Thank you, Mr. McNeely. The Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Such a change would be an almost complete change in the program, which is meant for those not in custody, either serving prisoners or on remand. Now, that is not to say there are not programs to assist those who are in custody. There are such programs, but they have a different focus. The whole point of this program was to assist those not in custody. There are programs for those in custody, and programs for those not in custody. I imagine it would be very difficult to integrate those two programs and, in fact, that is not what A New Day is all about. It is voluntary for men who have issues with their relationships, and it is meant for those not in custody. Again, there are programs for those in custody, presently either on remand or serving prisoners. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.

Let me reword that. My question is: if an offender was incarcerated for family violence as the program is intended for, would the Minister entertain the idea of targeting those with family violence as clients, who have offended in the area of family violence, for counselling and rehabilitation? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. The Minister.

This program is for those who may be offenders in the sense they have committed assaults and so on, but it is not meant for those actually in custody or on remand, of course, which is also in custody. This program is very directed to those not in custody, who are there voluntarily. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. McNeely.

My closing comment is it seems that a decision was made, and there is really no value to provide sound suggestions because that is where it is going to stop. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Would the Minister like to respond?

I don't want anybody to think that a decision was made irrationally. After all, we went out for an evaluation report. This matter has been brought up several times in the House, so there is a very careful evaluation prepared. On the basis of that evaluation, an RFP was issued. There were no responses. We then went out to NGOs, so I am quite confident that we have conducted this whole process properly. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Minister. Anything further, Mr. McNeely? Nothing further from Mr. McNeely. I have no one further on my list. Thank you three for this discussion. Does committee now agree that we consider Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act?

Thank you, committee. Minister's Statement 186-18(2) will stay on the order papers. Minister, thank you to you and your witnesses. Sergeant-at-Arms, you may escort the witnesses from the Chamber. Minister, you may return to your seat. Thank you, committee. We will move on to Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act, as agreed. I will ask the Minister responsible for the bill to introduce it. Minister Moses.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am pleased to be here today to introduce Bill 16, An Act to Amend the Education Act. This bill seeks to change the age of entitlement to access kindergarten programs from five years old to four, as well as reduce the minimum hours of instruction required to 945 hours for grades 1 through 12.

The goal of these two major initiatives, also known as junior kindergarten and STIP, is to improve the NWT education system for all learners so that they can meet the challenges of today and into the future, and be successful in whatever they choose to do. Junior kindergarten will provide all NWT families, regardless of their income or geographic location, the option of enrolling their four-year-old children in a free, play-based, developmentally appropriate program. As this Legislative Assembly has recognized, early childhood development is critical to a child's future success, and there is a direct link between the quality of early education and care and positive future outcomes.

We also recognize that we need to provide teachers with time to plan and develop their own learning. This government knows that in order to improve our students' academic results, we not only need JK offered in every community, we also need our teachers to have time, during their regular work week and school year, to develop their skills and properly plan, implement, and assess their students' learning. In order to improve student outcomes, we must ensure educators have access to the experiences, resources, training, and professional development to improve their workload and wellness situations, so they can focus on excellence in teaching. This is what the Strengthening Teacher Instructional Practices initiative is all about.

Before the end of this school year, I will provide the Standing Committee on Social Development with a complete monitoring, evaluation, and accountability framework for the STIP pilot project, where we anticipate seeing improvements in:

● teacher satisfaction through pre- and post-school year surveys;

● teacher human resource statistics, such as sick days;

● use of professional development time;

● student attendance; and

● student course completions.

Significant change will take time, and the evaluation will likely evolve as schools try new approaches with their school calendars. As such, the evaluation plan will include a reporting schedule outlining the appropriate measures, as the initiative evolves over time. I want to reiterate that I believe the territory-wide implementation of junior kindergarten and the opportunity to build in time during the school year for teachers to complete their professional duties and strengthen the quality of instructional practices will be game changers. I strongly believe that, in years to come, we will look back at this moment in time to these two strategic initiatives and see them as a vital step on the road to success for our young children, our youth, and our territory. I will be happy to answer any questions Members may have. Mahsi.

Thank you, Minister Moses. I will note that the committee, the Standing Committee on Social Development presented a substantive report, Committee Report 10-18(2), in relation to this bill. Now, Minister, do you have witnesses you would like to bring to the Chamber?

Yes, I do.

Thank you, Minister, Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber. Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses to the House.

To my right, I have my assistant deputy minister of Education and Culture, Ms. Rita Mueller, and Mr. Michael Reddy with our Legislative Division. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Welcome to the witnesses. I will now open the floor to general comments on Bill 16, and committee, please keep in mind that we will also be discussing the report prepared by the standing committee as well, so please keep any general comments to the scope of the bill. Do we have general comments? Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My general comments are going to be short and brief. We went out and went to three communities. We have heard over 237 responses through e-mails and letters. Committee provided and listened to what people and teachers and administrators said. We then provided – we are making two recommendations here to the floor to make a decision to amend the bill, and at that time, we will discuss those. I will have further comments during those amendments. I would like to thank everybody for their commitment and hard work to this. It was very interesting and very challenging. We would like to thank all the presenters, and all the work that they did to provide us. Their feedback, the union, the teachers, and all the parents and all that. It was a very difficult decision. I understand this is near and dear to people's hearts, our youth. It is near and dear to me. Bill 16, as we move forward, we do have amendments that we wish to bring to the floor at the appropriate time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Thompson. General comments to the bill? Mr. Testart.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I would like to acknowledge the work of the Honourable Members of the Standing Committee on Social Development. They spent a tremendous amount of time making sure this legislation and the public interest, and it was well-represented through their deliberations, and ultimately, through the substantive report that they created and read into the House earlier this week. This act will bring both junior kindergarten into the NWT curriculum, and reduce the number of instructional hours required by law. Those are the most significant portions of it.

It has been a hot topic of debate in our 33 communities. Many different viewpoints rising to the forefront. Ultimately, junior kindergarten has largely been well understood by the public. The strengthening instructional teacher practices, the STIP pilot, is somewhat of a new development for many people although we have been discussing it for several months. To be clear, I think our teachers are world class, and they work in very difficult circumstances here in the North. Given the limited resources that we have at our means, providing them with the flexibility to do their jobs to the best of their ability, I think is a very good policy decision.

I do acknowledge the concerns that the Standing Committee on Social Development has brought forward, and I appreciate what they have set out in their report and the recommendations they have made, and I look forward to debating their proposed amendments later on today. I would like to keep an open mind on legislation. I certainly do support the intentions of this bill, but if there are ways to make it better, I am open to considering those. But I do want to say, I strongly support the hardworking teachers of Kam Lake and all of our communities, and I am very pleased to see that we are working on solutions to the challenges they face every day as they are educating our students and supporting our families. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Testart. Next, we have Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when we had our hearing in Yellowknife, the executive director of the NWTTA said that the status quo in education was not the answer to where we are in terms of student achievement and teacher wellness. I agree with that. I agree with that statement. We need to improve student outcomes in every grade, not only in graduation. The process of getting to the point we are at now, reporting on this bill has been made unnecessarily difficult by poor communication by the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

In the case of JK, the standing committee and our colleagues on this side have worked very hard to ensure that full funding for junior kindergarten is, in fact, full funding. That was not given proactively. It was something that had to be wrangled about, and I think that we do have some good results. But this is a perfect example of what my grandmother would have said was "penny wise and pound foolish." This could have been a good news story right from the beginning if adequate resources had been pledged willingly and proactively instead of being extracted an inch at a time. Likewise, with the Strengthening Teacher Instructional Practice, this also could have been a good news story but it was not because once again, the major problem with this is that there are not enough teachers in our school system, and the teachers who are there now are too hard-pressed to do anymore, a point which I heard repeatedly, and which I do not doubt at all. But rather than providing a proactive approach from a communications point of view, the Minister left it to the standing committee to explain this initiative to incredulous parents and to supportive teachers. As a result, once again, we have ended up wrangling right up until today about amendments and about support for the bill itself. If there is a takeaway from this entire process, it is that communication between the Department of Education, Culture and Employment, and its stakeholders, and that includes parents, students, teachers, Regular MLAs, needs to be improved. We are not your last thought. We need to be your first thought, and that is not what I am seeing here, and the process has been made unduly difficult as a result. Thank you.