Thank you very much for that update and I’ll be looking forward to any future update, especially when that meeting happens.

Just with respect to the official languages, once again, there was, of course, a concern of mine of lapsed funding. I know that the Minister was talking about a lot of that official languages money is given to the divisional education counsels. I’m very concerned that in this coming fiscal year that there may be more lapsed money and especially, like I said, I was supporting a proposal from the Deh Cho Friendship Centre in developing a Slavey CD-Rom project, which was quickly refused by the department saying that all the funds had been allocated. But at the same time, I know that the Minister is very aware of the almost $1.4 million over the past couple years. What mechanisms are in place for this fiscal year that we’re talking about, 2010-11, of preventing that and, in fact, if the Minister can answer what mechanisms or what are they looking at so that this kind of huge lapse of much needed aboriginal funding won’t happen for this 2009-10 fiscal year which ends March 31st , Mr.

Chair? Thanks.

Mr. Chair, one of the mechanisms would be, of course, we need to closely monitor the funding that’s been allocated and making sure that it is fully expended. There has been some improvement over the last several years with the schools. They have expended their funds to the best of their ability. Unfortunately, there are some funds that lapse. But those are areas that we’ve identified where we can improve. My deputy will be meeting with the staff to deal with the matter at hand because this is of importance to us. It’s a very serious issue. Mr. Chair, we will continue to

monitor as part of our mechanism to deal with this matter at hand. Mahsi.

I’m still not convinced that we will not lapse any money in this coming fiscal year and I’m not too sure what mechanisms the Minister speaks about ensuring that it doesn’t happen in the future. Of course, the amount of emphasis and efforts and concern that we as MLAs have with regard to our aboriginal languages is something that we have to ensure that we’re doing our best to get those resources out to the communities. At the same time, my concern is that we’re saying no to grassroots proposals that are out there saying all the money is spent, but I’m still not convinced that’s the case. I don’t want to get into too much detail, but certainly there are probably organizations or groups out there that are hanging onto their money until the last minute but they cannot spend it. So there’s got to be a way of monitoring it, of redistributing those resources as quickly as we can before the fiscal year ends, or even have the ability... The Minister can have the ability to ensure that the funds get out the door by March 31st , the

end of this fiscal year. At the same time, there’s got to be… I know that sometimes funding is just rolled over into another organization from one year into the next. But if these organizations aren’t performing, why are we just rolling over yearly funding contributions if they’re not performing? So that’s what they actually should be looking at. Who’s getting the money and who’s not spending it is my concern and should be the Minister’s concern as well. It’s something that he should track. If they’re historically not utilizing the funding, we have to find out why and ensure that there’s redistribution for the people that have the good projects. It’s probably not only my region, but the frustration of many other communities that have community-based projects that probably have the same letter as my organization did, like, all the funds are expended. So there has to be flexibility there. There has to be monitoring. There has to be full assessment of who is getting the money and who is not using it on an annual basis, because over a couple of years there is certainly a trend developing.

That is, once again, the Minister can comment on that there, Mr. Chairman, in his best efforts not to lapse any money for 2009-10 year and then to develop a good streamline mechanism for the budget year that we are talking about today there, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, we will have a good streamline process as we move forward. As indicated, this is an area of interest to me and also concern. There has been some work on the way. We have identified a couple of positions that we highlighted; aboriginal student coordinator. That initiative will deal with this matter at hand as well. We want to have a mechanism in

place where most of the money expended to the regions, but at the same time there are unique circumstances that are beyond our control at times.

Mr. Chairman, as a department we will do our best to fully utilize the funding that is available to us on to the language groups and various organizations. We share the Member’s concern. We will certainly take that fully into consideration. Mahsi.

Next on the list I have Ms. Bisaro, Mr. Beaulieu and Mr. Bromley. Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a couple of questions on this section. I would like to first off state that I am -- and I have mentioned it in my comments earlier -- very pleased to see that there is an increase in the funding to arts and culture. It is the way that we should be going. I am very glad to see that the department continues to increase the funding in this particular area.

I have a concern with the early childhood and family literacy funding. It is a strategic initiative, I believe, in this particular section of the budget. I am glad to see that we are increasing the funding for early childhood and for family literacy. They are both areas that are extremely important. I echo the comments from my colleague, Mr. Bromley, earlier. I am a little bit concerned, though, that this funding may only be one-time funding. I would like to ask the Minister whether or not the funding for early childhood and family literacy is going to be an ongoing funding and it will continue year after year after this fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Minister.

Mr. Chairman, this is an area of focus, as well, with our department, investing more into the early childhood development area. Yes, this particular area will be ongoing funding. Next year we will be faced with that again. It is important to note that it is a worthwhile business, so we will continue to fund that. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, it is good to hear that this is going to be ongoing. I am presuming that it will be added to base funding for the fiscal year 2011-12. Also, in terms of child care, and I think that the Minister referenced that there is going to be some research done, some investigation done in terms of what child care facilities do exist in the NWT, and I think it is a very valuable research. I believe that we need to be putting an awful lot more money into child care spaces, assisting child care with both physical facilities, capital costs and with providing more daycare spaces for people who happen to be working and that is in all of our communities. It is difficult enough here in Yellowknife, but I know in the smaller communities it is probably almost impossible to get a daycare space.

One of the statements that was made when we were discussing the business plans was that there was going to be an investigation of the School Community Counsellor Program. I wondered if there is a problem with this particular program. What program is it that is being reviewed and, perhaps, why? Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, with the child care spaces, we do have approximately 1,810 spaces that we support. Out of that, there are roughly 117 programs across the Northwest Territories. With the School Community Counsellor Program, it has been delivered through, as you know, the college for a number of years. There has been some interest, of course, in restarting that. Those are the areas that we are looking at as we speak. We need to have more discussion in that field. Mahsi.

Mr. Chairman, thanks for the answer to the Minister. I just would like to suggest that, when this is being investigated, when it is being looked at, the Minister and the department seriously consider the effect the lack of school counsellors has on students in schools, particularly high schools and their inability to actually fully understand the impact that particular course will have on their post-secondary education. The Minister full well knows it has been an issue that has come out a fair bit in the last several months. I think if there is an opportunity for us to train school counsellors, that this would certainly be a valid program. If it is not counselling the kids, if it is something different, then my remarks don’t apply to this particular item, but I still feel that it is imperative that every school that has students in high school grades needs to have someone in that school who is counselling those kids on which classes they should be taking to achieve the goals they want to achieve in order for them to advance to the secondary education level that they want and that they need to get to. That is just a comment. I don’t have a question there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I will leave it up to you, Mr. Minister. You can respond to the comment or we can move on. Mr. Minister.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. The School Community Counsellor Program in the past has been very successful through Aurora College. We are starting our annual programs and service proposal discussions with the college. Those are discussions that we need to have and working closely with the college president with my department. Mahsi.

I just have one more and it has to do with the issue of funding for inclusive schooling. When we did the business plans, we were advised that inclusive schooling funding was being reduced from 19 percent to 18.5 percent. I think, as well, somewhere along the line since business plans and

now, I have been advised that it doesn’t mean a reduction in the cost to individual education authorities. I guess if I can get an explanation as to how the reduction in the percentage of funding to schools is going to give them the same amount of money that they need to deal with their inclusive schooling needs children. Thank you.

Mr. Devitt.

That was kind of clear as mud. I guess if I understood correctly, it’s now being tied to students within an authority as opposed to being tied to a percentage of costs within the authority’s budget. I didn’t fully understand how this dollar amount is being determined. Secondly, is the dollar amount that is going to individual authorities going down this year for inclusive schooling? Thank you.

I will try one more time. The funding that education authorities are going to get for their inclusive schooling needs for their inclusive schooling students, is that going to go up or down in this next fiscal year? Thank you.

Next on the list I have Mr. Beaulieu.

Thank you, M. Chairman. Just a couple of questions I have here. I notice that the early childhood development budget has gone up quite a bit, quite substantially, actually. I am

wondering if the Minister could advise me if there is any of the extra money going to support daycares in Tu Nedhe communities of Fort Resolution and Lutselk’e. I talk about the students and even the absenteeism and then I get information from the schools and I am aware that kids going through a good daycare program have better success early when they start school, better success K to 12, especially better success in the lower grades like K to 5 and so on. I am wondering if there is extra money to support the daycares. Extra money is badly needed in both of those communities. I will start off with that, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Beaulieu. Mr. Minister.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The funding overall will be covering some aspects of going to small communities, such as increase in funding to license early childhood programs in small, isolated communities up to $350,000. This way the young children in small, isolated communities can certainly benefit from it. Those are the areas of increase to our funding to deal with small, isolated communities. Mahsi.