Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to follow up on some questions that were asked earlier in the week by my colleagues from Hay River, particularly Mr. Bouchard, who spoke about some of the potential impacts on junior kindergarten, sorry, the impacts of junior kindergarten on other preschool programs. In both Hay River and Yellowknife, we have viable preschool programs and the one I want to specifically refer to is the Aboriginal Head Start program. The Junior Kindergarten Program is going to have a huge impact on Aboriginal Head Start. They’ve recently been advised, not in so many words, but they pretty much have understood that their program, which is for three and four-year-olds, when junior kindergarten starts is going to become a program for three-year-olds. This is a very active program. It’s a very well recognized program and it’s a very successful program and the department itself has told them that.
I’d like to know from the Minister, first off, why are we killing off one program for the benefit of junior kindergarten? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, junior kindergarten is optional to the parents. It’s up to the parents to choose where their kids should be going. Obviously, we support the preschoolers who are out there in the communities such as Hay River, Yellowknife and other communities. We continue to support that. We provide funding through various programs we have within ECE and the Health department and other areas and we continue to sponsor those.
This is just an enhancement for the preschoolers who are out there and it is an option for the parents. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
To the Minister, I don’t believe the Aboriginal Head Start program receives any funding from the territorial government. They are a federally funded program and it doesn’t cost anything for parents for their children to attend the Aboriginal Head Start program.
Maybe there’s a miscommunication between what the Minister is telling Members and what the department staff are telling the Aboriginal Head Start staff, but from what the Aboriginal Head Start people are telling me, I don’t understand why the two programs cannot co-exist.
Why does Aboriginal Head Start have to redesign their program for only three-year-olds? Why can they not continue to provide programming for three and four-year-olds?
When I say subsidies for the operators such as preschool, Aboriginal Head Start program is another successful program in the communities funded through the federal government. We continue to enhance those programs in the communities and develop more options. That’s what our main focus is. Some of the communities do not have those options. They have the Head Start program. Some have preschool, some don’t. So, junior kindergarten would allow more flexibility in the communities that do not have licenced child care programming. Those are just some of the areas that we’ve been discussing for a number of years now. Now it’s before us and we’re moving forward.
An early childhood development consultant is also working very closely with those operators, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.
To the Minister, I am not saying that junior kindergarten is not a good program and I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be implemented. What I am saying is we have eight Aboriginal Head Start programs in eight communities in the NWT. The impression that is being given to both school boards and to the Aboriginal Head Start Council, from my understanding, is that junior kindergarten will be in the schools. The four-year-olds will go to school; the four-year-olds will not go to any other programming. This is not daycare, Mr. Speaker. This is a preschool play program and it is an extremely valuable program. I need to understand from the Minister when he says his department is assisting with the Aboriginal Head Start program and helping the council with their programming, what does he mean by that, because they are not feeling like they’re being helped. Thank you.
As you know, we haven’t really rolled out the program yet. It will be this September. We’re at the point where we are working with those operators such as Head Start programming and also the preschools and other licenced early childhood development programs in our communities and those communities that do not have it. As I stated, we have an early childhood consultant who is working very closely with the communities. We want this program to be very successful. It’s a three-year phased-in approach. We want this Head Start program, preschool obviously, enhanced as well. We will be working closely with them, hand-in-hand. We’re not going to just ignore them. They have been very successful. We’ll continue to support that as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a lot in there, but to the Minister, I understand that the department doesn’t want to ignore the Aboriginal Head Start. I understand that the department wants to go into communities where there is nothing, but in these eight communities where Head Start is a well-established, successful, viable program, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. I want to say to the Minister that I appreciate he wants to work with Head Start, but the communication is not working.
To the Minister, I want to know, will he go back to the department and discuss with the department the communication that he’s having with the Aboriginal Head Start Council? Because they certainly are not feeling they’re being helped; they feel like they’re being shut down. Thank you.
Mahsi. That’s the whole idea of what we’re doing in our department. I just met with my senior staff last week because we talk about the planning, the rolling out of the program of junior kindergarten and how we can work with the preschoolers, how we can work with the Head Start programming. So those are just some of the discussions we’ve been having.
Mr. Bromley also raised that issue last week, I believe it was. Since that time, we’ve been discussing this particular area, how can we improve our communication, our working dialogue with operators. So those are discussions we’ve been having. We’re going to improve those areas for sure. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.
