Jackson Lafferty

For the 23 communities, JK has been funded out of the $150 million budget. Those are the areas that we have discussed with the school board chairs back in May and even before that. We will continue to address that, even part of the review process that we have committed in this House in the 23 communities. This year JK is being delivered into our communities on an optional basis, this year and next year as well. We will continue to monitor those areas. Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, as I stated, I have committed to providing district education councils anything above 16 to 1, we will provide a subsidy. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. We’ll do everything in our power to expedite the process to sign off the document. Mahsi.

Mahsi. These regs have been before us for a number of years now, upwards of 22 years. So it wouldn’t hurt to wait another year during the life of this Assembly to sign off the final document where we capture everything if we want to have regulations that capture the legality issues that have been brought to my attention. Some of areas of concern within the clause were brought to my attention as well. So we need to deal with those kinks that have been brought to my attention.

We are currently working with the Department of Justice to deal with these matters. Again, I will be signing off during...

Currently we are legislated at 16 to 1. We are providing over and above that, $17 million to our schools boards to deal with those matters at hand. We are currently, as I stated, and the Premier also committed to this House, that we are reviewing the 23 Junior Kindergarten communities, and based on the review, the funding has been highlighted as well.

I did speak to it this morning as well. There will be a mixture of discussions, whether it be the funding, reaching out to operators, and we need to hear their perspective and input to have the delivery of Junior Kindergarten in these communities...

As the Member indicated, small schools are treated differently based on their special needs. The Early Development Instrument tells us that over 60 percent of those individuals, five-year-olds, are developmentally challenged when they enter the school system. Those are from mostly remote communities. Those are true facts and the numbers we are currently working with.

We are going through discussions on the formula, as well, through Education Renewal and Innovation, thinking in the long term, Mr. Speaker. There are other programs, as well, such as Inclusive Schooling and PTR. Those are areas we...

Clearly, the statement was made in this House that the Junior Kindergarten will be continuing this year and next year. Based on the funding that has been allocated to date, it will continue for this year and next year. That was in the statement yesterday. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When I met with all of the school boards on May 23rd, I did commit to making some changes. Part of the changes, of course, is providing flexibility. Providing anything beyond 16 to 1 teacher ratio in their school system, the education authority will be provided a subsidy from my department. That is a commitment I have made. It is based on an average throughout the Northwest Territories.

There will be some impact, in some cases, where there is a high enrollment of students entering our school system. Those are some of the areas that we will continue to monitor, but at this...

I’m not sure how else I can say it, but there are documents and correspondence, e-mails that came to my attention from various stakeholders, and there’s a few of them. So we need to act on it. We can’t just ignore those concerns that are brought to our attention.

Again, it is during the life of this Assembly that it will be signed off. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did answer that, I believe, last week. The recommendation from the committee has been addressed to my attention. The package is before me and there has been some correspondence that came in from various stakeholders as well. Even after the fact, the committee established some recommendations. I did commit to this House that I will sign off the final document during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi.