Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was going to ask questions about the morel issue, as my colleague Mr. Nadli brought up, but there is so much to talk about with the Junior Kindergarten issue. I can’t miss an opportunity to highlight the importance of this.
While I was in the communities on the weekend, Mr. Speaker, someone had told me they didn’t want the Junior Kindergarten program, but the Minister over-wrote that community and so he used his authority to tell a community you’re getting what you’re getting. So, at the end of the day, what’s the point of having community input and the community people managing their own school system? So let’s get this clearly on the record.
What circumstances allow the Minister to override a community’s decision and direction to want to do their own thing rather than being forced to accept Junior Kindergarten? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My understanding is the Member visited a community and there was one organization that may not be supportive of the JK, but there are other organizations in the community that we’ve been dealing with on constant occasions. Not only that but the school board that’s responsible for that particular community, we deal with the school board. So the DECs, the school board, make the decision working with us to deliver Junior Kindergarten into their community. That’s the avenue and the protocol we follow. The decision is from the DEC. Thank you.
This is the same Minister when I asked him to direct Aurora College to make them have e-mail so they are accessible to the students is now overriding a decision by the DEA in Fort Providence. They passed a duly qualified elected board motion that doesn’t want this particular case.
Maybe the Minister can explain why he has ministerial authority and he wants to execute it and direct it at his own will, yet ignores the will of community people trying to take care of their own community in a fashion that’s best for them. Can you explain that to the House?
When I speak to DEAs, we have an agreement in place where when it comes to rolling out the K to 12 programming and not only that, even post-secondary, we have a representative on there from the local DEA onto the DECs. I deal with the board chairs. Any issue brought to my attention comes from the committee perspective as well. By the end of the day, Mr. Speaker, it is the board that decides which community will be delivering JK. Some of the community decided not to pursue it.
Again, it was me that provided the flexibility whether it is optional, full time or part time. Initially it was mandatory full time. I listened to the general public, the board chairs, when they asked me to consider flexibility, which I offered. As I stated before, there are always changes along the way. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
When the Minister keeps saying how he keeps listening to all of these people, I’m certainly glad that’s the case. I’m sure the Minister listened very carefully when we went from one end of the Assembly on this side of the House to the other and all 11 Regular Members loudly, clearly and very passionately spoke that we didn’t want Junior Kindergarten implemented in the manner as described by the Minister because it would affect Aboriginal Head Start, it would hurt day homes and it would have all these types of problems all related to funding and perspective.
So when the Minister says he listens, why is he not listening to the DEA that says they don’t want it served up in the manner it’s being served? Thank you.
When it comes to the delivery of Junior Kindergarten into the regions, the 23 communities, we’ve worked with them since day one, even as far back as October when I first met with board chairs first introducing Junior Kindergarten. This is an area where we, again, have to evaluate our programming for the 23 communities and what have we learned from them. It’s only three months into the delivery of Junior Kindergarten. It’s not, like, a year into the programming, but now we have to re-evaluate. So that’s where our situation stands. Again, it’s our DECs that we have to work with. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Whether it’s the DEA or DEC or MLA, I would be hopeful that the Minister would take our opinions into account. I trust the community people that have made a good decision.
The Minister keeps talking about having to examine what we’ve learned. It’s been three months, next month it will be four and we’ve all reached the point where we say it’s been too far, we might as well continue or we’ve done these communities, wait until we get to the next set. The bottom line is we have a DEA that passed a motion that says this is not right for them.
Would the Minister be willing to reverse his directive today in this House so the people of communities just like Fort Providence won’t be imposed on by this Minister that want a different method? Thank you.
Anything we do has to be documented. So if there’s a letter from the DECs saying they don’t want Junior Kindergarten in their communities – because I provided the option – whether it be Fort Providence or other small communities, then we have to act on the correspondence that will come to my attention, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Sahtu, Mr. Yakeleya.
