Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ll be pretty brief. A lot has been said already, although I may echo a few areas that have already been spoken to. For areas that I do miss, I wouldn’t want people to think they’re less worthy. They’ve been raised quite well by other Members.
I’m just going to follow along with the Minister’s statement. There was early childhood education that I wanted to highlight. I’m a big believer in this. What I’d like to see eventually is that this becomes a more coordinated approach. There are a number of bodies out there operating independently. I think that when the government talks about fiscal restraint and synergies, this is one area we could do a lot more with.
I’ve had the experience with a number of Members from this Assembly to visit Whitehorse. They offer early childhood development opportunities there. They encompass their programs with specialists
who help kids with speech and other developmental issues. I think that’s just the next step in our progression to providing sort of an all-inclusive plan for kids. What I’d like to eventually see is a coordinated approach in this regard, and I think it’s just a matter of time coming. I’m just looking for the spark in the department to respond to it. Whether they get an oral question this week or next week from me or not I can’t say, but I’ll tell you that at least this is their notice that it’s coming. The fact is that I think, like I said, it’s the next progression in the area that we should be getting into and coordinating a little better.
The other thing is that we have a number of organizations, whether they’re individual daycares. I mean, everyone can plug into larger opportunities to ensure that our next generation gets the full strength and support coming into the system and as they progress forward. We need that layer system to work together with them. That network needs to be coordinated and organized, and I guess that’s kind of why I’m highlighting it in that method.
I will highlight the next area, which is the pupil-teacher ratio. It’s certainly a good day for education every time you hear that the department takes a new leap forward in the way of delivering school funding and to ensure that schools can maximize their opportunities. I think it’s a fantastic stride that’s been taken. Principally, although I don’t disagree with formula-based funding where it makes sense — and it certainly makes sense out there — the problem is that we have a small community school in a small community, and you start losing sort of your base. All of a sudden you’ve still got to operate and maintain and tend to staff at a small school.
How it applies in a large centre, as far as I’m concerned, is probably similar but different. I’ve always believed that schools should be funded on the principles of what they are, and they’re a community as well as an education system. As I view it, every community — the school, that is — should have its principal, should have its administrative staff. It should have a gymnasium. It should have a library teacher.
I’ve always believed that these elements need to be the building blocks of each community school, whether they’re in a big centre or a small one, long before you get into the pupil-teacher ratio. With that, you know, you go to one of the schools in my riding, whether it’s Sissons or Mildred Hall, or you go to my colleague Mr.
Jacobson’s school in
Tuktoyaktuk. They will have things like libraries and maybe a science lab teacher to make sure we’re delivering a compatible, comparable education system throughout the North, to make sure that no child is given a lesser opportunity.
I think that’s the formula that I eventually want to see. I don’t expect groundbreaking movement on this, but it’s something I’d certainly hope that the department would see in time: that every school deserves these things, whether it’s a combination of things. I think it really, ultimately, would be a combination of how that goes.
I will highlight one Member in particular here: Mr. Ramsay. He and I both wrote a letter at least a year ago or so for École St-Cyr here in Yellowknife. They’re operating without a gymnasium, and we were the only two who wrote a letter in support at the time. I agree wholeheartedly with his comments saying that no school should be without a gymnasium. The fact is that it doesn’t matter for what lame reason someone didn’t want to come on board with it. Every school needs an opportunity to have their kids have physical education. I think we do them a disservice as to — it’s getting difficulty to hear in here, Mr. Chairman.