Thank you. My question was activity three, early childhood community outreach, and the Minister has spoken about activity two. But obviously it would be very disappointing if at the very end of the fiscal year we provided the money

for a program and then in a few weeks later discontinued it. That is exactly where government gets its reputation from.

So my question was on the substantial amount of funding on early childhood community outreach. What have we done in this area? Have we extended the money and are we going to bring that forward? Is that in this new budget?

Mahsi. Sorry about that. I was referring to option two. Number three is early childhood community outreach, $670,000 that’s been budgeted and to date we’ve spent that on various initiatives such as public awareness, elders’ sharing circle, there’s a Healthy Family Program working with the Health and Social Services department. ECD, Early Childhood Development Framework, again, working with Health and Social Services, an engagement plan, the regional committee members travelling to various sites and so forth. Children’s resources for Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, supplies and educational materials, and there’s a whole list of activity that’s been played and we’ve gone beyond the $670,000 that’s been allocated. The Member is asking if we’re going to have that renewed. Again, I have to refer back to the Early Childhood Development Framework that will be before us and it will be part of the business planning cycle as we move forward to 2014-2015. Mahsi.

Thank you. The figure I have is $300,000 for this activity. The Minister refers to $670,000. This was to be focused exclusively on the zero to three years old, the critical years, prenatal through three years old and I think there was some Aboriginal Head Start Program money in there. But anyway, I’d say it’s very difficult to get the information I’m looking for today.

Moving on, the pupil-teacher ratio we have is way beyond what’s called for in legislation and it’s been demonstrated that there’s no correlation between the performance we’re getting in education, the outcomes and this excessively low, which is generally favourable, pupil-teacher ratio. There’s an obvious opportunity for efficiency. Is the Minister planning to do anything with that? Is that being proposed in this budget? Mahsi.

Mahsi. The pupil-teacher ratio has been brought up in this House, as well, along with inclusive schooling. It is part of the education renewal when we talk about the small communities, the teachers teaching so many students in their classrooms and how we expend funding to the school boards. So those are the factors I will be taking into consideration when we’re discussing that with the stakeholders, the school boards, educators at the community level, hearing their input, and based on that, we need to make some changes. We are legislated, but it’s well

beyond the legislated level. So that’s where we are at this point. Mahsi.

Thanks for that information. I’d like to see a distinct proposal come forward to committee and I hope it does.

Moving on, again, the cultural heritage arts organizations and projects, there is a real need for an arts centre – arts, cultural and heritage centre, really – in a number of regions. Certainly in the capital. This is obviously an infrastructure project, but I don’t know that the government would be responsible for a large role in that, but I would see the government playing a role in facilitating an effort by all of the groups and perhaps the community interested in pursuing that. Does the Minister see a role for helping facilitate this interest in a regional cultural, heritage, arts centre? Thank you.

Anything to do with arts, we are there. We want to be involved. Through the coordination, if it’s a centre that’s infrastructure, and we have to work closely with Public Works and Services. Other agencies are out there that we provide funding to. Whether it be the arts council, the heritage centre, the cultural projects, cultural organizations, all these different groups we have to engage. Again, it’s part of the capital planning because we are talking about centres. Anything to do with arts programming and so forth, we are willing to work interdepartmental, which we currently are going with Public Works and Services. We will continue to do that with other agencies that are out there and actively involved with arts programming.

Thanks for the Minister’s comments. I think this is legitimately discussed in an operational budget. I think we’re talking facilitation of planning from public groups in these areas and the Minister providing some leadership assistance in helping organize efforts where our partners would be the major funders, perhaps, because I haven’t seen much interest from this government for funding such centres in terms of infrastructure. Anyway, I hope the Minister will look at that as an opportunity.

The language nests that we’re doing, moving on here under Aboriginal languages, I'm just wondering, once again, are there elders and fluent language, how is it assured that the real holders of the language participate in these language nests?

When we talk about the language nests, obviously the program would have to be delivered by a language spoken qualified teacher. That is an area that sometimes we’re challenged with. To date I have seen some real success in regions that are delivering the Language Nest programming. We’ll continue to invest in those areas because they are working. When I talk about the elders in school, I want them to be fully engaged in those areas. I have made a

commitment that we want that to be delivered. It probably won’t be in all schools, but starting this school year in the fall time. We want to have some of the schools to have elders as a beginner to be involved in this, whether it be the language nests or cultural language classes that they are teaching, on-the-land programs and so forth. We do have some teachers, but obviously we want more qualified Aboriginal speaking teachers in our classrooms and we are pushing for more of that through the TEP program and through the ASEP program and so forth. We will continue to push that forward and have dialogue with the school boards, with the college. We’re always emphasizing with the college that we need to produce more qualified Aboriginal speaking teachers. That is our goal.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Bromley, your time is up. Moving on with questions I have Mr. Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My questions, I’m going to get away from early childhood development. My colleague has asked some good questions around that and the dollars that we did fight for over the last two budget sessions here. I’m going to go into school contributions.

The school contribution provides contributions to education authorities for the operation of NWT schools. I’d just like to, looking at some of the numbers here from the 2011-2012 actuals and the revised estimates of 2012-2013 to this year’s main estimates, there’s been less than a 1 percent increase to the budgets that are going out to the education authorities. With forced growth and everything that we’re dealing with within the regions, speaking with some of our educators in the regions, they feel that the budgets they’re getting offered aren’t sufficient to run the proper programs and services for both staff and students.

I just wanted to get an idea of what the funding formula is and how they categorize the funding formula, whether it’s by region. Maybe if the Minister can elaborate how they come to be at the dollar amount for each authority within the Northwest Territories.

Obviously, representing the Beaufort-Delta region and working with the Beaufort-Delta Education Authority the costs of travelling in that region is very high and the cost of living is very high. I just want to know how they come up with the funding formula and if that funding formula does actually put some of the education authorities below what other regions are getting for their dollars, especially when we live in such a high cost of living area in the territory.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Minister Lafferty.

The funding that we provide to the schools is based on enrolment. Not only that, but there is indexing in pricing, whether it be the salary of those qualified people in the education system. Also, the operation costs. As you know, every year there is an increase in costs. Those are some of the areas that does capture. I’ll get my director to maybe elaborate about the process itself of enrolment and so forth, because he’s actively involved in this area.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Moses.

Mr. Devitt did speak on a few items that were taken into consideration when you come out to how we fund our education authorities. When he mentioned something like it varies on the size of the school and we get schools that are the same size in Paulatuk as you do get into maybe Kakisa or something, I’m thinking if that is put into the factor then they’re both going to get the same type of education when we know that we have longer winter months up in Paulatuk that might be more O and M class to run the school. Some things need to be taken into consideration.

Maybe if I can ask the Minister and his staff if he would commit to providing myself all the criteria of deciding how a funding formula works, and I can take a look at it, and also maybe break down how the funding is distributed throughout the regions in the Northwest Territories. That way I can get a good grasp on how dollars are spent. Especially in the coastal communities, I just want to see how those communities are getting funded in terms of their location as well. Maybe I can ask the Minister if he could commit to providing me all the details and then also breaking down how each region, not each region but how much each region is being funded.

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. We can definitely provide the breakdown, how much, whether it be the regions or the schools, comparable from small communities to larger centres and the remoteness and so forth.

As it stands currently with enrolment and the price index and so forth, as part of the education renewal we are going to be looking at that. The formula funding is a big topic every time we go to the communities. Small communities feel left out. It will capture that as part of the systems and, also, accountability. That is part of the discussion that we’re going to be having with the stakeholders.

[Microphone turned off]

…contributions and the formula funding, I’d just like to ask the Minister when the last time the formula funding was assessed. When was the last time that the formula funding for education authorities was assessed and renewed?

I was just asking my director, since he’s been 30-plus years. It is assessed on an annual basis but I don’t think there have been any major changes. That’s the whole reason why we’re doing the education renewal under my leadership, we want to see positive impacts in the communities based on their needs. Those are discussions we will be having over the year.

Thank you, Mr. Moses for your kind words. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. This is an area that is one of the priorities within our department because we know we are losing the languages in the region. As you know, we’ve developed some apps pertaining to Aboriginal languages. We have developed five already and now we’re currently working on an additional two. It was part of my Minister’s statement today that I highlighted we are working on two more Aboriginal languages so that, at the end of the day, we will be up to seven. We’ll want to capture all nine in the long term.

There’s also a symposium coming up in March over the next couple of weeks. That is an area that we want to focus on the Aboriginal Language Secretariat, and all the funding that we provide to various divisions and various pots of funds, we want to amalgamate them all into one area. Instead of going from one shop to another shop, we’re going to have a venue where the funding will be available to the communities and regions. We want to disburse that money directly to the regions, to the languages affected areas.

I know where Members are going with this, where Gwich’in is losing their language, as well, very rapidly. Now we’re focusing in those areas where it’s a key, a badly needed area that we need to come up with options and that’s what we are pursuing. When we talk about revitalizing our language, this is an area that has been geared towards those most impacted with potentially losing their language. It’s not only our department, it’s working with the agencies and working with language experts. That’s why we’re doing this second annual Aboriginal language symposium, to share the input in the second phase of our Aboriginal Languages Secretariat that would be before us. We’re thinking long term, so that’s an area that we will continue to push forward.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Mr. Moses, your time’s up. I’ll put you on the list if you need be. Moving on with questions I have Ms. Bisaro.