Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, my colleague from Hay River North was asking the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment about junior kindergarten, and we seem to have some differences of opinion. I've heard 3.1. Now I hear from the government it's 2.7. So is junior kindergarten truly fully funded by this government? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I do realize that I could have been a little bit clearer in my answers to questions on junior kindergarten yesterday. I do apologize for that.
Junior kindergarten is expected to cost $5.1 million to implement. The additional $2.7 million that was announced, along with the original investment of $1.5 million, plus $900,000 that we've identified internally within the department, will cover the implementation costs. We are committed to continue working with the superintendents and the District Education Councils towards the smooth implementation of junior kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I thank the Minister for his answer. Yesterday, we talked about a 2 per cent that the divisional boards have to come up with. So if the government is fully funding this program at $5.1 million, why are they asking the divisional boards to come up with 2 per cent?
Yes, under the original plan for funding junior kindergarten, we had asked education authorities to cover $2.76 million through a reallocation of existing funding that was provided, which was about 1.76 per cent. This amount will now be covered by the $2.7 million in new funding that was announced yesterday.
I thank the Minister for his answer. If I wasn't confused before, I think I'm a little bit confused now. So are we asking the school boards to provide 2 per cent, or are we not asking them to provide 2 per cent for this junior kindergarten?
I do believe I just answered that question, but the department is currently working with the education authority superintendents to determine how to allocate the additional funding.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the Minister for the clarification. So the government is actually not funding it completely. We're working with the divisional boards to find the money, so it's not fully funded by the Government of the Northwest Territories unless it's from the funding that exists, that we get right now.
So yesterday the Minister was talking about that they have to find it from the surplus of these educational boards. Can this Minister verify that each school board has a surplus that they can actually find to help fund this 1.76 per cent funding? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just for clarification, we are fully funding implementation of junior kindergarten. The Member asked questions about the surplus situation. Although the DECs across the territory have a combined surplus of $10 million, the Member's riding, the Deh Cho DEC, is currently in an accumulated deficit position as a result of onetime costs such as termination benefits and employee removals. The department is working with the DDEC to come up with a plan to recover that deficit. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
