Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister for Education, Culture and Employment and I’d like to begin by asking the Minister one or two of the questions which I mentioned in my statement, which have been provided to me by constituents and are questions which I would love to get an answer for as well.
The first one from a constituent: How can the Minister add one whole cohort of students – and by that I’m referencing junior kindergarten – and reduce funding to the boards and at the same time still maintain that the boards are able – the Minister is saying that the boards are able – to maintain the same PTR? So we are adding one whole grade, junior kindergarten, we’re reducing funding and apparently still maintaining PTR, which I have great difficulty in believing. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When we are rolling out the program this fall, as I mentioned earlier, 22 out of 29 communities are going full force with the introduction of junior kindergarten and the rest will follow a year after and then the third year phased approach.
As I stated yesterday, two days ago I met with the board chairs of YCS and YK1 and we gave them some information that will be a useful part of their calculation of numbers. So we need to have actual, concrete, factual numbers and those are the facts that we want to lay out. The information that was introduced in the media is misleading; it wasn’t accurate information. So, the numbers that will come out early next week will be much different than what we’ve seen based on enrolment. So at that time I will be sharing it with the public. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister for the information. I think I and the public will wait with bated breath to see this new information and see how it’s presumably going to assist the boards. I still have difficulty believing when you take money away that it’s going to make things better.
The second question from a constituent: How can the current level or quality of education be maintained with the slashing of funding to the school boards? Thank you.
When we first introduced junior kindergarten, we worked with the superintendents and they gave us some ideas of how we could mitigate and also work with the existing funding that has been introduced. Based on that, we came up with some numbers, a first and second and third year approach based on the 29 communities and then on to the regional centres and, finally, the Yellowknife school boards. Based on that, I’ve also committed that anything beyond 16 to 1 student teacher ratio I will be subsidizing as a department, as the Minister responsible for education. Based on that, the PTR, that’s why I don’t really want to say much in this House as of yet because those numbers are being crunched by the two senior staff, YK1, YCS and my department as we speak. Mahsi.
I didn’t hear much reference to how this is maintaining the quality or the level of education that we currently have when the boards are losing money.
I’d like to also ask the Minister: It hasn’t been stated outright, but certainly in recent actions and statements by both the department and the Minister, there’s been an indication that there’s a new policy which is being instituted by the GNWT for boards. That seems to be, from what I’m gathering and what I’m hearing, is use your surpluses to fund your budget shortfalls. You’ve got surpluses and we want you to use them up, we’re not giving you any more money until you do that.
I’d like to know from the Minister if this is a new policy on the part of Education, Culture and Employment and are they implementing it on their own, or is it a part of a Cabinet decision? Thank you.
Mahsi. The board surplus is at the discretion of the school boards at this time. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister. It’s nice to know that, if I hear the Minister correctly, he’s not going to claw back surpluses, but by reducing funding, that in effect requires them to use their surpluses to fill in the shortfalls.
So I’d like to know from the Minister, in Yellowknife, obviously the situation is different, the Minister is well aware, if he’s forcing the boards in Yellowknife to use up their surpluses, a portion of that is taxpayers’ money. So does he feel that that’s fair in that my taxpayer dollars are being forced to fill in a shortfall that the GNWT is instituting? Thank you.
I’m glad the Member is referring to taxpayers’ money. It is public money, the surplus that’s been accumulated. Some are substantial amounts and those monies should be expended into educational programming, so we support that as well.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Mackenzie Delta, Mr. Blake.
