Masi. Minister responsible for Public Engagement and Transparency.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. This government does maintain that position. We simply don't feel that is necessary as a small jurisdiction, and also there is, of course, a considerable amount of information regarding our contacts with those outside of the government that is provided. Thank you.

Can the Minister elaborate on why the size of our jurisdiction does not require to know who is influencing government decision-making? Apart from a list of meetings that is published by choice, there is nothing in legislation that requires an increased level of scrutiny on who the government is talking to. We have industry here. We have the involvement of large corporations involved in the resource sector. Is this not a priority, that our citizens be informed of who our decision makers are meeting with when they are outside of this building? I would like to hear an answer from the Minister.

Yes. Information regarding Cabinet's meetings with those in the industry, of course, can be known. We simply do not feel it is necessary, at this time, to have a public registry that would doubtless involve some costs, and may actually involve hiring someone to run or take care of the registry. We simply don't feel that it is necessary. We think we are providing the type of information that is required to the public.

I know the Minister likes to be fiscally prudent along with his Cabinet colleagues. The Minister said that he believes that is sufficient to maintain public confidence. How is he coming to that conclusion? Has he consulted with the people of the Northwest Territories on the subject of a lobbyist registry? How do we know this for sure? Has any consultation been performed on behalf of his portfolio to gauge what the public is looking for, for increased public accountability from this government?

I haven't had any formal engagement with the public at large. I can advise, however, that around this table, the Cabinet is extremely experienced in this matter. We are very experienced and competent Ministers. We have discussed this. Our position simply is, as you have heard earlier, that the present manner of dealing with contact between Cabinet Ministers and industry is sufficient.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am certainly not questioning the competency of our Cabinet Ministers. That is not what is at stake here. What is at stake here is maintaining the confidence that decision-making is publicly recorded. The many lobbyists of jurisdictions have lobbyist registries that provide a certificate that says what a lobbyist is going to be doing, who they are speaking to, and reports of communications between government and their clients. I guess I continue to fail to understand why this isn't required for our jurisdiction. We have a rather large budget at our disposal. How we spend that money, how we make decisions about changing regulations and supporting those industries is important, but equally important is that people have confidence that their decision-makers are making decisions on behalf of Northerners, for Northerners and not on behalf of special interest groups. Again, if the Minister could educate me on why he is so certain that Northerners do not want this information to be publicly available to them, I would be happy to know. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This information is publicly available. We simply feel that a formal registry would be overly cumbersome.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I am going to try to keep this quick. We had a briefing from the Minister of Education last week on junior kindergarten. There were still some unresolved issues around this full funding of junior kindergarten. Can the Minister tell this House and the public whether the inclusive schooling formula includes students who will be in junior kindergarten, yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, it doesn't. The inclusive schooling is a different part of funding that focuses on the needs of the children. With the implementation and rollout of junior kindergarten in the 2017-18 academic year, we feel that four-year-olds coming into the education system have the sufficient supports of all staff who will be in the school setting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I would like to thank the Minister for his short answer. Can the Minister tell this House and the public whether junior kindergarten students are included in the formula for Aboriginal language and culture funding for schools? Yes or no.

Once again, that is another part of funding that we provide through our programs. It is based on enrolment, so the ALCB funding will go up when enrolment in the schools go up. The majority of that funding actually goes to fund instructors who run cultural programs throughout the whole school and is available for all students. Our curriculum within junior kindergarten does have a cultural component, but the junior kindergarten program will also have access to all cultural programming and activity there. So that ALCB program is not directly linked to the funding with junior kindergarten.

I thank the Minister for his response. I think that was a no, but let's go on to busing. So can the Minister tell this House and the public: if the issue of increased costs for busing cannot be resolved, is he prepared to come forward to this House with a supplementary appropriation to make sure the school boards are not out? Yes or a no, Mr. Speaker, would be very helpful.

Currently, with the rollouts and the numbers that we're getting in with students who might be entering junior kindergarten, our funding formula for the schools will reflect what we have in contributions with the education authorities. Currently, our staff is working with the education boards and authorities to see how that funding is going to roll out. Busing is a topic in those discussions, and once we have a resolution and resolve how we're going to address that, we'll come back and we'll let the Member know.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I think that was a maybe.

---Laughter

We may have to pursue that further. So one last question: can the Minister confirm then that, when his department and he himself talks about full funding for junior kindergarten, that's really in reference to the current formulas which do not include junior kindergarten students? So full funding does not really include junior kindergarten students? Can the Minister say yes or no? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, we did fully commit to fully funding junior kindergarten in the 2017-18 year, which does include junior kindergarten students, four-year-olds.

Masi. Oral questions. Item 9, written questions. Item 10, returns to written questions. Item 11, replies to Commissioner's opening address. Item 12, petitions. Item 13, reports of committees on the review of bills. Item 14, tabling of documents. Minister of Justice.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document entitled "Government of the Northwest Territories' Response to Committee Report 3-18(2): Report on the Review of the 2014-2015 Northwest Territories Human Rights Commission Annual Report." Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for the Northwest Territories Housing Corporation.