Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the Standing Committee on Social Programs, as Members of the Accountability and Oversight committee, were involved in the new pre-budget consultation process with the people of the Northwest Territories in late August of 2005. Hearings were held north and south of the lake and gave northerners and non-governmental organizations the opportunity to provide input to MLAs on the priorities that the budget should focus on.
The committee then met with the Minister and his officials on Monday, September 26, 2005, to review the draft business plan of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.
Members also received a briefing from the Minister of Finance on January 17, 2006, outlining the changes to the budget of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment since the committee reviewed the business plan in September.
Committee members made note that the department is proposing to spend $259.205 million in operations expense and $29.972 million on capital projects in fiscal year 2006-2007.
Committee members offer the following comments on issues arising out of the review of the 2006-2007 Draft Main Estimates and budget planning cycle.
Pre-Budget Consultations
During the pre-budget consultations, committee members took note of the following issues that were mentioned in a majority of the communities we visited: early childhood or day care programs, special needs funding for students in kindergarten to Grade 12, funding for literacy programs aimed at youth who are not in school and, finally, under post-secondary education, the need to increase student financial assistance for tuition and living expenses and increase the number of NWT residents in apprenticeships.
These issues will be commented on later in this report.
Aboriginal Languages
The committee found the discussion during the business plan review surrounding the revitalization of aboriginal languages to be very interesting. The possibility of the federal government creating a central agency for the revitalization of aboriginal languages is also of concern to the committee.
Members agree with the department's position that it is important to maintain a government-to-government relationship on funding for aboriginal languages. Being lumped in under a central agency could impact on the
amount of funding available for each language group, as territorial aboriginal language groups would be outnumbered by larger southern First Nations.
The standing committee also supports the renegotiation of the languages agreement with the federal government and the linkage of aboriginal languages and French language under one agreement.
Mr. Chairman, at this time, I would like to ask my colleague, the Member for Great Slave, Mr. Braden, to continue with the report.