Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Actually, the sign said "unlock your potential; the NWT resources are for sale." All kidding aside, when we were down there, we had an opportunity, like I said last week in the House, to talk to a number of people, be it prospectors, finance companies, mining industry, potential mining companies. The Mactung property was also brought up in a conversation of where we are at with that property and what we are doing moving forward on it. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thanks for the response. Is there actually a plan to sell this property? The folks on this side of the House have not seen anything. Is there a plan? Is there a sale price? What is going on with this property? Can the Minister tell this side of the House what is going on?

At present, right now, the Department of ITI is working with the Northwest Territories Geological Survey and we are looking at expanding our geological knowledge on the Mactung property.

Thanks to the Minister for that response. During our review of the departmental budget in Committee of the Whole last year, I asked if we could have some folks go over there to take a look at the site for any potential environmental liabilities. Can the Minister tell this House whether, indeed, there was a visit to the site and what kind of environmental liabilities were found? Can he make that report public because it would have to be disclosed to any potential buyers?

The Department of Lands conducted a site assessment on the Mactung property in August 2016. Those results were actually shared with standing committee already.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. Great that it has been shared with this House, but can he make this report public? It would obviously have to be disclosed to any potential buyers for the site. What are the actual financial liabilities associated with the environmental issues with the property? Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will have to talk to my colleagues in the Department of Lands and see what information they can share. If it is possible, we will share that with committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and they are based on a statement that he gave today. I just want to confirm, to start with, that the provision of JK in every school in the Northwest Territories is mandatory as of September of this year. Is that correct? Thank you.

Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We are intending to roll out junior kindergarten in all the schools across the Northwest Territories this fall school year. I just want to emphasize again that it is optional for parents and families to enrol their kids. Thank you.

School boards are now developing their budgets for the next school year. One of the tasks that they have is to decide on their staffing component. If they are going to release teachers, they need to be released by the end of March. If they need to hire teachers, they need to know that as well. If the money is not going to be available until the fall, how are school boards going to plan for the implementation of junior kindergarten this fall?

As I mentioned, it is a really good news story that this government has stepped up to fully fund junior kindergarten. The next step, after we made the announcement from the budget address, was that our department is meeting with superintendents and working with the school boards to look at how we're going to be rolling out junior kindergarten this fall, and also looking at how we're going to be able to utilize that money that was announced in the budget.

I did not hear a definitive answer to my question. So schools are now planning. School boards in Yellowknife are holding open houses this month to talk to parents about coming to their schools to access junior kindergarten, and they have a target number of involvements in mind for each of the school boards, so there are lots of pieces of this puzzle that are known. So can the boards count on having this funding in hand or committed to the penny by the end of March?

As I mentioned after the Budget Address, we did reach out to the superintendents and we're working with the school boards to see how we're going to roll out this funding, and we did make that commitment to fully fund junior kindergarten, so those are discussions that are happening right now.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, will the Minister commit to making sure that all the money is in place to fund junior kindergarten in every NWT school by the end of March? Thank you.

Based on enrolments and how many students are going to be in the school system, we are going to be fully funding junior kindergarten this fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Right across government we're looking at how we can better spend our dollars more efficiently and, you know, evaluating the overall costs of programming is part of good planning and management. Some of the programs with very few graduates and a full complement of staff is not fiscally responsible. The department did work with Aurora College to see where we can better efficiently spend our dollars through the contribution agreements that we have with them and those targets were set by that.

Mr. Speaker, the government through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment provides contribution agreements to other post-secondary partners as well. Does the Minister or the department have the same relationship with those other organizations, like College nordique and Dechinta? Do they work with them on value for money on their contribution agreements or are those contributions agreements given to those organizations and they're allowed to compete in the free market, so to speak?