Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi. When I say school boards, it would consist of those experts that are in the field, the professions. So it was generic when I said school boards, but they will be involved with the professionals and experts in the field. I’ll get Ms. Martin to elaborate a bit on the difference between $131 million or $150 million, or Mr. Heide.

Mr. Chair, yes, we will be sharing that information with the Members, that detail. The supplementary reserve was originally allocated in 2008-2009 to cover utility costs for Aurora College. Since April 2010 the reserve fund has been used to offset expenditures mainly in the early childhood and school services section. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We’ve been working closely with Health and Social Services on this. It’s not necessarily itemized by priority. We have to tackle each and every one of the recommendations that are brought to our attention. Between the two departments, we’ll be rolling out the programming, the implementation. Number one would be at the top but we might have to deal with, say, number 18, type of deal. We have to deal with those matters at hand. The Member is asking if it’s a priority; it hasn’t really been set as a priority from one to 22, it’s just the way it’s laid out. Mahsi.

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.

Mahsi. Once the evaluations in occurrence, once it’s completed, by all means we’ll be sharing that with committee.

Sorry, I forgot that part. Yes, absolutely. Mahsi.

Yes, Mr. Chair.

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.

We’re still trying to figure out the numbers here. To my understanding, through the briefings that I’ve received, both projects, both communities have received the fullest contribution, and if I am mistaken, then my staff can correct me if I’m wrong. That’s my understanding. The Member is also referring to if this particular project will continue, and those are the discussions that we are currently having with the Department of Health and Social Services as part of the Early Childhood Development Action Plan. We need to discuss those more in detail. Mahsi.

We can obviously share that detailed information with the Member, but it is based on formula, and you have to keep in mind that there are, I guess you can say, three school boards in Yellowknife versus one school board in the South Slave region. Those are just some of the discussions that we’ve been having with the formula funding. As I stated before, we are reviewing our formula funding through the education renewal and innovation, so these are the discussions that we continue to have.