Masi. Recognition of visitors in the gallery. Member for Thebacha.

Yes, Mr. Speaker. Like the Member opposite, my spouse was also here, but she seems to have moved on with my grandson. Thank you.

Masi. They both saw you in action. Item 6, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Item 7, acknowledgements. Members, before we move onto oral questions, I'd like to request a short recess. Masi.

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Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to go back to a couple of questions that I asked yesterday that I didn't feel I had satisfactory answers for, and they are questions for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Mr. Speaker, when the department briefed the standing committee at the beginning of December, the department said that the school boards would have to invest some of their own money in the implementation of junior kindergarten and that that would be no problem for them because schools had been consistently funded above required legislation.

So when I went to the town hall meetings at the beginning of January, the school boards presented their budgets, or not their budgets but their sort of high-level plan for the year, and they reflected that they were going to have to contribute money to JK in order to have it implemented. So, in the case of the Yellowknife Education District Number 1 --

Member for Yellowknife Centre, what is your question?

Sorry. That relates to the question. As simply as possible, could the Minister either answer yes or no, will these internal reductions to implement JK still be necessary? Thank you.

Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. No, any decisions that the school boards do in their budgetary process is up to the school boards. You did hear clearly here earlier on in the Budget Address that we are going to be fully funding junior kindergarten. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you for your patience. What I understand, then, is that there will be no need for the schools to cut their internal staffing in order to staff JK. Am I correct in understanding that?

As I mentioned, the education boards and education councils make their own decisions. We provide funding, and those are decisions that are on the board.

Mr. Speaker, These staffing reductions are made necessary because the school boards are expected to fund 13 or 14, I guess, at this point, 14 grades with 13 grades of funding, so the kinds of internal reallocations that were made necessary by having to create another year of school. Will those in fact be paid for fully by the department, meaning that the school boards don't have to do any reallocations to make JK happen?

Any reallocations that the boards make are decisions of their own. We said in this House that we are going to fully fund junior kindergarten.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question has to do with the timing of making the funding available, or at least the announcement that the money is available and exactly what amount. The school boards need it by the end of March because they are told to create a budget by ECE and it's due to ECE by the end of March. Will they have a firm idea, to the dollar, of how much money they're getting from the government for September by the end of March, yes or no? Thank you.

We are having those discussions with the superintendents right now on how things are going to be rolling out in the fall. We have still got to see what enrolments there are in the school boards. Those final decisions have not been made. I know they are going out doing the enrolments, trying to get students coming to their schools and to their boards. We do not know what those numbers are yet. When we do, we will be working on having that smooth transition for junior kindergarten in the fall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Masi. Oral questions. Member for Hay River North.

Masi. Minister of Public Works and Services.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the fall of 2016, on this particular crosswalk, we had an RFP out and we had a low bid that came in well over budget of what was anticipated as the cost of installing this stuff. We are reviewing that right now, how we are going to move it forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Minister said they are reviewing it, so I am not sure if he will be able to answer this, but when can we expect some lighting to be installed?

Moving forward, we anticipate to have this resolved, hopefully with either another tender or else negotiating how we are going to fit this in within our budget restraints of what we have allocated for this project. When we do move forward, we are going to have to wait for the ground to thaw out to be able to install this set of lights at the crossing.

That is a shame because the lights are most needed when it is dark out, in the winter. It sounds like we are going to have to wait until the spring. In the interim, I know the Minister is the Minister of Public Works. He is the Minister of Transportation. With all the resources of these two departments at his disposal, can the people in Hay River South get some sort of temporary lighting system so that the Super Bs can see our grandparents crossing the highway on the way to the health centre? Can we get some sort of temporary measure in the meantime?

As the Member is well aware, there is a ton of signage at this crosswalk. As is stated, there is lighting along the side of the highway. I am not trying to water down this request, but I will have to look into what we can do to put some kind of flashing light there in the meantime.