Julie Green

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I didn't hear an answer to my question. My question is whether the school boards will still be required to use their own resources to implement junior kindergarten as they were required to do prior to the budget being announced last week, including a cut of 3.6 per cent of their K to grade 12 funding. Is this cut still going to be necessary now that full funding for JK is in place? Thank you.

Is the Minister aware that hiring and layoff plans need to be in place by the end of March? Money will need to be in place to make those decisions. Is the Minister aware of that?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to making sure that all the money is in place to fund junior kindergarten in every NWT school by the end of March? Thank you.

School boards are now developing their budgets for the next school year. One of the tasks that they have is to decide on their staffing component. If they are going to release teachers, they need to be released by the end of March. If they need to hire teachers, they need to know that as well. If the money is not going to be available until the fall, how are school boards going to plan for the implementation of junior kindergarten this fall?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the preparation of the budget for the last fiscal year was a sprint, quickly compiled after the election, budget preparation for the next fiscal year has been a marathon. We started in September and, despite intensive negotiations and some movement on both sides, we are at an impasse. This afternoon, I want to talk about some of the reasons we are stuck.

In my last Budget Address, I talked about some important and unfinished business around the mandate. We Members of the 18th Assembly do not have a common fiscal goal. This lack of consensus created division...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I still have a bad cold so I may have to stop and cough. Mr. Speaker, several national anti-poverty advocacy organizations released reports in November. The news for Canada as a whole and the NWT in particular is pretty grim: the fact is one in five children live in poverty; food bank use is going up, and so is the use of emergency shelters. The latter point was starkly confirmed when CBC North reported in the fall that emergency shelters are so full that people are being turned away. Their options are to ask people to sleep in RCMP cells. We know that some...

The district education authorities and school boards were looking at making a cut of 3.6 per cent to their budget for the next school year in order to fund junior kindergarten from within. Now the government is fully funding junior kindergarten, will this cut be necessary?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of ECE. Mr. Speaker, in his statement today, the Minister said, and I quote, "we will make the money they need to implement junior kindergarten available to them when it is needed." Could the Minister please tell me what the phrase, "when it is needed" means? Thank you.

Thank you to the Premier. Yesterday, the Premier said to my colleague that the department has been very diligent in finding ways to become more efficient and effective in delivering healthcare. Could the Premier please elaborate on that statement?

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to resume my questions to the Premier because I didn't feel that I got an answer to the question that I asked, so I'm going to repeat the question. There is going to be an additional $33 million required for operations and maintenance of long-term beds when they're available. What money will pay for this operations and maintenance cost? Thank you.