Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today Members alluded to what I like to refer to as a small sliver of success for the stakeholders of Junior Kindergarten. The Executive Council, led by our Premier, has failed to address the most important aspect of the current rollout of Junior Kindergarten. Who is going to pay for this? Although a recent dispute on the actual financial impact of Junior Kindergarten rollout has been occurring publicly between both Yellowknife school boards and the department, the issue, Mr. Speaker, is not the mechanics of the calculation but the final agreed to amount. In the end, the three-year cumulative funding reduction of just under $2 million is hitting the mill rate taxpayers of Yellowknife. This is the real issue. Since this announcement came today from the Premier, it is to him I will be addressing my questions.
We know the original rollout to the 23 communities for Junior Kindergarten was done with an ill-conceived funding model, with no new money from the GNWT budget and cleverly funded with surplus monies from school boards and authorities.
Can the Premier tell us why the funding component for today’s announcement was purposely referred to as a “no change approach”? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Honourable Premier, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the Member knows, when the Program Review Office reviewed the education budgets, they determined the education system was over-funded by $17.5 million a year. The Yellowknife school boards had large, accumulated surpluses such as $2.5 million with YK1 and Yellowknife Catholic School Board had a $1.4 million surplus. So the funding model at this time that we put forward is it would not change for this year and next year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Can the Premier assure the House that there will be a moratorium and all changes to the pupil-teacher ratio affecting all schools, that all surpluses, monies from school boards, authorities and councils not be clawed back and that this year’s Yellowknife funding reduction of $649,000 be returned to the rightful school boards? Thank you.
The funding for the 23 Junior Kindergarten programs for communities will be absorbed by all education authorities through the re-profiling of existing funding, as I indicated in the letter to the standing committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I’m not quite sure what we just heard, but I assume that was a “no” response to my earlier question. To be clear, it appears the Premier is okay that both Yellowknife school boards be saddled with funding reductions every year while we delay the evaluation of Junior Kindergarten well into the 18th Assembly. Again, is this what the Premier clearly supports? Thank you.
The Member wants to focus on Yellowknife, but all schools will see the re-profiling of existing funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will make the last one easy for the Premier. With the end of this session, we know the GNWT is about to embark on next year’s main estimates for operational expenditures. The GNWT has a golden opportunity to place new budgetary dollars towards existing rollout of Junior Kindergarten.
Can the Premier assure this House that new money will be set aside for Junior Kindergarten? Thank you.
We are talking about one-time impacts. I will focus on the two Yellowknife school boards. The two boards will have to pay in 2014-15 and 2015-16. These one-time amounts are for 2014-15: YK1, $372,000; YCS will be $277,000; and in 2015-16: YK1, $274,000; YCS will be $525,000; keeping in mind the surpluses that YK1 has of $2.5 million and Yellowknife Catholic School Board has $1.4 million. Assuming the review comes out very positive and assuming in the 18th Assembly the two school boards will decide to go forward, the ongoing impact, as we see it, would be $100,000 for YK1 and $436,000 to YCS. If you look at YK1 whose budget is $31 million a year, their ongoing reduction – and we’re only talking about year one and two – is about 0.3 percent of their total budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
