Mahsi, Mr. Chair. I do reflect on the Member asking that particular question. I don’t have the information here, the latest status, but I can provide that as soon as possible.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, we are on 10-30 again. Activity summary, income security, grants and contributions, $11.136 million. Does committee agree?

Seeing none, 10-32, information item, Student Loan Fund. Any questions?

Page 10-35, information item, details of funding allocated to education authorities. Any questions? Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have a question here with regard to the funding for education authorities, particularly to the two authorities within Yellowknife who, I know, are very prudent in their financial management and have managed to accumulate a bit of a surplus to help them over the requirements for extra staff in September, a program that may need an extra bit of money to carry them through to the end of the school year and so on.

My concern is that over the last week to two weeks I have twice heard the Minister reference the surplus of education authorities, and I would like to know from the Minister whether or not the department and/or the government is considering putting in place the same policy that they put in place for the health authorities a while ago in that surpluses for authorities were deemed to be government funds and they were basically, they were annexed, I guess, by the government and turned back into general revenues. I’d like to know from the Minister if that is the intent of the department and/or the government with regard to the surpluses that education authorities have.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chair. We are fully aware of the surpluses that have been accumulated within all schools, most of the school boards across the Northwest Territories. We’re fully aware of the policy that’s in place with the Department of Health and Social Services. We

haven’t made a decision on that. There has been talk, but no decision at this point.

Thank you to the Minister for that. If you’re talking about this, I guess I’d like to get some sense of where the department is wanting to go on this, and secondly, are you in conversation with the school boards at the same time that you’re discussing it?

As I stated, this will be a discussion that we need to have with the school boards. Obviously, we want the surplus funds to go to our children in the Northwest Territories, the education programming. It’s very preliminary at this time, but the discussion will be happening with the school boards.

Just one last comment, and I suspect that the Minister and the department are well aware, but the two school boards in Yellowknife are not fully funded by the GNWT, so I would think that at least a portion of their surplus and perhaps all of their surplus has been garnered through taxation of Yellowknife residents. I just want the Minister to be well aware of that and to consider that in their conversations.

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. We’ll give the Minister an opportunity to respond. Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All those will be taken into consideration.

Thank you, Minister Lafferty. Committee, 10-35. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On 10-35, I have a quick question, and I’m not sure it’s an easy answer. That’s what I have certain fears over. When I consider the funding of the Beau-Del at $28.5 million versus the South Slave Divisional Education Council at $24.7 million, and then Yellowknife Education District No. 1 at $23.4 million, I’m just trying to understand the spread of what’s the funding model based on and is there a short or simple answer that we can provide to that. Because I know that other municipalities don’t necessarily collect municipal taxes and forward them on to the schools, so it looks like the Beau-Del is being very well funded and I’m just trying to understand the discrepancy of what it’s based on.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. We’ll go to Minister Lafferty.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The school formula funding is the prior year September 30th student enrolment, and use prior

year salaries adjusted for current year. Based on the Collective Agreement, there’s an increase. There’s also an adjustment to the cost difference due to freight, travel, cost of living and the program costs. I believe Mr. Moses alluded to that on the cost of living. Also, the block funded, some of the

discussions, it’s within the funding formula that’s highlighted.

Perhaps the Minister can explain why the South Slave Divisional Education Council would be funded more than, for example, a Yellowknife school, if it’s based on freight and costs, because, of course, we all know that the costs of operating there is cheaper than it is in Yellowknife and they have fewer teachers by the number, 15 compared to the Yellowknife school district, yet they receive more money. Maybe we can get some clarity on that.

We can obviously share that detailed information with the Member, but it is based on formula, and you have to keep in mind that there are, I guess you can say, three school boards in Yellowknife versus one school board in the South Slave region. Those are just some of the discussions that we’ve been having with the formula funding. As I stated before, we are reviewing our formula funding through the education renewal and innovation, so these are the discussions that we continue to have.

I would have thought that the Commission scolaire would have been counted in the Hay River area or South Slave area as well. I would think that there would be two. In Yellowknife I would think we’d almost count four, considering we have paired off the Ndilo district, individually of course, and, of course, maybe five if you count Detah as well. That said, if the Minister and the department are willing to provide a detailed briefing note, I’ll start with that and I’ll be prepared to move on today.

But I do want to highlight one area, which is I’d like to see what taxation revenue is seen as a stream in those other authorities outside of the Yellowknife ones, and including, obviously, the Yellowknife, to ensure that it’s seen as fair, because of course, we all know that the citizens in this tax-based municipality contribute to the good running of our schools and I just want to see where this is equitably and fairly transposed off to other districts.

We’ll definitely provide the detailed breakdown of how the formula funding is based on per region, per community and DEAs, DECs.