Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to start by noting that board budgets are being cut while boards are being asked to deliver even more services to students. A recent study by the NWT Teachers’ Association, entitled “Understanding Teacher Workloads, A Pan-Northern Teacher’s Time Diary Study” underscores how teachers are becoming so overloaded with new duties that their opportunity to educate is reduced.
Can the Minister ensure the House that the findings of this study are being considered and that school boards will have the resources they need to deliver the right level of education that the students of the NWT deserve? Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Bromley. The Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Rolling out the junior kindergarten across the Northwest Territories, as I committed, starting this fall, Phase I, next year Phase II, the following year will be Phase III, and I met with the board chairs and superintendents just May 13th, I believe, two weeks ago. I did hear them and I wanted to hear their perspective and due to the fact, I’ve made some changes, I’ve made some commitments where delivering is optional starting this fall. So all of those 29 communities will have the option of delivering that in their communities and also providing half-time as opposed to full-time.
So those are a couple of ideas that came forward and I’ve listened and I’ve committed to it. Some of the areas that the Member is alluding to are cutbacks. When you look at the overall funding, there’s been a low enrolment in several schools. Due to that fact, part of the process will be the board will have to decide on where those impacts will be. Our contribution is based on enrolment, but as part of a long-term solution, we are looking at school formula funding as part of the Education Renewal Innovation.
So those are the discussions that we are currently having with the board chairs. Mahsi.
Thanks for the response from the Minister. It sounds like there’s some progress being made there and I appreciate that. His choice of the word “commitment,” I might use the word “edict,” and I appreciate the fact that he’s backing off on edicts and starting to listen here and respond.
In the Yellowknife school boards, I hear from a teacher, for example, that with the cuts that are planned – and there has been no backing off from those that I’ve heard about – his class sizes will go from 28 to 33, to 33 to 40. That’s off the chart. People want to know how this government can reduce the funding to Yellowknife school boards, add 120 students and also maintain pupil-teacher ratios. Mahsi.
Yesterday I met with the two board chairs of Yellowknife, YK 1 and the Catholic School Board. Both chairs aired their concerns and issues and brought some ideas to me to work with. Resulting from the meeting, obviously, is that we have two different numbers. We have our departmental, based on enrolment projected numbers, and they have their numbers. What has been produced in, of course, the media is kind of misleading. This is the information that we need to gather. We need to sit down. Both parties committed, and as we speak, the Catholic School Board, I believe, is meeting with my senior staff within my department, and the next day, tomorrow, will be YK 1, so we can compile the actual facts, the numbers that we can share with the general public. Those are some of the areas that we will continue to push forward. I did make a commitment that my staff will be meeting with them, so that’s what’s happening right now.
That is a significant commitment that the Minister has made here, and I appreciate learning about that today. I think it’s good that the two entities get together and explain their numbers and come up on agreement with what the numbers are. I will expect that will reduce class sizes. If it doesn’t, we’ve still got some work to do.
As a rule of thumb, though, demand for implementing new programs should be backed by new ECE funding. Yet, Yellowknife school boards are laying off teachers and staff because ECE is taking money away right now to provide junior kindergarten in the smaller communities and now at a reduced rate, so maybe there’s some relief in sight. But ECE is requiring JK in all NWT schools within a couple years, including in Yellowknife in 2016, so what assurances can the Minister give to Yellowknife school boards that new funding to implement junior kindergarten in their schools will be forthcoming, not just replacing some of the money that they’re taking away this year and next?
I am very pleased to announce that as of this past Friday, May 23, I have been informed that 22 smaller community schools have committed to offering junior kindergarten in communities starting this fall, out of 29. The following years will be the remaining regional centres and also Yellowknife. When I met with the board chairs, we talked about that. We talked about the PTR. There is additional funding that is going to the school board. That’s why I said we’re working with them. We’re working with the finance directors so we can gather the facts. With the numbers that have been shared the last couple of weeks, it is not accurate information anymore. We have the actual numbers, the true numbers that we need to share with them. Based on that, it will reflect changes of the numbers that have been addressed in the media.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Bromley.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I didn’t hear the positive response I’m looking for there. I heard a repetition there. The funding formula at ECE has what the Yellowknife school boards state, that the budgets for their operation will be funded at 80 percent of the GNWT estimates and 20 percent by the local taxpayers. The Minister subscribes to this. He has said this in letters. The teachers of Yellowknife deserve the same pensions as all other teachers in the NWT. If not, please explain that.
Why is the Minister not willing to apply the government’s own funding formula to the pensions of teachers in Yellowknife while not hesitating to pay 100 percent of costs for teachers throughout the rest of the Northwest Territories, and I would note, we’re just talking about the incremental amount, 80 percent of the incremental amount here now to bring the pensions up to a fair level?
From JK to pension. This is an area that two DEAs, in their choice, very different from the rest of NWT education authorities. They are very independent employers and negotiated directly with their own bargaining units when they negotiated a few years back. They also own their own schools, and they are the only education authorities in the territory that can raise their own revenue through school taxes.
As independent employers, both YK1 and YCS are responsible for planning any financial implications that flow from the decision to agree to a new pension cost to ensure that they are consistent with delivery of educational programming across Yellowknife. The GNWT has no role in or responsibility for the YK1 or YCS collective bargaining process or the implementation of the collective agreements. GNWT respects and supports the desire of the YK school boards to operate at a greater degree of independence and their responsibility.
Those are some of the incidents that are undertaken with the negotiation of their agreement. We were not part of that.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
