Wendy Bisaro

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We would like to consider Bill 30, An Act to Amend the Public Service Act, Bill 25, An Act to Amend the Education Act, and Bill 27, Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have to take that as a yes.

Junior Kindergarten now has 23 schools; sorry, Junior Kindergarten is being offered in 23 schools and I have to assume that that JK program in those 23 schools is fully funded.

So I would like to ask the Minister, how are those schools being funded if next year there needs to be more money taken from education authorities’ budgets? Is it being fully funded this year? If it is not being fully funded by the budget reductions, is there an internal reallocation that is funding part of the JK program? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to follow up with some further questions to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

I’m struggling with the answer that the Minister gave me with regards to the implementation of a 16 to 1 funding at 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio. It has been stated many times that education authorities are over-funded and that we need to fund our legislated PTR of 16 to 1.

Looking at the department’s numbers, using the department’s own numbers, and albeit they are from 2013, but it is entirely possible that if we have a 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio across the board...

Thanks to the Minister. The Premier yesterday stated, in answer to one of my questions, “we will be re-profiling from all authorities.” He was referencing the money that is being used for Junior Kindergarten, that it’s coming from all authorities. So, if it’s coming from all authorities, I’d like to say that 20 of our 49 schools are currently, give or take, less than 120 students. That’s almost half of our schools, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Minister explain the fairness of having small schools exempted from the budget reductions and, at the same time, receiving the small schools funding formula...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on my statement and some of the questions asked by Mr. Dolynny yesterday. In this fiscal year, 2014-2015, budgets to all education authorities were reduced to a certain extent in order to fund the start of Junior Kindergarten. That funding apparently was to go help the 23 schools that are offering Junior Kindergarten this year to get their program in place.

So I would like to ask the Minister first off, why, if these programs are operational and we have funding for...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don’t often get to do this, but as I said yesterday, I want to congratulate the Premier on the content of his statement on Junior Kindergarten yesterday.

As you will have guessed from the applause, we found it gratifying to know that the executive does actually listen to Members periodically, does actually listen to us periodically when we give voice to our constituents’ concerns, and they took action to do the right thing.

But, as pointed out by Mr. Dolynny yesterday, there is still the issue of funding for the Junior Kindergarten program. Apparently there will be no...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a couple of questions here. The first one has to do with the funding for the construction of a geological collection storage facility. I see we’re being asked to approve $500,000. I don’t have any problem with this project, but I recall from our discussion of the operations expenditures that under the Executive there is a negative amount of $4.206 million for the same thing to re-profile expenditures for the construction of a geological collection storage facility. So these two numbers don’t jibe and I’d like to know where the extra $3.7 million is going to be if...

Thank you, Minister, for that. Maybe the Minister doesn’t see it this way, but I get the sense that the contractor is running us and that the contractor is telling us I need to change my schedule and it’s going to cost you an extra whatever, $20,000 or $30,000, but it doesn’t seem as though the government is in control of, not the contract per se, but the way the contract is being managed. I suspect that the government would disagree with me, but I am saying this is the perception that I get, this is the feeling that I get. We are bending over backwards to do what the contractor wants us to...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to say at the outset – and I’m speaking of the Inuvik to Tuk Highway Project – that I support this project but I have serious concerns about the ask that we’re being asked to consider here in this budget. That’s the $40 million change in cash flow to accommodate the new construction schedule and timetable that has been put before us.

I expressed my concerns the other day. Our cash position is going to require us to do some borrowing that’s going to add to our expenses. It seems to me that this is being done with little regard for our fiscal strategy and our fiscal...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We wish to continue with Tabled Document 154-17(5), Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 4, 2014-15, and, time permitting, Tabled Document 115-17(5), NWT Capital Estimates, Department of Transportation and, if we finish that, then Bill 33. Thank you, Mr. Chair.