Thank you, Mr. Abernethy. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I do not want this to be a drawn out process. Will this be complete within the 17th Legislative Assembly?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The review, analysis and direction will be completed within the 17th Assembly. It might take a bit of time, but I will continue to work with the Member and committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I have questions today for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I would like to follow up on some questions that were asked earlier in the week by my colleagues from Hay River, particularly Mr. Bouchard, who spoke about some of the potential impacts on junior kindergarten, sorry, the impacts of junior kindergarten on other preschool programs. In both Hay River and Yellowknife, we have viable preschool programs and the one I want to specifically refer to is the Aboriginal Head Start program. The Junior Kindergarten Program is going to have a huge impact on Aboriginal Head Start. They’ve recently been advised, not in so many words, but they pretty much have understood that their program, which is for three and four-year-olds, when junior kindergarten starts is going to become a program for three-year-olds. This is a very active program. It’s a very well recognized program and it’s a very successful program and the department itself has told them that.

I’d like to know from the Minister, first off, why are we killing off one program for the benefit of junior kindergarten? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Clearly, junior kindergarten is optional to the parents. It’s up to the parents to choose where their kids should be going. Obviously, we support the preschoolers who are out there in the communities such as Hay River, Yellowknife and other communities. We continue to support that. We provide funding through various programs we have within ECE and the Health department and other areas and we continue to sponsor those.

This is just an enhancement for the preschoolers who are out there and it is an option for the parents. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

To the Minister, I don’t believe the Aboriginal Head Start program receives any funding from the territorial government. They are a federally funded program and it doesn’t cost anything for parents for their children to attend the Aboriginal Head Start program.

Maybe there’s a miscommunication between what the Minister is telling Members and what the department staff are telling the Aboriginal Head Start staff, but from what the Aboriginal Head Start people are telling me, I don’t understand why the two programs cannot co-exist.

Why does Aboriginal Head Start have to redesign their program for only three-year-olds? Why can they not continue to provide programming for three and four-year-olds?

When I say subsidies for the operators such as preschool, Aboriginal Head Start program is another successful program in the communities funded through the federal government. We continue to enhance those programs in the communities and develop more options. That’s what our main focus is. Some of the communities do not have those options. They have the Head Start program. Some have preschool, some don’t. So, junior kindergarten would allow more flexibility in the communities that do not have licenced child care programming. Those are just some of the areas that we’ve been discussing for a number of years now. Now it’s before us and we’re moving forward.

An early childhood development consultant is also working very closely with those operators, Mr. Speaker. Mahsi.

To the Minister, I am not saying that junior kindergarten is not a good program and I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be implemented. What I am saying is we have eight Aboriginal Head Start programs in eight communities in the NWT. The impression that is being given to both school boards and to the Aboriginal Head Start Council, from my understanding, is that junior kindergarten will be in the schools. The four-year-olds will go to school; the four-year-olds will not go to any other programming. This is not daycare, Mr. Speaker. This is a preschool play program and it is an extremely valuable program. I need to understand from the Minister when he says his department is assisting with the Aboriginal Head Start program and helping the council with their programming, what does he mean by that, because they are not feeling like they’re being helped. Thank you.

As you know, we haven’t really rolled out the program yet. It will be this September. We’re at the point where we are working with those operators such as Head Start programming and also the preschools and other licenced early childhood development programs in our communities and those communities that do not

have it. As I stated, we have an early childhood consultant who is working very closely with the communities. We want this program to be very successful. It’s a three-year phased-in approach. We want this Head Start program, preschool obviously, enhanced as well. We will be working closely with them, hand-in-hand. We’re not going to just ignore them. They have been very successful. We’ll continue to support that as well. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There’s a lot in there, but to the Minister, I understand that the department doesn’t want to ignore the Aboriginal Head Start. I understand that the department wants to go into communities where there is nothing, but in these eight communities where Head Start is a well-established, successful, viable program, don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. I want to say to the Minister that I appreciate he wants to work with Head Start, but the communication is not working.

To the Minister, I want to know, will he go back to the department and discuss with the department the communication that he’s having with the Aboriginal Head Start Council? Because they certainly are not feeling they’re being helped; they feel like they’re being shut down. Thank you.

Mahsi. That’s the whole idea of what we’re doing in our department. I just met with my senior staff last week because we talk about the planning, the rolling out of the program of junior kindergarten and how we can work with the preschoolers, how we can work with the Head Start programming. So those are just some of the discussions we’ve been having.

Mr. Bromley also raised that issue last week, I believe it was. Since that time, we’ve been discussing this particular area, how can we improve our communication, our working dialogue with operators. So those are discussions we’ve been having. We’re going to improve those areas for sure. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Deh Cho, Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. The Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The whole education renewal innovation, the whole purpose is to deal with that, the education achievement gap with the NWT students. We’re responsible for all students in the Northwest Territories. So there are Aboriginal students and non-Aboriginal students, but we’re responsible for all of them. So this education renewal will capture that. Those are the discussions that we’ve been having. Since the Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative, the Early Childhood Development Framework and now Education Renewal Innovation. So this is a particular area where we’re focusing on small communities, why are they not succeeding in school. It is one of the pillars that we’re going to be looking at formula funding, we’re going to be looking at how the whole structure hasn’t been succeeding in their schools, the small communities. So this is an area that will be covered and offset through education renewal. Mahsi.

I’d like to thank the Minister for his response. They’re still at the discussion stage, which is reassuring that there’s time for input. However, going back to our students, again, there are always barriers in terms of some of the obstacles that our students have to go through. It’s not very common that you have students that are making the choice to basically separate themselves from their social friends and then make that choice to go back to school. We need to ensure that this government has the support mechanisms in place. Aboriginal youth are more likely to delay the transition to post-secondary studies. That means they are more likely to have children, yet a student getting financial assistance isn’t eligible for daycare. Why is that?

Mahsi. Student Financial Assistance supports the students that need financial assistance going back to university or college. There are subsidy programs through ECE, Education, Culture and Employment that do offset the cost of child care programming because we have to support those students. We want them to succeed and come back to our communities to

obviously develop professional backgrounds, so to become a professional.

It may not be covered through SFA, but there are other subsidies within ECE that will offset the cost of daycare. Mahsi.

Thank you. The Minister indicated that part of the efforts to address the need for daycare subsidies is that it’s something that quite possibly could be expanded.

Why doesn’t this government provide a financial aid package that matches the real costs of education? Mahsi.

Mahsi. The SFA program that we deliver in the Northwest Territories, as I’ve stated so many times, this is one of the best benefit programs for student financial assistance across Canada and internationally. So, this will continue to push that forward. Those are some of the areas that may not offset the overall costs of the student achieving their tickets or their diploma, certifications or degrees. There are other subsidies, the scholarships are out there and other benefits that are out there. Some, obviously, work part time as well. There are various venues that individuals can access. So SFA, again, is one of the best programs that we deliver to students and it has been a success. Mahsi.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister has indicated that the Education Renewal Initiative is underway and primarily to try to address the achievement gap between the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. That’s the main purpose of the Education Renewal Initiative.

Could the Minister, by this spring’s session, commit to giving an update to this House and indicate to us how and what kind of performance measures he will undertake to ensure that his department addresses that gap? Mahsi.