Thank you, Mr. Shannon. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. When we met with the Yellowknife school boards, they spoke about a change to their insurance provider, and there was a significant increase in their insurance premiums. Can I just have the Minister speak to how insurance works for schools across the territory? Is Yellowknife unique in owning their assets, and outside of Yellowknife, they would be GNWT-owned? Is this a problem across the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. This is not a problem across the territory. This is problem unique to Yellowknife, but it's a big problem in other jurisdictions, such as Alberta, primarily due, I think, to the floods and fires that Alberta has suffered. There have been significant increases in insurance costs in Alberta, and schools in Alberta are probably paying tens, if not over $100 million, more a year collectively in insurance costs compared to five years ago. We have seen massive increases in the insurers who have been insuring the Yellowknife-owned schools. There have been some recent developments in that respect, so perhaps for more detail, I can hand it to Mr. Shannon.

Thank you, Minister. Mr. Shannon.

Thank you, Mr. Shannon. Member for Yellowknife North.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Perhaps I could just have someone explain to me. My understanding is that schools everywhere else are just GNWT-owned assets, and we self-insure our assets. We do not have this problem of trying to find an insurer. Why are the Yellowknife school districts, why do they own their infrastructure? Is it possible for us to just self-insure the infrastructure like we do everywhere else? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. That is a question that elicits a lot of history, so perhaps I can ask Mr. Shannon if he might have some insight on that. I am not sure.

All right. Thank you, Minister. Mr. Shannon.

Thank you, Mr. Shannon. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you to my colleague for bringing up both school elections and the school insurance issue here in Yellowknife. I think that is probably one that you will hear reiterated from every Yellowknife MLA. While I am on the same track, Jordan's Principle is also on my list of things to talk about here today, and I appreciate the figure that was provided by the deputy minister of $49 million. I think also another piece of that puzzle that is worth notice is that, if you go through the history between 2018, 2019, and 2020, the contributions to the Northwest Territories start at about $7 million, and then the following year they go to about $14 million, and then last year they went to about $28 million. Every year, consecutively, they have been doubling. That, to me, especially when you start talking about where the contributions are going to, says that we really need to beef up our contribution to this section of the budget.

If the federal government all of a sudden decided no longer to fund Jordan's Principle, which we really hope they never ever do, we would be in serious trouble here. We would be losing a huge contribution to our school system. This is one that I encourage the Minister to go back out to FMB and to beef up this portion of the budget if possible. I think that making larger contributions to our kids will pay for itself in spades down the road. I would love to see teachers be able to focus more on teaching and less on some of the other pieces that this money goes to pay for.

In talking to teachers in both the schools that I serve and the riding that I serve, a lot of times teachers are spending a predominant amount of time getting kids ready to learn and not necessarily teaching kids. One of the things that a few of the schools I know in Yellowknife have used Jordan's Principle funding for is a community liaison worker. What that person does is they act as a government-system navigator. They connect families to different programs within the GNWT so that families are better supported so that kids are hopefully in a better position to learn. That reminds me of another position within Health and Social Services, which is, I believe they are called, a family preservation worker within Health and Social Services. In thinking of kind of the child and youth care coordinator program that happened, where Health and Social Services started positions within the schools, I am wondering if the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is also looking at a similar setup to be able to fund community liaison workers within our schools. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. No, I think that position is unique to Yellowknife, and it's not an ECE position. As far as I know, we are not looking into that. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I will just add that to a list of Member's statements. I appreciate that. You know what, I think I will leave it at that for now. I would appreciate seeing more money in this budget line item for next year. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am looking at some of the contribution funding, such as, in particular, the Healthy Food for Learning line item. I am glad to see that it's still there. I am just wondering if we are not really accounting for the fact that more and more students are going to be looking to access help as sort of the next while the cost of living does continue to increase for workers if we are starting to claw back income supports, things like that; maybe some federal supports are going to end. I am going to imagine we are going to see an uptake in students accessing supports like that that the school provides, and I do not know if there are others that I am just not seeing here. I guess my question to the Minister is: is there an area or a way that he is looking to find money within the departments to increase supports to the programs that the schools offer to sort of low-income children or children in need? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. Things like the Healthy Food for Learning are great programs. I believe that it's part of a package of programs that includes health and MACA as well, and I think that entire package is about a million dollars. It provides food for students and after-school programs, things like that. This program has been around for a number of years, 10 or so, and it has been stuck at $1 million. It is probably an area that we could see an increase. It is as oversubscribed as programs get. In addition to this funding, schools will also go after any other pot of funding that they can. There are a number of pots of funding from federal government, from third-party organizations. The Member is correct. This is an important pot of money, and it's one of the ones that I am in discussions with the department to see how we can enhance. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.