Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yellowknife Education Districts 1 and 2 are not receiving the funding or support they need to deliver the education that the students of Yellowknife deserve. The edict requiring that pre-kindergarten be delivered by Yellowknife authorities without being funded by ECE places an unfair burden on the budgets of these two districts. It lessens the quality of the education they can provide to the students of Yellowknife. Already teachers are being laid off and student-to-teacher ratios are increasing.
A service previously provided by local daycares and schools on a user pay basis must now be funded from strained budgets with no plans for recovery in the coming years. It is another case of this government robbing Peter to pay Paul. We fund competing priorities through a merry-go-round of cuts.
Teachers’ pensions are another case of failure. The teachers of Yellowknife deserve the same pension plans as other teachers across the NWT, yet the Minister refuses to provide the GNWT’s fair share of money, according to his formula, as required by their funding formula of 80 percent GNWT to 20 percent taxpayers of Yellowknife, a formula, again, that the Minister claims to subscribe to. The work of teachers across the Territories through ECE should be equal, but apparently in the eyes of the government some teachers are more equal than others.
If the GNWT is serious about attracting families to the Northwest Territories from southern Canada, or retaining them, they must provide quality education everywhere in the Territories, including Yellowknife. If the GNWT wants to add programs that they feel need to be offered in all territorial schools, such as pre-kindergarten, they must fully fund them in all territorial schools. If the GNWT wants to attract and keep qualified and gifted teachers to work for its largest school districts, it must make sure that the terms of employment are attractive.
To download these financial responsibilities to the Yellowknife school boards and the taxpayers of Yellowknife completely is unfair and short-sighted and against policy. Support for all of the school boards in the North is essential and should not be done at the expense of or on the backs of students in Yellowknife. Mahsi.