I guess basically I have some of the same concerns as Mrs. Groenewegen about this new approach. In the case of the Phoenix School it just seems like once they’re hitting their stride and getting successful and really starting to put out the graduates, and I believe our graduation rate has not been doing well, it’s sort of like a school that struggles and finally finds its stride and we start to penalize them and knock them back. I guess I’ll just leave it at that comment. Great if the Minister can assure me that’s not happening, but that’s the sense I’m getting. I hope the Minister will take these remarks and give this another good look.

More of a comment, but would you like to respond, Mr. Lafferty?

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We did take a good look at the overall

evaluation that’s been brought to our attention. Based on the students taking the accredited programming, we’ve identified -- let’s say I can use the Phoenix School -- the operation costs we’ll cover and the number of students that are enrolled. The overall cost for a teacher to deliver those programs to a number of students that we’re going to cover. We also stated that if there are additional costs that they can substantiate, then we’ll seriously look into that as well for additional costs. That’s what we’ve done. We’ll continue to work with the school boards at that level. We need to closely monitor that. If there’s an increase in students, then that will have an impact on the funding criteria as well. We’ll have to monitor that.

I appreciate the Minister’s remarks. I guess this is a 33 percent reduction to the Phoenix School. I’m taking from the Minister’s remarks that we’ve been overfunding this school, based on the costs that the department estimates they should have, by about 33 percent. That’s quite a disjuncture there. I guess I’ll be interested in seeing how this pans out. I think this has been a good analysis, if that is in fact the case and we are not causing the number of graduates to decrease and course completions to decrease. I’ll leave it at that for now.

Like I said before, we will continue to provide funding based on the students and based on the operation of alternative school programming. We’re focusing on the students and providing funding for operations costs. As I stated, if there are additional costs as required on the students, then we’ll seriously look at those areas as well.

Thank you. Next I have Mr. Abernethy.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I’ve got some questions on page 10-19 based on the $148 million education authority contributions. The second sentence in that section says: “Enrolment-based formulae are used to determine the majority of payments.” I’m curious if the Minister could tell me a little bit about the formula used as part of this $148 million to determine how much money is allocated for inclusive schooling to each of the individual schools and authorities.

Mr. Daniels.

Thank you, Mr. Daniels. Anything further, Mr. Abernethy?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In talking to some of the school boards, I was under the impression that there was some negotiation going on between Education, Culture and

Employment and the school boards to bump that percentage up to 20 percent. For a while I thought it sounded like it might happen, but then it didn’t happen. Is there any reason why we didn’t move up to the 20 percent allocation for inclusive schooling?

In talking to the school boards, the increase of 1 percent to I guess it would be 19.5 or 20, would be significant to the school boards across the Territory. It’s not just a Yellowknife issue, it’s a territorial issue. It wouldn’t result in significant money per board or school but it would make a significant difference, and I know, although they’d really appreciate it, I know what’s already been allocated, that little percentage would be significant to them. Will the department continue to pursue that to see if an additional percent could be added to this particular formula so that we can get them a little bit more money for this particular area?

Mr. Lafferty.

Mr. Chair, inclusive schooling is also being looked at by a committee. It is in the works. There are changes that will be coming down and then we will definitely notify the Members. Mahsi.

Also in this area, I mean, we want this $148 million to go as far as it possibly can by way of programming and helping to educate children. In my general comments to the opening remarks I talked about infrastructure. I know this isn’t infrastructure, but as I indicated then, infrastructure drives spending and Sissons School and Mildred Hall... Mildred Hall, we could probably reduce the operations costs of that facility significantly just by finishing the renovations that we started and finishing the back side of that building and putting in the better quality windows and more insulation. By investing some infrastructure dollars into Sissons we could really reduce the long-term, ongoing O and M costs in that facility and, therefore, have more money to focus directly in on programming.

By way of a comment and an encouragement, I’m encouraging you to get Mildred Hall and Sissons back on the planning schedule so that we can get the required renovations done to those schools so that over time we can maximize the benefit of these $148 million by way of programming for children in our schools Just a comment. Thank you.

Just a comment. Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Next on my list I have Mr. Yakeleya.

Mr. Chair, I want to ask the Minister, on page 10-19 again, on the NWT Teachers’ Association Professional Development Fund. When is the government set to have another Collective Agreement negotiation with them?

Thank you, Mr. Yakeleya. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I believe the negotiation is up and coming in 2012. I believe that is the expiration date. That will be before us as we move forward. Mahsi.

I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the mandatory cultural orientation for all teachers, if this item would be an item that could be part of the Collective Agreement on a going forward basis.

Yes, it could be part of the discussion. It would be between the parties that will be negotiating. It’s noted. Mahsi.

I look forward to that discussion. I’m not too sure if we’ll be around to see how it goes, so I look forward to the Minister’s remarks and that to see how far it carries.

I want to ask the Minister, in terms of the education authority contributions, on the O and M to the education authorities, Mr. Chair, the Minister alluded to stating that a number of computers have come into the different authorities and are greatly appreciated by the authorities. I’ve also noted that in the Sahtu in 2005-2006 I think we had about 150 computers in our schools. In 2010-11 that number bumped up to 450 or so in that area. I want to ask the Minister, in terms of funding and support for these computers, you know, they break down and they need servers to be fixed and things that go along with maintenance of computer use. Are the education authorities funded to look after the use of computers as part of their formula funding?

Mr. Chair, the annual O and M contribution to the education authorities is, of course, we provide funding and then they use it at their discretion where their priorities lie. If it’s laptops or computers, then it will be at their discretion to utilize that funding. This laptop we’ve initiated as an initiative under the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and it was a one-time deal. We just wanted to highlight some of the key aspects that came out of the discussion and we’ve initiated that discussion and then we pursued it. If it’s the wish of the DEA or DEC to highlight or set priorities on their computers or different areas of interest, then it will be at their discretion. Mahsi.