This is page numbers 5187 - 5214 of the Hansard for the 19th Assembly, 2nd 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 work.

Topics

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Mr. Speaker, carbon tax is coming. Mr. Speaker, the large emitters right now -- businesses don't have a special program under the federal system either. The federal government will decide where they want to put the money, how they want to put the money. Right now where we've seen them put their money is in electric vehicles, in heat pumps, which don't work in the Northwest Territories. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that that's necessarily the direction that we all want to go with. As I've said before, we have figured out what the fuel usages have been in the business sector and the private sector, added that into the cost of living offset for residents, so that businesses should realize that they can raise those costs and that they will be offset. We can't take away the signal on carbon tax. That's exactly what the federal government said we can't do. So what else can we do? Again, we're trying to target residents so that they have the spending power to go out and keep the economy churning, trying to ensure that the large emitters, who would be otherwise under the federal system, are able to adapt so that they can come. They can continue to operate here, provide to the Northwest Territories economy. But also, Mr. Speaker, in the last round of conversation, I believe, at the last public briefing, we said we would work with the communities if they want to share with us what they anticipate their actual costs to be. We've already gone to $55 million in contributions to communities with this current budget proposal. That's bringing us up to the $5 million gap that was in the mandate, and we will continue to work with them. So if we know what exactly it is that the communities say they are needing and spending, again, if we have that -- there's no slush fund. It's called the consolidated revenue fund. It is literally the dollars that pays everyone and everything in this building and everywhere else; it's not a slush fund. So bring us the actuals and we're happy to have that conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

Lesa Semmler

Lesa Semmler Inuvik Twin Lakes

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again, the federal government, like I said in my Member's statement, is forcing the hand of all of us to do their -- to do this work. They want us off oil. Our MP has said we need to move from oil. Okay, so what are we going to use? We've heard from other people, like pellets. We're sending our pellets in Canada to the UK. So oil and gas, we can't even use our oil and gas. Inuvik, we've had -- we had natural gas but now we're on trucked-in propane. We're trucking it up on diesel fuel trucks. Like, this is not an NWT -- made-in-the-NWT. I mean, if Justin Trudeau wants to hear me, this is not working for us in the Northwest Territories. We probably have about 10,000 people that pay taxes and the rest are, you know, like underage or, you know, seniors. So how is this government, Minister Wawzonek, Minister of Finance, how are you going to go back and fix it? Like, we need businesses included in this, not just -- you know, and we need municipalities before it's been brought back to this House, before we vote on it, because I don't think this side of the House is going to support it, and then we're going to be forced at the hand to have a federal backstop.

So will this Minister, please, try and work with us to try and make sure all of the areas get covered so that we're not hurting anymore? Thank you.

Caroline Wawzonek

Caroline Wawzonek Yellowknife South

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I know that because of our consensus government, I'm in a position to be able to share with the MLAs the correspondence we've written. They know I share their frustration. I can't necessarily publish those letters publicly, but they know I share their frustration. I was at a finance ministers meeting just last week. It is an opportunity not necessarily to say a lot, but I spoke about the carbon tax at my finance ministers meeting, Mr. Speaker. I share their frustration. It is unfortunate that when we went through the public process of engagement back last fall that we didn't have this level of discussion then. I did take the Members' recommended requests at that time to create the three-tiered system. We did exactly as we were requested in that respect. Unfortunately, now we are at a position we're being asked to do more. I have, again -- I haven't received from the committee what happened at the public briefing that we had when it was the clause by clause, it became a public briefing. I know there was submissions made. I haven't received them. I've made it clear that if there is something that we can do for municipalities in terms of understanding their actuals that we can look at what we can do to try to support them. I haven't received that. We are down to the wire a little bit, Mr. Speaker, but we can pivot; we can react quickly. I am certain that we can find a path forward other than relying on the federal approach that seems to look at EVs and heat pumps and wood pellets. So, Mr. Speaker, we will keep working together and we'll see our path forward. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, you know there are some communities -- some community governments are funding recreation programs by renting out their sportsplex. For example, when you go to Behchoko, you will see Tlicho government department situated in the sportsplex. They're renting out space so that they can fund their recreation program.

Mr. Speaker, can the Minister confirm if there are active recreation departments or centres in every community in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Monfwi. Minister responsible for MACA.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there is rec facilities in every community, whether it's a community hall, small gym, gym, rec centres, curling rinks, hockey rinks there. So if that's what the Member's looking for, yes, that's what's in these communities. Thank you.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Well, I can tell you Gameti does not have one. So can the Minister commit to ensuring every community has an active recreation department that is provided with an adequate budget that provides organized sports, sports activities? Thank you.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we work with the municipal governments. We do have staff there. Gameti has, my understanding they have a school gym. They also have an outdoor rink that's covered. So there is facilities there. And we do provide funding in the communities for after school activities as well, whether it's the rec department or the school that offers these opportunities. But we're more than willing -- if there's a community that needs help, then we're more than willing to work with them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

What is MACA doing to ensure that all communities have the resources they need to provide sports and recreation; i.e. a sports centre in Gameti? Thank you.

Shane Thompson

Shane Thompson Nahendeh

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, each community builds their own capital plan. They provide what facilities they want. Each community sometimes have just only a small community gym. In my riding, I have a community that has a small community gym. That's it, a small hall. So each community provides that opportunity, builds their own capital plan to provide that opportunity to build facilities in their communities. So we work with the communities. We have staff that work with them on their budgets and capital plan. We move forward on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Question 1348-19(2): School Funding
Oral Questions

February 10th, 2023

Page 5197

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Mr. Speaker, school boards currently do a point-in-time count on September 30th of every year for student enrolment. This point-in-time count includes specifications for additional funding like special support needs of individual students. Unfortunately, this point-in-time count is not reflected in the school board's funding until 13 months later in the following school year. This makes serving the needs of existing students quite difficult for school boards.

So I'm wondering, can the Minister explain why funding is not delivered in the current school year to address the needs of existing student populations? Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for ECE.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the reason is to ensure that there is some stability, some consistency, and some certainty for education bodies. They will know what their budget will be in the next year based on the numbers from the current year. As well, we need to line up with the GNWT fiscal year. So these numbers need to get into this budget, and that process is largely finalized by December. So those are the primary reasons. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it appears that this piece of kind of the GNWT funding or funding requirements are placing some unnecessary strain on the operational budget of some of our school boards, especially with changes that have happened in the last few years, or changes that can happen from year to year.

So while a point-in-time count is done on September 30th, the policy that guides that states that children must be present for 50 percent or more of the month. In other jurisdictions, the point-in-time count does not stipulate attendance and looks only at student enrolment on September 30th.

Is the Minister willing to remove the 50 percent attendance stipulation from the policy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So attendance for the month of September is taken based on 60 percent of the sessional days in that month. Excused absences are included as an attending student. So if there's a legitimate reason why a student is not there, those are included as the student being in attendance.

There is always tweaks to the funding framework that happen, basically, yearly. An ongoing discussion that we have with the education bodies, and I'm happy to have that conversation about this particular item as well. Thank you.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that correction from the 50 to 60 percent as well.

School boards have indicated that COVID-related school closures and on the land absences can have an impact on school attendance as counted for student enrolment. So I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to kind of what provisions are in place to make sure that either COVID school closures that had students out of the classroom, or on the land experiences and absences, are somehow accounted for to make sure that school boards are not penalized for encouraging students to partake in on the land activities? Thank you.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If a school is closed due to COVID and there's no students attending, then those students aren't marked as absent so it doesn't count against those numbers. And in terms of being out on the land, if a student is out on the land with their family, they're hunting, that can be considered an excused absence because we recognize how important that is. There may be instances where this isn't recorded properly; it falls through the cracks. But that is our policy. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Member for Kam Lake.

Caitlin Cleveland

Caitlin Cleveland Kam Lake

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have to say thank you to the Minister and both his deputy minister, who were willing to have a meeting about this at 6:30 this morning, to try and -- so I could learn some more about it and so I can say that they are very receptive to talking about it.

But given that, and given the importance of making sure that our school operations are properly funded for the students that are currently in our schools, will the Minister commit to following up with school boards to have a conversation about this policy and how it can be further tweaked? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

R.J. Simpson

R.J. Simpson Hay River North

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That is the regular work of the department. There's ongoing conversations, sometimes specific to this, this exact issue, sometimes peripheral to it that will inform the issue, so this is just what happens on a regular basis. And I will also say that school boards do have a surplus that they're allowed to maintain. It can't be greater than 7 percent but that is only to ensure that money is actually being spent on students. But school boards do have surpluses for instances where they are finding themselves short on funds. Thank you.

The Speaker

The Speaker Frederick Blake Jr.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Monfwi.

Jane Weyallon Armstrong

Jane Weyallon Armstrong Monfwi

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, community government are struggling as is with funding received from MACA. I'm sure community government would like to build such facility to accommodate the young people, but they cannot afford with the money that they have currently.

So I'm going to ask the Minister, will the Minister commit to advocate to the Infrastructure Minister to build recreation centres in communities that lack such facilities, to promote sports, so that next Arctic Winter Games we will see more young people from small communities represented at Arctic Winter Games? Thank you.