Thank you, Mr. Chair. That was part of the reduction exercise that the department did, and this is the final year of that exercise. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Debates of Feb. 21st, 2018
This is page numbers 3305 – 3346 of the Hansard for the 18th Assembly, 3rd Session. The original version can be accessed on the Legislative Assembly's website or by contacting the Legislative Assembly Library. The word of the day was going.
Topics
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks to the Minister for that. I understood that there was going to be some kind of a consultant hired to look at potential for shared services amongst the district education authorities. Can the Minister tell us the status of that work and whether the district education authorities are onboard for this reduction of $200,000? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are in the process of developing a response to those shared services and that exercise we did on the shared services, so we are just currently developing a response to that. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Sorry for the confusion, Mr. Chair. Once we get that response formalized, then we will send a letter to standing committee, and we will be sharing that with the education authorities, as well. It was the discussion that we had our last education leaders meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Yes, I recognize this is work under way, but the problem is we are going to have to vote on an appropriation bill maybe before we even get the report. We are going to have to vote on whether we are ready to accept this budget for the department, so when is this report going to be made available? If the report is finished, can the Minister share the report with us and then share the response from the department afterwards? Once again, we seem to have a problem with getting information from the department. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Well, before the formal response, and I understand the Member's comments about voting on the page, the preliminary results that we are seeing are that it is not feasible at this time, with the shared services. We will get something to the Members, and that is something that we will be sharing with the education authorities. What we notice is that all of the education authorities do different things in terms of how they run programs, how they fund their schools, and it is hard to keep one standardized throughout the NWT. Initially, those were some of the early, ongoing results, but we will get something formal to the Members and something that we will share with the education authorities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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February 20th, 2018
Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair, and I do appreciate the Minister passing along that information. So, if the preliminary results seem to indicate that this is not likely going to work, are we still cutting the funding to the DEAs to $200,000, or is the Minister suggesting that we should put that money back into the budget? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The education authorities already knew this was happening. This is the second year, and it was already out of their budget coming into this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Kevin O'Reilly Frame Lake
Thanks, Mr. Chair. Well, I guess I am concerned that we are continuing to cut if the results of the study seem to indicate that there are no costs savings. So, at the end of the day, the district education authorities are going to be left with less money to work with. That is not what I had hoped from this budget, but I think this is just part of the Cabinet's reduction strategy again, and I do not agree with this cut. I do not expect a response from the Minister. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
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Alfred Moses Inuvik Boot Lake
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe I will have my deputy minister just comment. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Haener
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The shared services exercise that we undertook with the education authorities was never intended or never had an objective of resulting in budget reductions. That was not one of the outcomes from it. It is an initial effort at trying to streamline our processes and look at ways to have common approaches to administrative processes.
As the Minister indicated, what has come out of that so far is that there are really quite disparate practices with HR management, with charts of accounts, so we really need to take a step back and do some more basic work around how we approach administrative processes and try to come to some common understandings on that front.
That is a separate exercise from the work that we undertook to achieve reductions to our budgets, so last year there was a $600,000 reduction to administration, and this year there is a further $200,000 reduction that is reflected. The education authorities worked with us to understand that and to implement it in a manner that was as feasible as possible. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
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Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
The Chair Daniel McNeely
Thank you, Deputy Minister Haener. Any further questions on this activity? If not, going back to page 41, early childhood and school services, operations expenditures summary, $193,848,000. Does committee agree?
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Consideration in Committee of the Whole of Bills and Other Matters
Some Hon. Members
Agreed.