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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll continue on the PTR. I’m just wondering if the Minister can give me a definition of what PTR includes, because there are questions of whether our principals, vice-principals and classroom assistants are included in PTR. Are they included in the PTR?

Mr. Speaker, the number of educators used to calculate the PTR includes regular classroom teachers, principals, assistant principals and program support staff. It’s important to know that Aboriginal language and culture specialists are excluded from this PTR. Those are just some of the highlights. The principals are covered. Mahsi.

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

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. First, I’d like to congratulate the Aboriginal Head Start program for their 17 years of their journey on the program itself. As the Member stated, it has been successful. It’s part of the federal funding.

The junior kindergarten is an optional program to those communities that do not have educational programming. Those communities that offer Head Start programming or preschool, it’s still part of the option for parents to pursue, if they wish to do that. It is part of the option to deliver that in the communities. Mahsi.

Would the Minister consider delaying or suspending at least the options of communities that raise their concerns, and see if there’s going to be a pause in terms of trying to reflect upon the next step? Mahsi.

I believe it was in my Minister’s statement, as well, that if we delay junior kindergarten in those communities, obviously it will be detrimental to those individuals, whether they are four-year-olds in the communities.

Aboriginal Head Start has been very successful, but we have to keep in mind that I represent the whole Northwest Territories and I represent the population of the Northwest Territories. That’s the reason why we’re going forward as part of the option to deliver those programs into the communities that will benefit this JK. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

According to Ms. Reanna Erasmus, a few years ago she began working with the Head Start program. The plan was to have programs like Aboriginal Head Start in the communities, and then something changed. In the last eight months or so, the department stopped consulting with Head Start people and all of a sudden there was a junior kindergarten.

To the Minister: Why hasn’t the department sat down to determine how Head Start can inform the development of junior kindergarten in those communities? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, in fact, my department has sat down with the Head Start programming and there have been quite a few interactions. There has been correspondence, obviously going back and forth from my department to that organization, and I can provide that information to the Member, that clearly highlights all the days that they’ve met and the discussions that

my department has had. Not only the Aboriginal Head Start programming, those individuals that we’ve met with engaged Aboriginal Student Achievement Initiative and early childhood development.

We have engaged with the communities throughout the Northwest Territories. Based on the feedback came JK. Obviously, we are working with the Aboriginal Head Start program, and the JK is based on the Denendeh curricula as well.

Part of the process is we need to collaborate even more, so that’s what we’re doing. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think the key word is collaboration. The expectation that is, indeed, that as we’re going down this path, we would work together.

In Fort Providence there has been a JK pilot project running since October. We have Head Start running there as well. The children go to junior kindergarten in the morning and they come to Head Start in the afternoon. The program manager, Joyce McLeod, has had to contact parents and ask them to please come and get their children because they are very, very tired. So we know for a lot of the children, a full day is too much. That’s just one of the problems that are happening with the combination of junior kindergarten and Aboriginal Head Start, yet there has been no program evaluation. No one has called Joyce McLeod to find out how the junior program is impacting Head Start in Fort Providence. This is a big oversight, Mr. Speaker.

How does the Minister account for that? Mahsi.

Mr. Speaker, those are the discussions that we need to have. I am going to Fort Providence and I will be meeting with that organization.

We have to keep in mind that you’re talking about eight communities. I am responsible for 33 communities and I want to deliver the most effective programming, that’s JK, into the communities. JK is based on Dene Kede and Inuinnaqtun curriculum that recognizes northern culture. It makes learning experimental.

This is the curriculum the program came out with. We have to make it a success in the communities. That’s what I’m committed to. In Fort Providence and other Aboriginal Head Start programming, we will be working with them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like the Minister of Education today to stand up and explain the changes that are coming with junior kindergarten. He needs to enlighten the community and certainly the territory that if you have a day home, they’ve been telling everyone it will be fine.

What evidence can he convey that it will be fine? Just a few days ago, I brought up in this House the departmental staff keep telling these day home owners, whether they are licenced or unlicensed or part of the Montessori program, you’re going to lose money and it’s time to budget better. I would like to hear the Minister’s perspective on how everything will be fine with his master plan. Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the Member first raised that issue with me about day home owners, there was a misunderstanding where apparently my department told them they needed to be ready for these circumstances. I met with my department. I questioned them and they came back and are providing the support that’s out there. Through my department, we have a variety of programming. We will continue to support those day home operators as we did in the past for how many years now? We will continue to do that, Mr. Speaker. We want them to be successful. We don’t want them to be out of business. Mahsi.

I’m really happy to hear we are going to continue to support them, but we listen to the Minister of Education saying we support them by the amount of kids they have, so we give them money per kid. But if we’re taking the kids away, are we just going to support them because we want to support them?

It was the Minister’s staff who told the day home owners that you have to budget better and if you can’t do it, bring us your paperwork and we’ll budget for you. They also told them that they need to accept that there will be a loss and they need to accept it.

How does that work when he’s saying now he’s going to take care of them? Thank you.

As I indicated earlier through this session, JK is optional. It will be up to the parents to decide if they want to take their kids to JK or continue with the day homes. The budget, everybody has to budget, not only in my department but daycare operators, day home operators, they have to budget too. These are reporting mechanisms. We have to work with them. Those are some of the facts that we share with them. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

We’ve heard the Minister on the record say we’ll take care of them. We’ve had staff tell these day home operators if they were better budgeters, the changes wouldn’t be noticeable. Mr. Speaker, all we hear is that JK is optional. That’s what I’m asking.

What is the evidence that people will choose to pay $1,000 a month per child to go to the day home versus go to a free program? That’s what we want to know. Where’s this evidence in this ludicrous statement that I hear over and over again that it will be up to the parents, it’s optional? They will choose to pay rather than take the free program.

I don’t know a single person who would pay $1,000 a month if the program was free across the way. Give me the evidence, I want the evidence, everyone wants the evidence, the public wants the evidence. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know how I can justify this, but the junior kindergarten that we’re rolling out into 23 communities and then going on to regional centres next year and the following year will be to Yellowknife. I’ve indicated in the House that my department will be working very closely with the daycare operators, day home operators and we will continue to subsidize them. We have done that.

Again, junior kindergarten is optional for the parents. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister continues to fail to explain the science behind his philosophy that if we can give free spaces away, but he’s convinced the option before the parent would be that they would rather pay $1,000. That’s their choice. So what we’re doing is sinking the opportunities created by these day homes, whether they are licenced or unlicensed or Montessori programs.

Would the Minister finally put the evidence on the record so we can have a true, fact-based discussion on this problem? Thank you.