Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the Member is speaking about one of the issues we spoke about in the summer when we were in this House, whether or not there would be money for bussing. And at that time, I was of the mind that there would be more than enough money for busing because I knew what was in the bank. And as it turns out, the projected deficit of nearly a million dollars was actually a surplus of nearly a million dollars, so there was more than enough money for busing. And the DEA's share of that is somewhere around $400,000. We do have a surplus retention policy. We do want schools to actually spend money on education and not squirrel it away in the bank, but I do, as Minister, have the opportunity to allow DEAs to put money aside if they want to save up for future expenditures such as busing. So yes, those funds I would allow the DEA to put aside and use in future years.
I just want to point out as well, Mr. Speaker, that this has been a longstanding issue, bus funding in Hay River. A few years back there was a review of student transportation that was done. As a result of that, in the year -- in the fiscal 2018-2019, there was an increase to student transportation funding of $800,000 in the territory. That's around the same time that this surplus retention policy came into effect. And since then, every year since then there has been more than enough money for busing. The problem is that the money comes after the budgets are set. The DEAs are not allocated those funds until they already have their budget and they've made decisions about busing and then, you know, come September, October, November, they find out there's actually a few hundred thousand dollars they can use for busing, so. That's really the heart of the issue. It's not the lack of funding. It's just the process. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.