looked at the success of students in junior kindergarten when it was implemented in other jurisdictions, just to see the outcome of introducing a junior kindergarten.
The mill rate question is another one that we haven’t looked at as a department or as GNWT. The mill rate, as it is, is a municipal jurisdiction. Many of our communities are non-tax-based communities. It would be unfair to Yellowknife to have Yellowknife taxpayers pay for junior kindergarten all across the Territories. So, those are some of the things we came up with. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
At least the Minister and I agree on one thing, it will have an effect on our mill rate in Yellowknife, and unfortunately, we didn’t do the math.
Can the Minister clarify, prior to making this decision to affect school board surpluses, what type of consultation was undertaken with the boards? Thank you.
I have said on numerous occasions in this House that the department has been engaged with superintendents of all the school boards since last summer, and August 21, 2013, was our first, initial meeting we had last year, September 18th, November 27th and also January 22nd with the superintendents of all the school boards. So they’ve been fully engaged in our discussions and we will continue to have that dialogue with all the superintendents as we move forward for the next three years of our phased-in approach. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
School board surpluses are used by school administration to enhance programs or offer unique opportunities for our students which are not funded by any other means.
Can the Minister indicate what effect removing these surpluses will have on such complementary programs for our Yellowknife students? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
When we first introduced junior kindergarten as part of our discussions, obviously we don’t want to have impacts on other programs in schools. With this approach, the school programs should not suffer, as the department funds school boards as part of our contributions. Nobody needs to rely on surpluses to fund education. We already provide funding for educational programming for the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities we contribute to on an annual basis. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister may want to go back and talk to his superintendents because the superintendents are being very clear this surplus, a lack of, will affect programming. This approach to funding junior kindergarten effectively curbs the autonomy of district education authorities.
Can the Minister explain what is the rationale behind this autocratic approach? Isn’t there a risk in creating embittered relations between the department and Yellowknife school boards? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
The district education councils we’ve been engaged with have a considerable amount of authority in the present stages to make those decisions on education issues and programming in the communities and regions. The Education Act does not define them as autonomous. In fact, we have one education system and it’s paid entirely by the GNWT, with the exception of Yellowknife where approximately 18 percent for YK1 and 15 percent for YCS total revenue for municipal taxes. I would just like to highlight as Minister of Education, the buck stops here with me. I’m in charge and I’m acting in the best interest of all residents, including Yellowknife. Change can be difficult; I know that. I have confidence by this time next year, those experiencing junior kindergarten in communities, we’re going to be seeing positive results. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
