Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Earlier I spoke about the Aboriginal Head Start program and its establishment in the Northwest Territories since 1995. So my question is to the Minister. Can the Minister indicate when Regular Members can expect the government's response to Motion 26-18(2)? Mahsi.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. From the Member's statement earlier, we did contact the department and ask them to give us an update. I don’t have a firm date right now, but as soon as soon as we get it we will share it with the Members. Thank you.
I'd like to thank the Minister for his reply. How is the department working to address the questions and concerns of parents and educators who do not wish to change from the Aboriginal Head Start program to junior kindergarten?
As I said in the House yesterday, we're sending out packages to all the parents across the Northwest Territories. With the Aboriginal Head Start staff, our department has already been engaging with the staff. We made trips to Fort McPherson, Fort Providence, K’atlodeeche First Nations, and had those initial discussions and talks about implementing junior kindergarten for the 2017-18 school year.
My question relates to, of course, the optional head start program. So how will the introduction of junior kindergarten impact the funding granted to Aboriginal Head Start program's sites for the GNWT?
There will be no impact on the funds. We will still continue to fund the eight Aboriginal Head Start programs. In 2015-16 we funded them to the tune of $260,000. We're expecting, at the end of this year, the funds that we've given to all eight organizations would be in the area of around $285,000.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question is, there continue to be some anxiety concerning the fate of the Aboriginal Head Start program in light of the roll into the junior kindergarten. Has the Minister engaged his federal colleague who is mandated to oversee the Aboriginal Head Start programs here in the NWT and also the funding in terms of committing the dollars to these eight sites in the NWT? Has the Minister engaged his federal colleague to see if, you know, the two programs could exist in parallel to each other? Mahsi.
I personally have not engaged in that meeting. We did have staff meet with the Canadian Public Health Association of Canada. We invited Aboriginal Head Start staff in on that meeting to talk about the federal funding, and that wouldn't be affected. Currently, we do a joint junior kindergarten/Aboriginal Head Start program coexisting in some of our communities where they're both providing half-day services so families have that opportunity to have full daycare, quality early childhood programming for their kids.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
