Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon to the people from ECE. The Education Culture and Employment budget contains some promising initiatives. I am happy to see the additional investment in northern distance learning. The results from this initiative have certainly improved the completion rates for the courses, which I know is the purpose of this initiative.
I'm also pleased to see that there is now going to be additional money available for inclusive schooling for junior kindergarten students. The budget is somewhat ambiguous about whether this is one-time-only funding based on a lack of enrollment or whether this is funding that will be included in the base going forward. One of the things that comes out of the junior kindergarten experience is the need to revisit some of the formulas for funding things such as inclusive schooling, Aboriginal programming, and busing, all of which are being stretched to include an additional grade. So I'm looking forward to a conversation with the Minister at some point about the revision of the formulas to provide funding in these areas.
An area in which I have some concerns involves the Child and Youth Care Counsellor's Program. On the face of it, this looks like a great initiative to provide additional mental health support to youth and children in the communities. I am a little concerned about the roll-out of this program; first of all, that the roll-out is very lengthy, and secondly, that there be an assurance from the Minister that the money that is currently allocated to counselling positions remain in place until this new initiative is fully implemented. I understand that there will be an MOU created between the superintendents and the various boards and district education authorities and the Department of Health and ECE to guide the implementation of this program, and I look forward to hearing about the progress on that.
One of the things that counsellors do now that they may not be doing in the future because of the re-direction of this program is provide advice to youth who are getting ready to apply for post-secondary education opportunities. I know that there is a plan to create career and education advisors, but it doesn't seem as if that program is in sync with the child and youth care counsellors, in that the new education advisors won't be necessarily placed in the places where the career counsellors are being placed. In my mind, that program is not synchronized, and so I'd like to confirm that has been taken into account, when we get into the more detailed consideration.
Further, it's my understanding that the shared services study is now complete and that it has been reviewed by school boards and district educational authorities, and I'm looking forward to the Minister making this information available to us in advance of the next budget cycle, so that we can have a look at how shared services might impact the delivery of the administrative functions of the school boards.
I want to talk a little bit about childcare funding. The federal government, in its last budget, announced that there would be funding for affordable childcare, to make childcare more affordable and more available. We've talked a lot about affordability. I know the Minister is very focused on availability, but in any case it seems to me that it's time to have an update on the implementation plan for that money and how those two different issues are going to be resolved. I also want to caution the Minister that childcare is not education, and vice versa. So the fact that JK is in place now does not address childcare needs in the NWT; they address education needs. Childcare needs are something separate.
Mr. Chair, I am aware that the Aurora College Foundational Review is ongoing and due to wrap up at the end of March and is on schedule, according to the Minister's statement of last week. Recently, I also participated in a review of the Social Work Program. I appreciate the opportunity to do that, but I remain concerned that there is not money in this operating budget to resume that program in the next fiscal year. My concern is that, if the program doesn't take students in September, it will no longer exist, because it's a two-year program and it won't have any new students in it. As a result, the staff will be given layoff notices and the program will collapse out of a lack of uptake. So I would like the Minister to make a commitment that he will, in fact, make money available for the Social Work Program, pending the outcome of both the foundational review and the social work review.
Finally, I just will talk a little bit about the performing arts. I know there was discussion last week about funding for the arts, and I feel this is an area of some confusion. There is performance for its own sake, and then there are arts for economic diversification. ECE houses the former; art for its own sake. As we heard last week, that budget hasn't been increased in 10 years; it's at $500,000, and clearly the demand for this money outstrips the provision of it very considerably. I would like the Minister to take a good, hard look at what he can do to augment the budget of the NWT Arts Council in the next fiscal year. Those are my opening comments, Mr. Chair. Thank you.