Masi. Time for oral questions has expired. Item 8, written questions. Item 9, returns to written questions. Item 10, replies to Commissioner's opening address. Item 11, petitions. Item 12, reports of standing and special committee. Item 13, reports on committee on review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Annual Report to the Legislative Assembly for 2016 under the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Tabling of documents.

Pursuant to Section 5 of the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act I wish to table the Summary of Members’ Absences for the Period October 13, 2016, to January 30, 2017.

Tabling of documents. Item 15, notices of motion. Item 16, notices of motion for first reading of bills. Item 17, motions. Item 18, first reading of bills. Minister of Finance.

Masi. The motion is on the floor. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 17 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Minister of Health and Social Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Range Lake, that Bill 18, An Act to Amend the Health and Social Services Professions Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. The motion is on the floor. All those in favour? All those opposed? The motion is carried.

---Carried

Bill 18 has had its first reading. First reading of bills. Item 19, second reading of bills. Item 20, consideration in Committee of the Whole of bills and other matters, Bill 7, Bill 13, Committee Report 6-18(2); Tabled Document 261-18(2), with Member for Sahtu in the chair.

Committee, by the authority given to me as Speaker by Motion 18-18(2), I hereby authorize the House to sit beyond the daily hour of adjournment to consider the business before the House.

I now call committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee, Mr. Beaulieu?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 261-18(2), Northwest Territories Main Estimates, 2017-2018, continuing with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. We will consider the document after a short break. Everybody agrees?

Agreed. Mahsi.

---SHORT RECESS

Recognizing a quorum, we will call committee back to order. Thank you, Minister Moses. Do you have any witnesses you would like to bring into the Chamber?

Yes, I do, Mr. Chair.

Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Welcome. Minister Moses, please introduce your witnesses for the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right, I have my deputy minister, Ms. Sylvia Haener, and on my left, Mr. Olin Lovely, assistant deputy minister of corporate services. Thank you.

Thank you. We will begin with general comments on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Members are welcome to ten minutes for the general comments. After all Members have had an opportunity to make their comments, the Minister will have ten minutes to respond. Do I have general comments on the Department of Education, Culture and Employment? Mr. Blake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, just a few comments. For the last two years, I have always been doing a few statements on the need for funding for junior kindergarten, and I am glad to see there is some funding going towards this. Since we had the pilot project in Tsiigehtchic two years back, at the start I believe they had a little over $45,000. I believe it is $48,000. It has been a while since I have seen those numbers, but I am really interested to see the actual amount that will be going to the communities after this. I know some communities will decide not to take on junior kindergarten, but that is solely their decision under the DAs.

As we move forward, I know Tsiigehtchic, for example, they are keen on continuing with the program, and I am really interested to see the extra funding going to communities. I will probably be asking this a little later, but for the communities that are taking this on, will they be getting more as other communities decide not to take this on? That will be really interesting for myself and those communities that decide to actually take on junior kindergarten as we move forward.

Also, under take a kid hunting and programs like this that are offered through the schools, it is a really good program. It is really successful in communities that I represent, Fort McPherson, Aklavik, Tsiigehtchic. The communities and the schools really do a great job working together, and I hope to see that continue. That is all I have for now. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Blake. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I just want to provide some general reflections here, as you requested. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment plays a very important role in the NWT in controlling some key funds which are widely accessed, portfolios such as education and income assistance, to name just a couple. I recognize that the department is looking at substantial change, with a view to improving service delivery in these areas, but I have to point to a very consistent pattern of communication breakdown that has happened between both the department and the public and the department and the Regular Members.

We have worked very hard leading up to today to understand whether junior kindergarten is fully funded in all places for all additional costs in the next school year, and we have not received a definitive answer on that at all. Junior kindergarten could have been a good-news story, but because of the way that the information was distributed, it was not that. Likewise, instructional hours; this is a very significant change that is being proposed by the department, particularly for the high school grades. We have yet to receive a briefing as Regular MLAs on this initiative, and that is simply unacceptable. We have heard in the meantime about an interim draft plan for Aboriginal language and culture; not that that issue isn't important, but the consequences of changing instructional hours affect every single child in the NWT.

The income assistance changes is another area that I will have questions on. I know that the Minister says that everyone is better off. I am still not a hundred per cent convinced that they are as well off as he thinks they are, but this is another area where a lack of clarity about what was on offer and how it was going to be funded has really hobbled efforts to understand what is going on here.

Those are three of my examples that I want to bring to the Minister's attention, and to his staff. We want to see, as they want to see, the best opportunity provided to the children of the NWT to make the best of their opportunities and to realize their full potential in their lifetimes.

We also want to see that people who access post-secondary education are able to receive valuable education that will keep them in the North. We need trained people in the North. Every measurement possible says that that is the case. Most of all, I just want to impress on the Minister that we really need to improve the communication with the public and with the Regular MLAs around these initiatives so that he can turn us into supporters instead of adversaries. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will try to just keep mine specific so we can get moving on this. I will try not to take the 10 minutes. I guess my first one is that I would have to agree with my colleague who just previously spoke about communication. This is probably the biggest challenge that we are facing out there, is the messaging and how we get that messaging to the general public, because there is a lot of miscommunication out there. I say we, collectively, are doing a bad job because we are not getting the information or asking for the proper information and getting it out there to the people.

Junior kindergarten is a huge issue for the Northwest Territories in that it has an impact on a number of different organizations. For the record, junior kindergarten has been a big success in my region, and people have bought into it from the very beginning, except for one community. However, the caveat is it needs to be fully funded. We have heard it now in the House it has been fully funded, but, again, the numbers of communications on how much it is actually going to cost, it seems to be different from what we are hearing. We hear one thing, then we hear another thing. Then, getting communication, we find out from the press that it is fully funded; not from the Minister but from the press as we are going forward.

We understood from the Finance Minister it was going to be done throughout the sitting of this term, and then the Minister informed us it was going to get done. The advancement was going to be done during the time as communities are prepared to do it. I appreciate that, but, again, the actual costs of the funding, we still don't know. We have talked about inclusive schooling, language, busing. Those are the challenges out there that are not part of it.

I have heard the Minister speak in this House about how we have $150 million going to school boards; they have to make decisions. Well, again, that to me sounds like we are not taking ownership. Education is our responsibility, the Government of the Northwest Territories. We work with the divisional education councils and, yes, it is alright to give them some latitude, but we have to give them clear directions, and it needs to be done so that people of the Northwest Territories understand we are working together. It does not mean that we are fighting against each other all the time. It comes back to the college. We talked about the college: well, we give them money, and we give them some clear direction; well, then you've got to find the money. They are not doing strategic plans, so cuts are happening without strategic plans.

I have no problem making cuts if they are logical and they are processed properly, but if we are relying on a third party to do it, which is the college. That's not correct. We need to be working with them. We've got to be making informed decisions. If we're not making informed decisions, then we're not doing any value to what we're trying to do. The Minister talks about SFA and a great system; I totally agree with you. I totally agree it's one of the best, if not the best, in Canada.

I've had my children take the program. I've had my children take schooling down South and I've children take schooling up North. Both are meeting the needs. The North is, for some people, their comfort zone, the ability to stay in their home territory or in a centre like Yellowknife or Fort Smith. That's because they have family. They can rely on family. If they had to move down South, they're not going to have that family to support them. So again, this needs to be all taken into consideration when we're making decisions. Hard decisions have to be made, but they have to be made based on good evidence. If we're not doing good evidence then we're going to have the struggle we're having. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Mr. O'Reilly.