Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, and I want to follow up on my statement and talk a little bit about daycare and subsidies and funding for daycares.

Late last fall the Department of Education undertook a review of the Early Childhood Program, and they advised licenced daycares and day homes last August that they would be undertaking this review and that they would want to get these day homes and daycares involved.

I’d like to ask the Minister right now… Sorry, the review was to be completed in October. So, I’d like to ask the Minister for an update on the status of this review. Was it completed in October as was scheduled? Thank you.

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. There’s been a review that’s been undertaken and I believe my department, since October, has been finalizing their input as well. So, I’ll have to get the latest status on that. I don’t have that detailed information in front of me as we speak. Mahsi.

To the Minister: Part of the review, as I understand it, was to look at the review, to review child care costs for parents and to particularly look at the impact that child care has on their cost of living and so on.

I’d like to ask the Minister, is that part of the review that either has gone on or is going on? Will the review be looking at costs of child care for parents? Thank you.

That particular review, I’m just getting some information here that it is due in March. Obviously, since we’re discussing that the overall review, we want to be on the right track.

Also, within the review process we want to touch on all funding aspects as well. What the Member is referring to will be captured. We’ve been hearing from the day home and daycare operators their concerns and opportunities that we may consider. Those are discussions that we are currently having.

Thanks to the Minister for the information on that completion date. I guess since the daycare operators, day home operators were advised that this would be done in October and now the Minister has just said it’s going to be completed in March, I’d like to know why there was a delay. I would also like to know from the Minister if he can provide me with a list of the daycare and day home

operators who have been contacted for input into the review.

The review will be due in March, so that’s within the next couple of weeks. During the review the department obviously engaged the licenced daycare operators and also the staff, licenced family day home operators. Also, part of the process is Education, Culture and Employment regional early childhood consults. Those are the parties that have been involved along the process.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am hearing from residents that are involved in day homes and daycares that I don’t think they’ve heard from the department to provide input into this review.

I would again ask the Minister if he would commit to provide me at a later date a list of the people that have been contacted to provide input into the early childhood program review.

We will provide the latest update of all those we have engaged because it’s very important that we hear from the day home and the daycare operators from their perspectives and their concerns that are brought to our attention.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The Member for Range Lake, Mr. Dolynny.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With the ECE budget tabled recently, it’s hard not to notice that the balance between forced growth and new initiatives is disproportionately balanced within the department’s budget plans. A question many of us have asked is, how is it possible to initiate such a monumental shift in program design with no new funding such as the Education Renewal and Innovation Action Plan? Moreover, with high school graduation right around the corner, many are still concerned with our territorial student outcomes.

My questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I wish to ask the Minister about his budget for the upcoming year, which is relatively flat. Actually, when you factor in forced growth, he is dealing with fewer dollars than last year, yet we continue to hear how much change is forthcoming with the ERI Action Plan.

Can the Minister inform the House how is his department funding this new initiative?

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

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. When the Finance Minister presented the mains and the business plan for 2015-16, he made it clear the financial realities of this government and as we move forward it’s going to be a very tough position to be in. The three-year Education Renewal and Innovation Action Plan was created to use internal and existing funding as much as we possibly can. We know that’s coming with other departments, as well, not only ECE.

In addition to the $150 million that we contribute to education boards across the Northwest Territories, we have identified $6.2 million over a three-year period. In 2014-15, $2.4 million; 2015-16, $2 million; and also 2016-17, $1.8 million. Those are the monies that we identified that will be well spent and invested into our education system.

I guess the devil will be in the details when we finally see this in action. We are being made aware that the Alberta Achievement Test, the only real assessment tool to gauge how well or poorly our students do in language arts and math skills, is being phased out.

Can the Minister tell us what tools will then be used to monitor a baseline for assessing student outcomes across the NWT?

We are closely monitoring the Alberta AATs. There have been some changes that are happening and we are working very closely with them. My department is currently looking at replacement of the assessment and including Alberta’s new tools for student learning assessment. That’s a new tool that they have developed which was piloted in several schools in the NWT this fall as well. We’re working very closely with Alberta. It is too soon to know if the new Alberta assessment is a good fit for the NWT, but those are areas that we will continue to push forward with Alberta and see what’s best for the Northwest Territories to develop our own assessment tool.

There is a feeling that the phasing out of the Alberta Achievement Test was a direct response to the continued low scores year after year in some of our smaller communities and that any new standardized test will only camouflage the real issues facing these struggling students.

How can the Minister guarantee that any new tools in standardized testing will be equally representative for all northern students?

The phasing out of the Alberta Achievement Test is an opportunity for our government to find other methods that we can work with that have a northern perspective. Tools that assist in student achievement are an appropriate way that takes into account our students’ realities and also their northern context. My department staff, ECE, is working to determine

what is the best tool for the Northwest Territories along with working with Alberta and the standardized tests that are most applicable and suitable for our northern context for our small communities as well. Those are just some of the discussions that we are currently having.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. With respect to the pathways to high school graduation rates, what does the Minister have, or in place, to improve these student outcomes?

We are being challenged in the Northwest Territories. We know that NWT students are graduating from high school significantly below the Canadian average. We’re fully aware of that, and our system is not meeting the standards. The whole Education Renewal and Innovation will definitely capture that. We’re fully aware of that and we’re developing tools to capture that as well. Along the way, it’s a three-year mandate, a three-year action plan, and we will be keeping the standing committee up to speed while we’re making changes along the way.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Hawkins.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll have questions for the Minister of Human Resources right now. We’ve all been made well aware of the experience and certainly the security issues that have happened around Stanton Hospital where many of our staff have come under some scares due to a security issue. My fear, of course, is that Stanton may be more of a symptom of problems as opposed to a particular one. Rather than focusing strictly in on Stanton, which would probably be a mistake at this particular time, I want to look broadly across our public service and ask the Minister of Human Resources what would his department be doing, knowing that, I believe, in 2013 we’ve had a couple assaults on health and social services staff, and I know we’ve had some assaults late in 2014. What we’re noticing is a bit of a trend across the continuum of the public service, and I just want to make sure our staff are certainly safe and we’re doing the proper assessments.

Specifically to the Minister of Human Resources is: What type of assessment is being done to ensure our staff across the territorial government are working in safe environments and they have protection and access to resources to ensure their safety?

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. I’m going to remind people in the public gallery to turn

your cellphones off. The Minister of Human Resources, Mr. Beaulieu.