Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A few minutes ago we had heard the concerns about reporting lines and the Minister keeps saying that they will be reporting pretty much the same as they are, but the fact is, we really have no guarantee at the end of the day. The superintendent is instructed to pursue and follow, to the best of his abilities, obviously, the Education Act. One would have no doubt that that would be the case.
But we do have a very vivid, vibrant and certainly a functional example where the department had stifled superintendents for speaking their mind and telling the truth to the school boards. By an edict issued by the department – luckily we have the person here today who told us that – that they had to stay quiet on that particular issue when it came to Junior Kindergarten.
So what we have here now is the financial reporting line changing. So really, where does the loyalty of these particular employees now stay? It causes me great concern on how are we going to adjust this in the future? So in the future, when we run into another incident like Junior Kindergarten and the superintendents are told to stay quiet, they in essence have to be forced into a very difficult challenge, and I don’t want to use the word lie, but I will say they are put in an awkward position not being fully truthful in some manner, form or other by avoiding the truth or avoiding the situation. It does cause me concern as to what we are putting in place here, which is the mechanism of loyalty between the school board and their superintendent.
Frankly, I don’t really care about the paying process, it will be what it is. Does the government now want to regulate school board superintendents’ pay? It’s odd they have such courage over such few superintendents when they don’t have the courage to regulate gasoline prices which would help far more people in the Northwest Territories, yet we will put our finger on a single little issue here. Do they like the way school board superintendents pay their employees? Well, you know what? I’m sorry, the school boards pay their superintendent employees is what I’m trying to say.
Frankly, I think it’s none of their business. This is why we have an elected board. Do we know how much the government pays some of their senior bureaucratic employees? We know some deputy ministers make well over $200,000. We know presidents of organizations make well over that amount and number. We know, but we don’t put the spotlight on those things.
It’s not a question of the money, and that’s the easy distraction of this particular one, is to be saying, well, we want to adjust the line by line on the Hay Plan and coordinate them with similar employees in the GNWT. Honestly, that is just a distraction to what the issue is. Ultimately it comes down to control. Who is going to be in control at the end of the day?
Now, the Minister will say, my goodness, day-to-day operations, they report to the school board and the chair and the process, and he will probably reach in his hand – he probably already has it there in his right hand – and they quote chapter and verse of the legislation on what clause they say they do. I yet again stress that they probably will be reporting to the school boards. But you know, it is always a scenario of saying, follow the money, where is the money, who is in control of the money? If the GNWT is in control of the money and billing the school boards back for the superintendents so the school boards get less money, I just don’t like the tone of this. It’s controlling the school boards whether they like it or not. They can try to say that there are firewalls and there’s a way to show they are not controlling, but we have examples now that they are. The current examples, the real examples, we have seen what crisis it has put our school boards in by putting pressure on school board superintendents with the edict of silence.
Mr. Chairman, I am worried about what trend this will leave. This Minister won’t be Minister of Education for long. We have a year, so what happens to the next Minister? What happens to the next board? What happens and on and on? It’s easy to say we are going to realign these things, and it’s easy for him to say that he’s not going to do anything. Well, no, it will be business as usual. Well, maybe it will be business as usual in the next 12 months, but it’s 12 months and a day I worry about it. It’s 12 months and two days I worry about it, 12 months and two years and four years and 10 years. It’s things beyond our grasp which we have no control over.
So, we have to caution ourselves how quick it is to change these things, because at this point, is the school board now turning into an advisory as opposed to a management board? They say management on paper, but now you’re controlling the infrastructure, the administrator. You’re paying the administrator and you can’t tell me you’re not in charge of the administrator if you’re paying them. Is the administrator somewhat accountable to the department more than they are to the board? That question eventually has to be faced.
We can hear all the answers and justifications, but that’s the reality before us. Of course, they will provide their argument saying that’s not true at all, but what, in all fairness, is the person who pays is the one who provides the direction.
I’m concerned with where this amendment is leading. Frankly, I think that this is a bad choice. This is not about the money and people should not be caught on that. It doesn’t really matter what the money is. It’s about fairly allowing school boards to duly operate unfettered by the Department of Education which sets the playing field, which is called the Education Act. As long as they work within it, the Minister should stay out of the business. Thank you.