Thank you, Mr. Minister. You still have time, Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regards to the arts organization operating funds, just kind of a comment. It was kind of confusing. If they could actually do a budget line or like a description and say this is where the money went to I think it would have helped alleviate some of the questions we have. Some of the organizations out there that'll be looking for this funding may be sitting there going, well the money's gone, and not realize it's out there in another pot. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thanks. Appreciate the comment and I know our department works very well with our stakeholders, so any of these changes, we'll make sure that they're passed on to the appropriate previous applicants if they see that funding might not be aware.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

I'm not sure if it's junior kindergarten in this section or on page 70, so can the Minister clarify questions for junior kindergarten to be on this page or page 70? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Some of that funding is in the previous K to 12 budget that we had. There’s other areas within this one that also funds some of the programs, some of the services and resources that they need in the communities.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in regard to the P-T-R and junior kindergarten we had a presentation by the department. Can you please explain to us what the people/teacher ratio is going to be for the implementation of junior kindergarten? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Yes, and I know that some information is brought forth to standing committee in terms of getting that information out. We are always looking at ways to improve our ratio moving forward in terms of people-to-teacher ratios, and that's one area that we are looking at.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure, is it confidential presently or are we able to provide that information to the public, what the people/teacher ratio is for junior kindergarten? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. One of the options that we did present to committee was a 12 to 1 ratio for junior kindergarten. We are always looking at options. And, as I said, with the junior kindergarten being implemented during the presentation we did say in the academic year of 2017. So we've still got a lot of consultations to do. We're going to be speaking with the communities and the schools that have implemented junior kindergarten, see how it's working with them, take some of the best practices, learn from the challenges moving forward. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I thank the Minister for sharing, and I wasn't too sure how this all works. I applaud you guys and I appreciate the fact that you guys are going to go out there and share this information of best practices.

So just one final question on this here. This is not going to have an impact on the other student/teacher ratio that we presently have in the schools? Junior kindergarten is basically 12 to 1? Is this correct, Mr. Chair?

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Your time is up, so I'll recognize that as the last question. And your answer, Mr. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the P-T-R that we got for junior kindergarten will not affect P-T-R from other older grades and throughout the school system. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Minister. Mr. Nadli.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is in regards to the funding for Aboriginal organization and Aboriginal languages. It notes here 2016 and 2015-16 there hasn't been a change. At least $4.859 million has been accorded to Aboriginal languages.

My question is to the Minister, what portion of that is designated to the 11 Aboriginal official languages? I mean, maybe to try to set the context of the question is that I understand like there's these 11 official languages, but then we have regions. Like say my region, the Deh Cho, we speak Slavey and Dene and, you know, similarly up North they would speak the Gwich'in languages. So which portion of the $4.8 million is given to the language groups? Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Nadli. Mr. Minister.

Thank you. Of that money, about $3.5 million is given to the Aboriginal language communities. It's something that we worked on through the last government in terms of providing funding for the Aboriginal groups/organizations so they can start delivering their programs to try to revitalize it. We're also always working with the federal government to try to get more money in this particular area as well as looking at trying to create multi-year agreements with them on terms of seeking funding for Aboriginal languages. Thank you.