Thank you, Madam Chair. Obviously we are discussing issues regarding page 17. Inclusive to this page is the line item under culture and heritage. I want to spend a few minutes here on that note, knowing full well that ECE and ITI work jointly with the arts.

The other day tabled in the House by the Minister of ITI was a supporting statement which basically talked in favour of supporting of the arts. Such statements as an NWT artisan make positive economic and cultural impact on our territory and others. I’m not denying the fact that the department or the Minister, obviously, support these areas.

Given the budget item that I see here, we are seeing a very small, modest increase in the delivery of cultural and heritage which would include promoting NWT arts. Can the Minister or his designate indicate what these extra monies are in the budget? Where is that money going to be allocated to?

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Minister Lafferty.

Madam Chair, the culture and heritage, as the Members would know, there has been an increase over the years. We will continue to promote that within our department. This time around the difference is basically to offset

the costs of Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. There was a fire there, so it is a repair to the building, so approximately $520,000 in that area. Mahsi.

Madam Chair, thanks to the Minister for clarifying where that overage is going to be spent.

Most recently an organization here in the Northwest Territories – and I refer to them as the Artists Run Community Centre, or ARCC for short – unfortunately lost their facility due to an expansion of a building or construction of a new government building in the downtown corridor. We know that, as I say, the statements that we have heard in the House with respect to supporting arts and the culture regarding arts is a priority. However, this organization, which really is a backbone or a facility that helps support and nurtures and fundamentally creates the baseline for art in the Northwest Territories, are now without a home. Can the Minister indicate to us why nothing in this budget – knowing full well that this has been an ask by this Member as well as Regular Members here on this – why given the fact that there is lots of support for the arts, that this organization who had lost their home due to one of our own expansion buildings and, again, nothing in this budget reflects that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Madam Chair, this is an area that we have been monitoring closely since it first came up. Currently we don’t have capital funds to build or have an establishment for those types of facilities, but we do provide funding through the NWT Arts Council and working closely with ITI because they do have other sources of funds as well.

Within my department, we provide funds to various organizations. We can provide this organization through the Members as well. When it comes to capital, we haven’t allocated funds to offset the costs for capital infrastructure on this specific topic.

Madam Chair, again I appreciate the fact that the Minister does have a list of supporting organizations that are recipients of funding. My specific question is for the Artists Run Community Centre. What does the Minister intend to tell this group of artists – and they are a fairly large group of artists – what kind of support can we provide them and facilitating and fostering their field so that really it goes in line with what this government is doing, trying to promote the work of artisans and yet there’s no facility for them to be promoted in? Thank you, Madam Chair.

At this point we can provide information to the Artist Run Community Centre and the programs that we currently have within ECE. Most of the applications and the proposals go through the NWT Arts Council as well. They make decisions based on the needs of those

arts and the performance in the Northwest Territories. So I can commit that within my department I’ll be working closely with ITI to identify those programming dollars that they can potentially access, this organization that we’re speaking of. Mahsi.

I appreciate the Minister’s support. I will take the Minister up on his offering with the Minister of ITI. I will make that invitation out hopefully to other Members to hopefully be participants in that in order to support NWT art, specifically for the Artist Run Community Centre. So I’d like to thank the Minister for his indulgence. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. Mr. Minister, did you wish to comment?

No, I’ve already made a commitment. So I’ll definitely do my part with the Minister of ITI and also the NWT Arts Council that we provide funding to. Mahsi.

Thank you. Next on my list is Mr. Menicoche. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’d like to follow up a little bit on the questions about inclusive schooling. I know this is an area that’s been evolving. I have two concerns. One is, as I understand it, we have hooked the amount of inclusive schooling funding to the total amount the school gets and it’s a proportion. As budgets have soared, so has inclusive schooling. That does not allow the increase or the changes in inclusive schooling funding to be tied to actual need. So that’s the first aspect of it.

The second is an expression of the need for change from school boards that recommend that there be a base provision of inclusive schooling funding provided and then an additional amount based on an assessment of the needs of the children in that school for special consideration. So as a result, our inclusive schooling obviously, according to the budget here, has soared and I’m wondering how are we going to be managing this in a more effective way and hopefully at the same time improve the effectiveness of our programs through the inclusive schooling needs. Thank you, Mr. Chair, two questions.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. The inclusive schooling is tied similar to the school formula, based on enrollment of the school as well. The Member is asking if there needs to be a change using base formula based on a student assessment, the child assessment, the needs. So those are the areas that I already committed that I want my department to explore and to review the overall inclusive schooling.

There have been a lot of issues raised on this particular topic. So I’m looking to the Members, and I want to have an overall review of this particular topic and I’ll definitely keep the Members in the loop as we move forward in our discussion. It will take some time, as you know, because it does involve the communities and the regional groups. It doesn’t just sit here. We provide funding to all communities on this particular subject.

So, again, I’m committing to have an overall review on this particular subject and I will be considering, as well, the base provision on the student needs assessment that the Member is alluding to. That will be part of the discussion. Mahsi.

Thanks for the Minister’s commitment and reminder that he’s already committed. I appreciate that. It is difficult, because obviously schools have to be funded ahead of time as to what they’re doing and so on. So I appreciate that there’s a bit of a need for some advance.

Obviously this has been under discussion before and I’d hoped that some thinking had been done on this, but I’ll look forward to working with the Minister on this and seeing if we can increase our effectiveness, and perhaps with fewer dollars and it being done and tie the funding to real needs in each school. Obviously a formula doesn’t work when the number of students with special needs is going to vary quite a bit from school to school and year to year. So I appreciate that commitment. That’s all I have, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Would the Minister like to respond?

Mr. Chair, I did commit to it. So I’ll definitely follow through and work with the Members on this. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Next on my list I believe I have Mr. Menicoche.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Just a follow-up on the theme of early childhood education. Today I’ve got several questions. I’m just wondering how Education, Culture and Employment would encourage and help communities to start early childhood programs like the Open Door in Fort Simpson, and if they answer yes, then how is that being done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Menicoche. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We do have program dollars set aside to deal with early childhood program delivery. There are areas that we sponsor, whether it be the child care centres. There are pots of funds that we sponsor, whether it be partial payments of their mortgage, start-up costs and supporting the child that’s in the

system as well. So those are just some of the program dollars that we can clearly identify and pass on to Regular Members for their information. Just the detail of the breakdown of various pots of funds within early childhood development. Mahsi.

Sounds like there is funding available, probably a couple of different types of programming areas. There are a couple of things, I guess. How are they available to communities and is the current funding already subscribed to, which means I guess basically is all being taken up? Is there opportunity for other communities to get involved? Should they be planning it now or in the future?

Those individual organizations, if they want to start up a service, they can go through our regional representatives. We have various programs that are available to them. Our regional representative will be more than happy to sit down with those individuals or organizations that are interested in pursuing and providing services in the community, such as early childhood. So we do have a representative at the regional level and we can provide those names and contact information as well. Mahsi.

Thank you very much. Earlier the Minister had said that two communities will pilot family resource centres this year. How long is he planning to run that and also what is the long-range forecast? Is it to run them in all of our small and remote communities as well, Mr. Chair?