Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a complicated one to explain. I will do my best to be concise. The department has worked with the education councils across the Northwest Territories to adjust the formulas for financing the work that the councils do. In the course of these adjustments, there were some redistributions so that what was attempted was to provide a more equitable form of financing. In some areas, like the South Slave, while the amounts that were contributed to the divisional education councils for bussing went down, in other areas, their funding went up. In dealing with some of the inequities across the Northwest Territories, there are often, within education councils, offsetting amounts. Had there been no target reduction for the department, the changes in the formula would, in fact, have increased the amount of total funding that would have gone to the South Slave Divisional Education Council. So, what happened was, the formula was changed in order to provide more equity across the Northwest Territories. If we still had the same amount of money that we had in previous years, it actually would have meant an increase to the South Slave Divisional Education Council. They could have then used the monies any way they wanted. However, after doing all the formula changes, the amount of money, because of our target, was reduced. That meant that overall dollars that education councils received were reduced. They can look at those dollars as being all allocated to bussing or they can recognize there was a change in how the formula was calculated, which will probably be more accurate. They lost money in all areas. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Charles Dent on Question 288-13(4): Education Council Budget Reductions
In the Legislative Assembly on February 11th, 1997. See this statement in context.
Return To Question 288-13(4): Education Council Budget Reductions
Question 288-13(4): Education Council Budget Reductions
Item 6: Oral Questions
February 10th, 1997
Page 528
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