Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The impact on children actually should be better services with the implementation of junior kindergarten, which made accessible early childhood development programming to all communities in the Northwest Territories, where that wasn't an option before. The licenced childcare centres actually got increases last year to provide extra money for infants and children who were needing support. Ideally, the impact for children should be better services. That, of course, will take an evaluation period. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thought this was the federal money. I didn't realize it was the JK money. I appreciate the Minister clarifying that this is, in fact, the pot of money for junior kindergarten. From which level of government does it come? I thought it came from the territorial government. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am now going to move down the list to inclusive schooling. I see an $800,000 decrease in the amount of money allocated to inclusive schooling. Can the Minister please explain that change? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The $916,000 decrease for inclusive schooling was a transfer. We transferred $639,000 to the mental health resources to Health and Social Services to fund the Beaufort-Delta and the Sahtu for their mental health counsellors, which again fall within inclusive schooling. Then we did a transfer of $279,000 to the mental health resources to fund the Deh Cho and the Tlicho Governments, as well. It is just transferring the money so that we can provide the mental health services support that is going out to all schools. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Green.

Thank you. We will see further increases in this area as the rest of the mental health support worker program in the schools rolls out. Is that correct? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That is correct. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Ms. Green.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further.

Thanks. Next, I have Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In regard to these new child and youth care counsellor positions, have you got any feedback to see if it is working in the communities that presently have started this new initiative? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Ms. Haener.

Thank you. Mr. Thompson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess my concern is: has the department been coming back or evaluating this? Right now, my challenge is I am hearing different things. I know two positions aren't filled. Then there is a demand on the staff. Will you be looking at making sure this is the proper process? Because, again, we have come out with this great idea, but if it is not working, what are the mechanisms in place that you can guarantee that this stuff is working? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Minister.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Absolutely, it is important that we do evaluations of any new program that we are rolling out, so we commit to doing that. I do want to just say a little bit that change is something that is never usually accepted very easily. I am sure that when we rolled out the Northern Distance Learning, there were comments or complaints, as well, and yet it is proven to be very successful, so initial comments on change should not be something that we evaluate it on. It should be a formal evaluation process that is carried out at the end of each school year to see if they are working, and we will commit to doing those evaluations. Thank you, Mr. Chair.