Jackson Lafferty

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to share some exciting news about the rollout of junior kindergarten that will begin in the fall of 2014. There has been much discussion on how we are implementing junior kindergarten, and we carefully considered comments and concerns raised by education boards on the rollout of junior kindergarten.

Mr. Speaker, we put the decision to education boards and gave them a choice of whether they wanted to implement junior kindergarten in the fall of this year, or defer it to next year.

I am pleased to announce that of the 29 small communities who were offered the chance to...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The answer would be no. We’re using internal resources.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I’m not sure where the Member is getting that poaching word from, but we’re dealing with the public purse and we’re dealing with the public funding that we contribute to all school boards across the Northwest Territories, 33 communities, seven regions. We will continue to do so and which will benefit our students.

Client service officers are there to implement the regulations and the legislation that we pass through this House, and we provide the guidance to them, the direction that they have to follow, the legislation and the rules and regulations that are in place that we have established for them. We are trying to be fair to each and every client service clientele out in the communities, the 33 communities that we service. We have client service officers in most of the communities, and the regional centres assist with those that may not have it. We’re doing what we can in the income security division...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Further to my Return to Written Question 15-17(5) I wish to table the following document, entitled “Income Assistance Refusal Reasons by Fiscal Year.” Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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...

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...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [English translation not provided.]

…and it should be recognized and it should be recorded, but unfortunately, when we are dealing with the third reading of this particular bill, it’s a huge bill. It has implication on the riding that is going to be amalgamated with another language, another community, and obviously, I am not going to elaborate even further, because we’ve talked about this on numerous occasions, the 15th Assembly, the 17th Assembly, and then another one in the 19th Assembly. We have over almost 40 percent of our 25 percent margin. We’re way beyond that...

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...

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...