Kevin A. Menicoche

Thank you very much. I’m pleased to hear the Minister say those words. The time for building the large schools are over. We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in all our regional centres and I believe it’s time to start concentrating on our small communities, get those done. The costs are not in the hundreds of millions. It will probably be – I can’t even estimate – probably about $2 million or $3 million for a school in a small community.

I’d like to ask the Minister, can he start the initial planning, get some Class D estimates, and share it with myself and my colleagues that need new...

Thank you very much. During the Minister’s visit to Trout Lake we showed him how small the school was, we showed him it’s full to capacity and now we have junior kindergarten, which is a new additional factor that has to be addressed. Are there enough resources to do an adequate planning study in the community of Trout Lake and its needs? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Today I stand together with my band of small community brothers and we will be asking for attention and asking questions for our poor, outdated schools in the small communities.

Our constituents are mainly Aboriginal people. We’re calling on the government to ensure the quality of small school facilities are on par with the likes of the new East Three in Inuvik and the rebuilt Mildred Hall in Yellowknife.

The quality of small community schools is pitiful compared to the quality of schools in the regional centres. It is time for a change.

Our constituents are fed...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just one further question then. We have enough revenue for ’13-14, but Mr. Aumond mentioned, of course, it looks like we have less money for capital for ’14-15. Is that what he’s alluding to?

Thank you very much. Because it was a significant over-expenditure again, as well, for the predicted 2013-14, are we looking at then a deficit budget based on these new numbers that we have before us?

Thank you very much. I stand by the original amended motion, Mr. Speaker, just to delete before the program is implemented. Only, once again, it is too restrictive to small communities and their needs and their desire to move forward junior kindergarten. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. As I indicated, there is good support for junior kindergarten in the small communities. I’m very pleased that in the first year of the program it will be in the small communities, and we’re looking forward to that and looking forward with the inclusion and a plan to include and have more early childhood education workers to support the junior kindergarten program. However, like I said, the way the motion reads is government don’t do it unless. You have to do it before the program is implemented. When it reads that way it has implications for my communities. I...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I am pleased to second this motion. Residents in my communities are supportive of junior kindergarten, and the more and more I learn about how we’re going to implement and the need for early childhood education workers is a critical component of junior kindergarten. Right now, I don’t know how many early childhood education workers we have that we can integrate into the Junior Kindergarten Program, and that’s what this motion speaks about, about getting them involved, getting them involved early. There’s something to be said about teachers not being prepared...

I know that when it comes to replacing health facilities, we’ve got standard plans for type B, C facilities, et cetera. Is that something similar the Minister of Education and his department is working on, template schools for our small communities, because I think what will really help is moving forward. Yes, we’re doing planning studies, but we also need, I think, Class D estimates. We need to know the ballpark figure we’re working with so we can get it accelerated in our capital planning processes because these schools need replacing right away.

I guess one of the other issues in the small communities and hiring professionals is the high turnover rate. I was wondering if the department has been addressing this, have been looking at this, and finding some alternate strategies in order to keep longer term employees in the small and remote communities.