We’d love to see the day where we have a lot of homes being bought because people are moving to the Northwest Territories, and I feel that day will come and we need to ensure that they are protected. There are some firms out there, one, possibly two, that will do home inspections on behalf of the potential buyer. I think the Member, in his statement before, talked about different training opportunities, and here again is another opportunity for us to have some people that are trained to do proper home inspections.

It is probably the largest purchase a person will ever make, so it would be to their benefit if they had a proper home inspection done and if they made sure that they were buying a piece of property that

was well looked after and had no issues. We will continue to work on that and there are opportunities.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I said in my Member’s statement earlier today, I was hoping the government would be doing more than just taking a look at things. We need to tighten up the belt in this area and we owe it to the public to do so. So, without seeing this mysterious population growth strategy from Cabinet that is trying to encourage more permanent NWT residents, has the government, under MACA’s lead, given any consideration to lowering the risk of buying a home in support of this strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

As I said before, we will enhance the information and communication that’s on our website. If you looked at stand-alone legislation for this particular issue, that’s almost a two-year process. With the priorities that this government has had in the 17th Legislative

Assembly, we have received no complaints on this particular issue. It wasn’t considered a priority at this time. However, most of the work for the 17th Assembly is coming to an end, so this is one that they could possibly look at in future. Part of doing this is doing the research and seeing if there is a need for full-blown legislation or some ways we can advise consumers on protection and the services that are offered to them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions today are addressed to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I want to follow up on my statement and some of the questions asked by Mr. Dolynny yesterday. In this fiscal year, 2014-2015, budgets to all education authorities were reduced to a certain extent in order to fund the start of Junior Kindergarten. That funding apparently was to go help the 23 schools that are offering Junior Kindergarten this year to get their program in place.

So I would like to ask the Minister first off, why, if these programs are operational and we have funding for the boards in this current budget year, why does the department need to do further budget reductions in the 2015-16 year to fund a program that is fully operational?

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. That decision was made by this

government to proceed to deliver to the 23 communities based on a two-year commitment that’s been made as part of the agreement that was agreed to by this government. So this year and next year the funding allocated will continue through those two areas. We will continue to work with the 23 communities. Based on the review, we will have to decide next year how it’s going to look and continue with the delivery to 23 communities in 2015-16 as well. Mahsi.

I really don’t understand why we need to take more money in 2015-16 to fund a program that is apparently a program that is operational. so I may come back to that.

Small schools have a lower pupil-teacher ratio than do the larger schools. I referenced that in my statement. They need different treatment, and I accept that. Smaller schools have a smaller number of students. They, therefore, need a certain number of teachers to get their programs going. ECE has a small schools funding formula and it is specifically to assist small schools to give them money for their special needs and to account for their smallness.

Why is it that in addition to the small school funding formula, small schools with less than 120 students are exempted from any budget reductions by their education authority? Why are these guys double dipping? Thank you.

As the Member indicated, small schools are treated differently based on their special needs. The Early Development Instrument tells us that over 60 percent of those individuals, five-year-olds, are developmentally challenged when they enter the school system. Those are from mostly remote communities. Those are true facts and the numbers we are currently working with.

We are going through discussions on the formula, as well, through Education Renewal and Innovation, thinking in the long term, Mr. Speaker. There are other programs, as well, such as Inclusive Schooling and PTR. Those are areas we will continue to work with. Mahsi.

Thanks to the Minister. The Premier yesterday stated, in answer to one of my questions, “we will be re-profiling from all authorities.” He was referencing the money that is being used for Junior Kindergarten, that it’s coming from all authorities. So, if it’s coming from all authorities, I’d like to say that 20 of our 49 schools are currently, give or take, less than 120 students. That’s almost half of our schools, Mr. Speaker.

Can the Minister explain the fairness of having small schools exempted from the budget reductions and, at the same time, receiving the small schools funding formula? Thank you.

We are currently contributing upwards of $150 million to all the

school boards so they can deliver the most cost-effective, efficient program delivery K to 12. We’re currently delivering Junior Kindergarten in 23 of our communities and it’s just a fraction of 0.01 percent of that. It is a public fund, so we need to have the best program delivery in the Northwest Territories.

This is an area that we will continue to push forward with 23 communities based on the EDI, the results that came in. What is before us is we are going to be re-evaluating our situation, our stance, and review the whole Junior Kindergarten program in 23 communities. That is where we are at in the coming months, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To the Minister, since I didn’t get an explanation as to whether it’s fair, I have to assume that it’s unfair and he can’t explain it.

My last question to the Minister is: We’ve heard many times that our legislated pupil-teacher ratio is 16 to 1. I have said that definitely we do not have 16 to 1 in all our schools. I would like to know from the department if we are intending to bring our funding down to 16 to 1, how does he intend to implement this 16 to 1 pupil-teacher ratio, particularly in small schools where some of them are 9 to 1 and some are 4 to 1. So, how is he going to implement 16 to 1 so that it is fair? Will there be a PTR cap, for instance, in small schools? How is it going to happen? Thank you.

Currently we are legislated at 16 to 1. We are providing over and above that, $17 million to our schools boards to deal with those matters at hand. We are currently, as I stated, and the Premier also committed to this House, that we are reviewing the 23 Junior Kindergarten communities, and based on the review, the funding has been highlighted as well.

I did speak to it this morning as well. There will be a mixture of discussions, whether it be the funding, reaching out to operators, and we need to hear their perspective and input to have the delivery of Junior Kindergarten in these communities. Those are the discussions that we are going to be having. We’ve committed to this House already. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Yellowknife Centre, Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of WSCC, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I did answer that, I believe, last week. The recommendation from the committee has been addressed to my attention. The package is before me and there has been some correspondence that came in from various stakeholders as well. Even after the fact, the committee established some recommendations. I did commit to this House that I will sign off the final document during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi.

I will help the Minister here. The life of this Assembly is yet another year. The WSCC has been working on these Occupational Health and Safety Regulations for several years now. I know they have been working with industry, and certainly labour on this, to find some agreement to go forward.

What are some of the issues in the delay that we may have to wait up to almost a whole year in the implementation of these regs? What’s stopping the process from actually getting done? Is it the Minister or is it some other issue that we need to be aware of?

Mahsi. These regs have been before us for a number of years now, upwards of 22 years. So it wouldn’t hurt to wait another year during the life of this Assembly to sign off the final document where we capture everything if we want to have regulations that capture the legality issues that have been brought to my attention. Some of areas of concern within the clause were brought to my attention as well. So we need to deal with those kinks that have been brought to my attention.

We are currently working with the Department of Justice to deal with these matters. Again, I will be signing off during the life of this Assembly. Mahsi.

Thank you. The Minister continues to avoid the question by saying what’s the delay. He says stuff that’s been brought to his attention. Well, I can tell you stuff today, such as it hasn’t been signed off. I hope that has brought the issue to his attention.

I’m not sure what the particular delays are. I hear from industry, their perspective and their concerns; I hear from labour, their perspective and their concerns. Why don’t we actually say what the concerns are? I mean, what’s wrong with being honest about the issues and problems before us? Could the Minister enlighten this House with

something unusual? It’s referred to as the facts. Thank you.

I’m not sure how else I can say it, but there are documents and correspondence, e-mails that came to my attention from various stakeholders, and there’s a few of them. So we need to act on it. We can’t just ignore those concerns that are brought to our attention.

Again, it is during the life of this Assembly that it will be signed off. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Hawkins.