Mr. Hawkins. You’ve raised what I consider an erroneous point of order. The Member in question was indeed within the purview of the vote. No point of order. Mr. Blake, you have the floor.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Moving on here, I just wanted to commend the department for looking into the junior kindergarten. That’s really needed in the communities. Over the last couple of years we’ve seen an increase in the demand to increase our grade levels, and I think that this is one way to start tackling that issue. I know it is a real challenge in the smaller communities to keep our grade levels up because of the shortage of teachers compared to students. A lot of times we have one teacher for two or three grades and that is very challenging, I have heard from a lot of the teachers in larger centres or even in the South. I had the opportunity to actually go to school down there when I was in junior high and high school, so I know it is a huge difference when you compare our education here in the Territories. I will use myself as an example. You know up to Grade 7 I had a 90 percent average, pretty good marks, until I went to Edmonton. It’s very different. The amount of homework you get in the South compared to here in the North is overwhelming when you don’t expect that, but it is a good experience. You also have a lot of other subjects down there, like automotives, as I mentioned earlier, and art, drama, all these different types of extra credits you can get. You know, that’s something we have to aim towards here in the North. I know it will take time, but I think we could get there.
One thing that the grade levels don’t show is how many of our students here in the North experience. That is one thing that I noticed, going to school in the South, our students here experience a lot more in their young lives than students do in the South, whether it’s hunting, camping, trapping, that is a way of life and teaches them how to survive, and you can’t put a grade level on that. I think, as they move on in their years, that will help out a lot. I think we are on the right track here.
One thing that I hoped to see and I would like to ask the question to the Minister, I see languages on here and I noticed in some of the presentations we have received, we are supposed to have an Inuvialuktun instructor in Aklavik and I just wanted to know where the department was with that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The funding that we contribute to the school boards and also to the language centres, based on that, the programming and also the resources that are required. What the Member is alluding to is very specific to that riding and I can gather that information as to the status. I don’t have that detail of information at this point, if that individual has been hired to deal with the language itself, but we are investing tremendously in the language centre and I just indicated that we are providing additional funding to Aboriginal governments to deal with those matters at hand because, again, they are the language experts and we need to learn from them as well. Mahsi.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Blake.
Mr. Chairman, that’s all the questions I have right now, thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Again, committee, just for reference point, we are still on 10-17. Mr. Menicoche.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to advise that when it comes to junior kindergarten in the communities, I have had constituents that are very supportive of it and it is something that we need in the communities, especially small communities, because the stats for progress in writing and reading is so low. In fact, it is so low that the department actually cancelled those Alberta achievement tests, but that is another story.
I certainly support junior kindergarten. I think that will give our younger preschool children a leg up as they enter our schooling system. It’s too bad someone already took the work Head Start, but that certainly will give our children a head start and the results will play out in about a year, after one year is up of operations.
Much concern has been in the paper about junior kindergarten, but that’s all Yellowknife-driven. That’s a fight for three years from now when they actually have to implement it. They’re doing the communities first, so yes, it is raising their ire, but that’s certainly something that can be dealt with and I believe that they will resolve it. I just want to say that, to anybody listening out there, the Junior Kindergarten Program is not bad; it’s a good thing.
Another issue that was raised, and perhaps the Minister can comment, is about the library in Fort Simpson. I have been pressing for that for many, many years. I certainly wouldn’t mind an update about that and how the department has been helpful.
When it comes to reductions, like, a point five position in a small community really affects the school. I just want to ask the Minister, is there a minimum or a baseline that we use to support small communities where if attendance is lower that we won’t reduce it past a certain amount of teachers for a school? I’ll just ask those questions, Mr. Chairman.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. If I can reflect on the library in Fort Simpson, we have been dealing with that for quite some time now. Even with the community council, town council, we are trying to find an allocation for all those materials. There has been a lot of discussion between two of the departments, my department and also the community. We continue to have that dialogue and there are some funding allocations through various libraries and I do have here Fort Simpson, $52,600 being proposed here, but I’ll be giving more of the latest status to the Member on the Fort Simpson library and where it’s at. The community has been involved and will provide the status.
The point five reduction that the Member is referring to, those are just some of the stats that we work with the district education council and authorities, based on enrollment. We provide funding based on enrollment and they decide where they should be hiring, whether it be EAs or staff teachers or custodians or administrators. It’s at their discretion, but at the same time, I did commit in this House that we are currently reviewing the formula funding based on enrollment versus the needs of the community, so those are discussions we are currently having and I think this will somewhat satisfy the Member’s concern. A point five in a small community is a big hit for the community; I totally understand that. That’s why one of the pillars of education renewal is to focus on small communities. Mahsi, Mr. Chairman.
I certainly look forward to the update from the Minister, because the library is still called a resource centre. It’s kind of a shame when our children can go to the library and they cannot really look at books and sign out books. They can do it on-line, but it’s kind of cumbersome for the younger children to do that. It will be a good thing once we can establish a full library in Fort Simpson.
One of the other suggestions that I did make several years ago was to classify it as a regional library and put it in legislation. It then becomes a funded facility, but that’s one of the ways that we can do it, but I’m glad that the department continues to support the community of Fort Simpson and work towards an expanded and better facility that can actually house books and children can look at them. In the news, it’s quite critical that our children are spending way too much time on-line, i-Pads and that kind of stuff. Getting back to just having books around is a good thing. Right now in Fort Simpson, we’re right in that crux where children are depending on i-Pads and other media just to do their reading when the way you stimulate imagination is by reading and imagining as opposed to visual learning. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. I didn’t quite hear a question there, but I’ll let the Minister reply. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I totally agree with the Member. This is one area where we’ll continue to focus, because it’s been in the works for some time now. Formula funding, based on the library allocation, we’ll definitely be discussing further. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list I have Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. One thing I forgot to mention earlier was along the lines of junior kindergarten. I’m really impressed by the board in the Tlicho region that they’re moving ahead with actually implementing the junior kindergarten in the Tlicho language. I’m really impressed by that. I know they’re working very hard to keep their culture and tradition alive. That’s really great to see and I look forward to that happening in other regions as well as the Sahtu. Hopefully one day very soon it’s up in the Beaufort-Delta region, whether it’s in Gwich’in or Inuvialuktun. I think we’re on the right path here and I just wanted to commend the department in working with the Tlicho region and hopefully very soon with other regions as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I certainly hope too. I would like to see all regions with full-fledged immersion programming. This is a great start for us. The South Slave started it off and then the Tlicho, then Gwich’in and other regions. I would like to see all of them, actually. That would be our long-term goal.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we’re on 10-17. Mr. Blake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one more brief thing. I know the department is working on the curriculum within the Gwich’in language to hopefully bring forward very soon. I know this firsthand because I had the opportunity to travel with the Minister to Alaska to see how they operate over in Alaska with the Gwich’in language. It was very impressive to see two young students there who didn’t know very much Gwich’in when they began, but within not even their first year they are very fluent and speaking with their teacher. I know that’s one area that the Tlicho are moving on, because they were also accompanying us there. It’s really looking positive and I look forward to the future. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. With these kinds of experiences on trips, we bring back best practices and start implementing them in our region. Slowly we’re doing that with the Tlicho and other regions as much as possible. The sooner the better. Mahsi.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Blake. Committee, 10-17, activity summary, education and culture, operations expenditure summary, $241.213 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Committee, we’re going to group 10-18 and 10-21 combined. Activity summary, education and culture, grants and contributions, $207.928 million. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 10-23, information item, education and culture, active positions. Any questions?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. Page 10-25, activity summary, labour development and standards, operations expenditure summary, $10.727 million. Mr. Hawkins.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find myself from time to time forwarding people to this particular office. I’m just curious on what type of outreach is provided to the everyday citizen. It’s not so much the employers I’m concerned about, it’s more about the employees that I find that they come to me and say, I think something is wrong, I don’t know who to complain to about what’s happening at our office, and I try to put them in this particular direction. I’m just wondering: are we doing enough to explain employer/employee rights? Are we giving people any awareness that they need to know where to go?
Quite often I hear the first thing is, I’ve got an issue at my office, it’s not a government office, and they’ll say it must be a human rights issue. I say, well, have you started with the employment law first to find out if that’s where it falls under. They looked shocked, then I have to describe where it is and how to get there, so I guess, in short, what type of outreach do we provide the general community – and I’m talking about the whole territory – about the availability and services offered in this? Like I say, I find myself regularly pointing people in this particular direction that’s not necessarily an MLA issue and it’s not for me to say if it’s a labour or human rights issue, but to try to give people the best advice and certainly the right advice so they can follow through with their particular concern, and if it is a concern, at least they have an avenue to pursue it properly. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. For that we’ll go to Mr. Heide.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The employment standards unit do a fair amount of pamphlet-driven educational tours throughout the Territories. We have an on-line presence. Could we do more? I think we could and should do more, but at the moment we do a fair amount, but obviously the Member suggested we should do more and I agree with him.
Thank you. If I were to ask where these pamphlets are, where do we find them? At this point, if they’re sitting at the office, they’re already there. Where would the general person trip across this information to know to go there?
One of the problems I often find with saying go check our website, everything is on there, it’s a bit of a cumbersome and sometimes intimidating process and sometimes you really have to know what you’re looking for to find it.
So where would we find some of these pamphlets, or don’t we have posters, do they do an occasional – I’m not talking about every newspaper – but do they do an occasional ad? We see some of these on-line websites such as, for example, Yellowknife Trader, YK Trader. They have little ads on there. Things like that. How do we do our outreach as provided by the staff there just a second ago? Thank you.
Again, we have the pamphlet on-line presence. The pamphlets are available through the career centres, at a variety of service centres with Service Canada as well as through the governmental liaison officers in the smaller communities. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, what I’ll do is finish off by asking this and certainly hoping I can get some type of positive response from the department, are there some informal websites? I’ll tell you, a lot of people surf some of these common, everyday… I highlighted YK Trader as an example that a lot of people go on out of curiosity, and I would encourage the department to seize upon those types of opportunities to encourage these type of service areas that we have within our departments about we’re here, to know more about labour development, click here and you end up being right where you need to be – which is probably on a government website – and allow them to pursue it as such.
It’s not that easy to just say go to the website, like I said earlier. Or even as highlighted by Mr. Heide about, oh, just go to the career centre and find a pamphlet. I find it quite a daunting task as an MLA sometimes, because the last thing I want to do is turn around and send someone on another goose chase. Oh, don’t worry; the person who will solve your problem is just down the road here. Call them or you may have to call this person and so on and so on. I find that sometimes – and I’m sure these folks can appreciate this when they call our office or e-mail our office – folks are quite frustrated, exhausted, concerned by that time and they’re being pushed because time is of the essence on their concern. It’s very dramatic the way they… The last thing I want to do is push them away and say go find it on your own. I would just encourage the department to find new ways to reach out with people in what I would consider an everyday medium. That’s all. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. Minister Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I agree with the Member that we need to be innovative and creative of sharing information and educational awareness. That’s exactly what we need to do. There is always room for improvement in the programming. This is an area that we listen well with the Member and we will continue to push that forward. Mahsi.
Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question here with regards to the Minimum Wage Adjustment Committee. My understanding is that we should be getting a report fairly soon. Could I hear from the Minister? I gather this committee has met. When can we expect to see their recommendations? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.
Mr. Chair, the committee met, I believe, late last year and then we have been developing a terms of reference for the committee. I just got that last week or last week and a half. We are moving forward on that. It’s true that the committee has met. They are discussing options on the wage increase for minimum wage. I’m expecting a report very soon. As soon as I get that, we need to go through that. I will keep Members posted on that. Mahsi.
Thanks to the Minister for that. I look forward to seeing that report. In the program delivery details, labour and career development, there’s a fairly large increase from 2013-14 to 2014-15. Could I get an explanation of what the increase is funding? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, there’s a variety of sections within this, the increase. Partially it’s the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat, the reallocation, $400,000 increase in new initiatives. There’s North Slave and South Slave, so they all get a contribution. The Sahtu oil and gas, $5,000 increase as part of forced growth. Collective Agreement is part of that, as well, $48,000. Amortization. The employment and standards increased in budget of $18,000, again Collective Agreement. There’s another Collective Agreement with management and program support. These are just a variety of areas that offset the increase. Mahsi.
The increase is about $600,000, $550,000. In listening to the Minister, I didn’t quite get all the numbers, but I gather the largest amount is about $400,000 for the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat. Is that an increase to that secretariat or is that to set up that secretariat? Thank you.
Mr. Chair, that is the Small Communities Fund that we borrowed before. Now we are returning it, the $400,000, so it is going back to small community to focus on small community funding. We are very happy to get that back. Mahsi.
Now I’m really confused. I guess I need to ask the Minister if I could get the detailed page that he read from. I thought I heard him say Aboriginal Languages Secretariat.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We will get clarification from the deputy minister, Ms. Eggenhofer.
Mr. Chair, if you recall, the $400,000 used to be in the Aboriginal Languages Secretariat before we had looked at the reorganization of the secretariat. We have now re-profiled the funding of the secretariat and through that re-profiling and restructuring are returning the $400,000 back to the Small Communities Fund. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Eggenhofer. Ms. Bisaro.
