Curtailing expenditures is difficult when the initiatives we start today bear fruit in the future. Almost 40 per cent of the Northwest Territories five-year old children are not at the social, emotional and knowledge levels they should be at that age. How can we expect our children to do well in school when practically half need support to bring them to a level ready for kindergarten, let alone grade one? We have added $1.5 million to the budget to help offset the costs of the junior kindergarten program as it is rolled out in all Northwest Territories communities for four-year old children to provide the foundation for our children to learn. I am also committing today that we will add an additional $2.7 million to the funding for schools before the end of the 18th Legislative Assembly to ensure that the junior kindergarten program can be implemented in all communities.
We need to provide opportunities for youth outside of the regular classroom and the Arctic Winter Games is a venue that provides a host of opportunities for youth to learn and develop, whether it is through participation in the sporting events themselves or volunteering to help host the Games. We are proposing to increase our support for Hay River and Fort Smith’s joint bid for the Arctic Winter Games to $1.5 million in 2017-18 with an additional $500,000 in this budget.
Mr. Speaker, the best social program is a good paying job. The need to support employment opportunities in smaller communities is a message we often hear. This budget proposes an additional $3 million to be added to the Small Community Employment Support program that provides opportunities for youth in small and remote communities to gain work experience and opportunities for all residents in these communities to gain the skills that lead to employment and increased self-reliance. A portion of this funding will be used in 2017-18 to develop and implement a Small Community Employment Strategy that will be used to improve the effectiveness of the Small Community Employment Support program’s enhanced $4.3 million annual budget.
This budget proposes $220,000 in one-time funding to upgrade the security systems of our existing schools to meet the new Safe Schools legislated requirements.