Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Returning to the topic at hand, the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment made statements in the House yesterday, which despite bemoaning the lack of facts, fell far short of the full truth on school board funding and junior kindergarten. Because of those omissions, the statements were very misleading and unhelpful. The Minister presented, again, only some of the facts, those recognizing budget increases demanded by the Education Act to meet legislated PTR rations, but he ignored the net impacts of his total funding plans which yield substantial and cumulative net losses in funding to school boards.
Why is the Minister continuing to give statements that confuse rather than provide full information on this issue?
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I tabled the fact sheets. I made a statement on the fact sheets, all the information that we received by the school boards. There are always numbers changing. Sometimes it’s out of my hands. At the same time, the latest information that I received, I shared that with the general public through the Legislative Assembly and…(inaudible)…we are working with.
I have before me a finance sheet of agreed upon figures of the Yellowknife Catholic School Board signed off by the Minister’s finance director and the senior finance officer for YCS – and that will be tabled later today – that clearly shows the ECE/YCS agreed upon numbers for board funding projections. There are undeniable deficits that for conservative enrolment predictions accumulate to $1.67 million by year four all in. The impacts of this fall on the backs of our students, and this is true for many school boards.
Why is the Minister not owning up to these budget reductions so we have can a discussion based on full and accurate information?
I’m trying to find that $1.6 million. It doesn’t show on here. There is a deficit for year-end, $435,000. After we contribute on the third year, $960,000, $757,000, and year two, $219,000. That’s money that we contribute to the school board. Sure, he can table this document. This is a document we can work with.
I said we’ll be tabling this document and it’s got the Minister’s senior official’s signature on it. ECE has failed to increase the departmental budget over the last few years to the extent that they have not even met the increase in the CPI, the Consumer Price Index. That says something, but now that we do have full information here, even though the Minister cannot seem to put the numbers together and out in words here today, we do have full information.
Will the Minister finally give serious consideration to address the real budget issues that have become clear? That is, the Minister’s funding plans yield budget deficits that accumulate for YCS, as an example, to negative $1.67 million by ’17-18, in the conservative case, a deficit that is typical of YK 1, Hay River and Inuvik as well. For example, he could simply allow the proven Aboriginal Head Start program to continue in eight communities, providing both a basis for significant savings and an opportunity for a comparative evaluation of the two programs at little cost, and again, the department could put in to this House. We’re not stingy when it comes to education.
Will he do this and start to address these on the basis of real numbers which will be tabled today?
At the end of the day, the Members are asking me to go after new funding which, obviously, we don’t have. I do not have that in my back pocket. The GNWT doesn’t have it. Again, it’s the words of the Finance Minister that we have to be innovative, live within our means and exercise fiscal prudence, the public money, to take a hard look at where we spend our money and if we do better by re-profiling part of it. We’ve done that. My department has done that. We will continue to work with the school boards to make it a very successful project.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary. Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We have a budget session in a few months’ time, so there is plenty of opportunity for this Minister. Clearly, there are serious communication issues with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. We haven’t seen even an evaluation of the pilot project in Fort Providence and what the impacts of that were on the students, on the families, on the Aboriginal Head Start program. Basic stuff, and everything that comes out of the department communication is confusing and lacking in facts, just like the Minister’s responses.
What will the Minister do to not only address the current confusion of the personal and professional angst, time and money and even distraction to the Minister himself that this has cost, but also what will he do to put in place the policies and mechanisms needed to ensure this debacle does not happen again?
We did a pilot project in the three communities and there will be an evaluation on that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
