This is page numbers 3501 – 3522 of the Hansard for the 17th Assembly, 5th Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was budget.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Madam Speaker, when the Member first came out with the question, there were a couple of areas that he touched on, a wage top-up subsidy was one, new money that is coming in, approximately $511,000, pending approval of this budget through the Legislative Assembly. With junior kindergarten we talked about re-profiling of funding, and again, working very closely with the school boards. This is an area that I am pleased to announce the implementation is starting this fall. It is phased in over a three-year period. The funding that we’ve been talking about is over a three-year period and is a small impact into our overall PTR that we have been talking about with the school boards.

We have to keep in mind that through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and through our engagement with our Aboriginal leadership, the community leadership, they want us to do something different within our overall departments, what we can do better with what we have, the funding. We have to be creative and innovative. That’s why we came forward with the standing committee presentation this fall about the various initiatives that we want to undertake. One of them was this whole establishment of junior kindergarten. Over the three-year period, we’re going to be looking at approximately $7 million. What we’re looking at is the impact on some of the school boards will be upwards of 1.2 percent of the overall budget, so there are areas that we need to seriously look at as well. There’s surplus that we

need to seriously consider. I can show the surplus of all the school boards for the Northwest Territories, and here we have fiscal constraint within our budget, so we have to gather all the information, take all those into consideration as we move forward. But we are moving forward on this junior kindergarten, 29 schools to begin with this fall and other regional centres next year. The following year will be all Yellowknife schools. We are going to be capturing all Northwest Territories schools with the junior kindergarten. Mahsi.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Madam Speaker, just using my good old NWT simple math here, I divided $511,000 into 29 communities that they plan to roll this out to, and I guess $17,000 really goes a long way, the way this looks, and I’m not really sure what this is doing. In other words, this is more discovery money, really, at the end of the day, with little result.

I have yet to find any Member who believes in the idea that re-profiling money from the school boards is right. I have yet to find a Member who thinks that the PTR ratio needs to be adjusted.

What type of support does this Minister have from actual Members of this Assembly on this side of the House? I have yet to find out. It seems like they tend to forget about what it’s like to be over here. I think they have told committees that they’re going to do this, not hey, what do you think? Can I get an answer on that, Madam Speaker?

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Madam Speaker, as Legislative Assembly Members we’re obligated and also responsible for the people of the Northwest Territories. We’ve reached out to the people of the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities, the leadership, the parents, the grandparents, through the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative. This is building on that. The Early Childhood Development Framework, the action plan that has been brought forward will certainly highlight the importance. We have all these stats, through the renowned researchers across Canada and internationally. Those are some of the areas that we continue to focus. With our department working with the Assembly Members, this is an area that Members refer to $511,000 and 33 communities, that’s an area that I wish top-up for those staff or early childhood workers. That’s separate from junior kindergarten that we’re introducing into the school system.

This is a new initiative that we’re embarking on based on the input from the parents, based on the input from the general public. Members ask if there is any support. We sought support, we sought guidance from the general public and there is support. Based on the feedback we are going to be receiving from the MLAs, at the end of the day we’re going to see how much support there is when going through this budget.

There is support from the general public in the Northwest Territories to move forward, especially in the small, isolated communities. Ten of the communities do not have a licensed child care program, so it will certainly benefit them. With Yellowknife, they currently deliver they call it pre-kindergarten but it is a Junior Kindergarten Program within their existing establishment at cost for the parents. This will be at no cost for the parents, what we are pursuing. Mahsi, Madam Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

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

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

Sorry, Madam Speaker. I thought it was my third question, but the Speaker is always right. Even when the Speaker is wrong, the Speaker is still right.

Some Hon. Members

Ohhh.

Robert Hawkins

Robert Hawkins Yellowknife Centre

I said even when, not when. I said she is still right. So, Madam Speaker, who is always correct, I still don’t think the Minister gets this. He calls it an action plan, but really it’s a vision with no action. He says he has support for the program. Of course, he can have support from everybody. I want to give you more. Yes, everybody is going to say, “sounds great, give us more,” but it’s our job to ask the question, how are you going to pay for this? Where do these crazy ideas fall out of the sky and how do you plan to implement it? It’s not about giving better education. The question is really about how you are going to afford this. You just keep saying we are going to give you the best things in the world. Well, who wouldn’t want it?

Madam Speaker, the Minister has no idea how he’s going to pay for this. He has reached out to the public, of course the public likes this idea because we’re going to give them more.

What support does he have from the school boards about cutting their PTR and the effects that might have, and what support does he have from Members on this, because I’m not hearing an action plan, I’m hearing dreams of sugarplums and fairies and everything will work out fine, and don’t worry, we’ll get it done. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you for that short, final supplementary. Mr. Minister.

Jackson Lafferty

Jackson Lafferty Monfwi

Mahsi, Madam Speaker. As I stated before, the overall $7 million that we’re talking about over the three-year period, dealing with all the schools across the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we are going to be servicing is re-profiling from the PTR. We’re still above the legislative target that we have for PTR, so what we’re proposing is delivering this this fall and then continuing on to other regions, other communities in the following year and all Yellowknife communities in year three from now.

Again, I have to reiterate that Dr. Stuart Shanker gave us the stats that junior kindergarten is the way to go. Not only him, a renowned international researcher, but other researchers have indicated to us. We made a presentation to Regular Members, as well, that this is the way to go. It’s not just us as a department saying that, it’s not just the Minister standing here saying that, it’s the parents that are saying that as well as the grandparents and now we’re moving forward.

I believe this is a very beneficial initiative that we want to move forward on. Mahsi.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. In the budget address yesterday, there was mention of a pilot rebate program for the film industry. That’s new to me. It wasn’t brought up when we were going through our main estimates, but it has been a concern for myself, working with people in the film industry. Seeing that there is a pilot rebate program, it kind of shocked me seeing it in the budget address yesterday.

I want to ask the Minister of ITI if he can just elaborate and give us a little bit of detail on this program that’s going to be coming out in this next fiscal year. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. The honourable Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The $100,000 rebate program is something that was developed through the development of the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we put together. It was identified as an area where we could move forward. It’s a pilot project. It is going to be expenditure-based and in year one it will be at a value of $100,000.

It’s important that we continue to ensure that the momentum that we’ve built up in the film industry here in the Northwest Territories is continued forward.

We also have been recently successful in attaining $60,000 from CanNor, which is going to allow us to move forward in the development of an NWT film strategy, which will ensure that we do get that momentum carrying us forward. Thank you.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Getting into more details, what type of rebate initiatives are we going to be looking at? Are we going to be looking at film training, development, at location incentives to get some of our people in the film industry labour jobs or

professional development with our filmmakers, people who are already in the film industry?

Can I get more information on the incentives, rebates and costs that groups are going to be able to access? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

The program will reimburse eligible television and film production clients here in the Northwest Territories with wages and also goods and services purchased here in the Northwest Territories. Again, this is a pilot project. We understand that we need to come up with a long-term strategy and vision for the film industry in the Northwest Territories, but again, we have the momentum behind us.

This is a pilot project and is something that we felt confident that we could move forward with. It was identified as an area through the Economic Opportunities Strategy that we needed to act on and that’s why it’s here. It’s something we think will certainly pay dividends as we try to attach more film production companies to do work here in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Minister Ramsay. Time for question period has expired; however, I will allow the Member for Boot Lake to continue with his set of questions, supplementary number three. Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Pan-territorially, Ministers work with other Ministers and other government through Yukon and Nunavut. Yukon has a really great program where they have even more dollars into a very structured film industry.

I am just wondering if the Minister, even though we are embarking on a pilot project, if this is something he can make more stable following some of the best practices we see in the Yukon.

This year alone, we’ve lost some of the episodes and some of the work that Arctic Air came up with that was due here in the Northwest Territories. If anybody has seen Arctic Air around Yellowknife, they were at the restaurants, they were in our hotels and were doing tourist stuff. They were adding to the economy, but we’re losing it because we don’t have the right rebate program in place to track and keep other film industries from other jurisdictions here in the North.

Can he establish this and not really focus on the pilot program but also focus on creating greater incentives, adding more dollars, something the Yukon has done successfully? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Moses. Just a clarification, that was Mr. Moses’ second supplementary, but third question. Mr. Ramsay.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

Thank you, Madam Chair. It is very important that we ensure that production

companies remain in the Northwest Territories to do the film works here. We have had some discussions with the Yukon. In fact, when looking at developing an NWT film strategy, we’ve looked at the Yukon and we’ve got a recommendation on a service provider, a contractor who has done a tremendous job for the Yukon government. That is who we have hired to do that work for us here in the Northwest Territories. Again, that is money that we’ve received from CanNor, $60,000 that we’re going to continue to work on that. It’s expected that that strategy will be released some time prior to March 31st of this year.

We are very encouraged about what we’ve talked to the Yukon about, their experience with this contractor. We are very excited about the future.

There are a couple of new reality programs that are in the works here in the Northwest Territories and we hope that there are more out there. Certainly with the construction of the Inuvik-Tuk highway, that might be another opportunity for a reality-type show here in the Northwest Territories, Madam Speaker. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Final supplementary, Mr. Moses.

Alfred Moses

Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The last question I guess I’ll have for the Minister in terms of this rebate program is: Are there any new funding dollars allocated to the film industry in terms of training and development in terms of the northern film industry people that work in this area in this industry? Is there anything that will be included in future budgets or even this budget that might enhance the products that they do and the training and skills that they do require for work here in the Northwest Territories? Thank you, Madam Speaker.

David Ramsay

David Ramsay Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment

We have re-profiled some of our SEED funding to the film industry. Last year we had 12 recipients, I believe, that received $114,000 in funding. It is our expectation that that type of funding will continue this year, that there will be applicants looking at doing film projects here in the Northwest Territories. It’s important that we have that type of funding available for them.

As we move forward, again it’s very important for this government that we continue to pursue the NWT film strategy and we will hopefully have that ready by the end of March. That will certainly build a foundation for us to work off of, to maybe have some additional programs and supports for the film industry here in the Northwest Territories. We certainly have that momentum behind us and we want to see that carried forward. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Mr. Ramsay. Item 8, written questions. Ms. Bisaro.

Wendy Bisaro

Wendy Bisaro Frame Lake

Thank you, Madam Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. The 2014-2015 budget address states that there will be “a reallocation of $1.8 million in 2014-2015” to implement junior kindergarten in the “smallest NWT communities.” Please provide the following information:

1. a breakdown, by department, showing from

where the reallocated $1.8 million will come;

2. if reallocated funds will come from ECE, from

which line of the department budget the reallocated funds will come and the amount for that budget line; and

3. if reallocated funds will come from education

authorities, the amount of reallocated money which comes from each authority.

Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Jackie Jacobson

Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. The honourable Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.