Jackson Lafferty

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My department met with the school boards and called every school board to identify what their financial situation will be with each and every school board. Mahsi.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. [Translation] I would like to tell the House about things that are coming up in our region in the Tlicho Nation. We have received a letter from the Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission. We have received a letter from them, the Tlicho, and on the letter, Whati, Gameti, they have now opened an office for them and they will be representing disabled people and elders. They will also be able to support all the disabled people by providing the facilities for disabilities. So that will be happening in the Tlicho region.

I am the MLA, so I would like to recognize the work...

I’m glad the Member raised that profile. The department expects that YCS will not only look carefully at the cost of JK, $1.2 million, but also how they can restructure their overall programming in order to absorb the $436,000 that the Member referred to earlier, Member Bromley. This should not be an unreasonable undertaking given that their overall budget has consistently been around $18 million from this government to the school board. This is an area that can be absorbed.

The $436,000 represents approximately 2 percent of the overall budget. That’s where it’s at, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know how I can justify this, but the junior kindergarten that we’re rolling out into 23 communities and then going on to regional centres next year and the following year will be to Yellowknife. I’ve indicated in the House that my department will be working very closely with the daycare operators, day home operators and we will continue to subsidize them. We have done that.

Again, junior kindergarten is optional for the parents. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Mahsi. The ratio will vary from school board to school board. Some would have around 14.5, I believe, and some would have 15, 15.5, 16 and a couple of the school boards will be just beyond 16. But I did commit in this House that I will be subsidizing those individuals who work beyond 16 to 1. So as the fact sheet indicates, we’re at 13.8 at this point and then according to our legislation it’s 16 to 1. So that’s where we’re getting back to our legislation level. Mahsi.

We are re-profiling; we aren’t cutting the budget. So the $7.4 million, as indicated, it is being rolled out to all the school boards to implement junior kindergarten. Those are the areas we have been working with the school boards and we will continue to make that a success. The junior kindergarten has been under discussion through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, Early Childhood Development. This is where we’re at today. We’ve done a lot of research, and research is telling us this is the best way to go. The 16 to 1, at this point we are at 13.8 to 1. When we start implementing...

Again, the fact package does cover that detailed information. In 2014-15 for YCS, $277,000 will be deducted from YCS budget out of the $7.4 million that we’ve been talking about re-profiling through PTR. In 2015-16 another $467,000 is meant to be deducted from their budget. In 2016-17 another $393,000 estimated to be deducted. So it’s a total of $1.137 million. This reduction will be offset with an increase of $960,000 funding from ECE through formula funding to support implementation of JK, resulting in an overall reduction over three years of $177,000. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Since we’ve been dealing with NCS the last few years now on the reporting mechanism with the federal government, we’ve been talking about evaluating and reviewing of their proposals, as well, and the annual reports that are coming in. I completely agree, because we are a public government, and the way that the money is spent is essential to be a responsible government. This is an area that we’re primarily focusing on.

My department also recently discussed the 2014-15 contributions with NCS, which included an enhanced review of the outcome. This was done with NCS agreement, so they’ve also...

The CanNor funding has got its own sources and they deal directly with NCS, but I can speak to the areas of meeting with the federal Minister, the former Minister and the current Minister of Canadian Heritage, on a number of occasions to lobby the federal government for additional funds on Aboriginal language in general. This work, obviously, is ongoing work that we’re doing between the two parties. This year we’ve entered into negotiations, as well, with the federal government on the Canada-NWT Languages Agreement. We are on the verge of negotiations with the federal government and it will be...

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First and foremost, I’d like to recognize all the Pages that are here today working for us, and it has been a long session as well. I’d like to thank them for their services. More specifically, for two Pages from Wekweeti, they are Autumn Football and Laylu Judas who are with us today. I’d like to say mahsi for your services.

I’d also like to recognize my former constituents, but they’re still from Behchoko in my view. That’s Debbie Lemouelle and also Stephanie Lafferty who are here with us. Welcome.