EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
I know it was three or four years ago there was an announcement in the budget address that there were going to be 17 new teaching positions in that budget, and as it turned out, there were no new teachers hired, but there were teachers that were working unfunded positions that were going to be funded positions, in counting the numbers now.
That’s what I am getting at.
I am not wondering where they are going to go.
I know that they have a phase in the department that they are going to send them to where they are needed, but are there going to be actually 13 new bodies in the schools or whether the number of bodies that are teaching in the schools prior to this budget going in?
The short answer is that we have created, within this budget, over 80 new positions for our schools across Nunavut, including the psychologist position, and we had to recruit and hire that person.
So the short answer is yes.
Then, for these 13 new teaching positions, when are they going to be doing the recruiting and hiring for those as soon as the budget’s passed?
I usually can get through a budget in a couple of days in this House and it seems that this year it has taken me a week.
So, if the budget is complete and the whole budget is complete, let’s say we finished the budget on March 25, and then shortly after that the budget document is complete, and then we would look at, probably as of April 1 the new fiscal year, looking at the advertisement and recruiting for all of these different positions.
Some of the positions are already filled.
For example, the transfer of custodian workers from the District Education Authorities, those guys would be the first guys hired.
We have classroom assistants right now, Chairman, who are working for District Education Authorities and we want to make them Government of Nunavut employees, and then we would make them Government of Nunavut employees and they would receive an increase in salary, and then hopefully we would be solidifying and saving in structuring so that you wouldn’t have such a turnover in staff at the schools.
That’s again, a big issue that the member has raised in the past that we are trying to address.
So the short answer is that as soon as the budget is complete, we will begin the recruitment process as per usually, as per government-wide administrative process is in recruitment.
I am still not totally clear, I guess.
I know the minister just indicated that like in the case of some of the custodial workers that they are already filled.
They are just going to transfer them and they will be the first ones hired for the positions within the Government of Nunavut.
Is that the same with any of the teaching positions, any of the 13 teaching positions that the minister mentioned?
No, Chairman.
As a custodial worker, as we said earlier, some schools should probably have two workers.
So we are allocating in this budget an increase of over 14 of that administrative side of the school formula of hiring.
They are new hires.
The District Education Authorities don’t hire any teachers.
Those are hired through the Government of Nunavut processes.
So an increase over last year of 13 PY’s is in this budget.
So I don’t know how more clearer to make it.
So then the minister is saying that none of those 13 teaching positions are filled already; is that correct?
Hon. Ed Picco (interpretation): That’s exactly what I am saying.
Maybe the minister would be a little more sensitive and just talk to the question that was asked and not throw positions and this and that that are being filled this way or transferred that way into it.
It makes it a little confusing in trying to decipher what he is saying.
Chairman, my next question on the schools is: he has indicated, through a new formula, the schools are being funded differently on that and for the District Education Authorities and how they are funded.
Has that changed as well?
Hon. Ed Picco: As we said earlier in the earlier question on the funding formula in the implementation of phase one, which was the past fiscal year, we have made structural changes to some of the costs that have been incurred by District Education Authorities.
In phase two, we are looking at implementing increased PY’s to the education system for issues that we have just talked about; language, special needs, new teaching positions, custodial, counselors, all new positions.
In phase three then, the way we fund our District Education Authorities under the allocation that would be the work on the next phase of the implementation of the formula when we look at the fundamental shift that we are talking about in how we structure and fund our schools.
So I guess there has been some changes would be the short answer to that.
Given that, and as the minister had indicated, a lot of those changes deal with the transfer of staff, whether it would be CFAs or custodial workers or whatever from the District Education Authority to the Department of Education.
Other than that, any of the other funding, I don’t know if you want to call it core funding, I don’t know what the proper terminology is for it, but are the District Education Authorities, if they are on the old formula other than those changes that the minister mentioned, are still funded equally based on the formula that they are operating under right now until they get to phase three.
The member is correct other than the changes that we have done under phase one, and again, the substantial changes to the District Education Authorities and the way they are funded will come out of the Education Act, which is the next step now on one of the governance and other issues under the District Education Authorities.
Your time is up, Mr. Tootoo.
If you have any further questions, I will get the members a chance to ask questions, and then after it you may have it again.
The school operations under G-20, the District Education Authorities contributions, and the contributions for the school operations last year, there’s about $451 decrease, maybe because I don’t understand this as to where they put the money, maybe if I could ask that first.
There was a transfer from the District Education Authorities to the Government of Nunavut, and that’s the position we talked about, the custodial worker position.
So that was the transfer that would actually account for the payment or the salary dollars for those positions.
So that’s the change that the member has highlighted.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Also under that, under G-21, the very last topic, official language in education, they also had an increase of $74 thousand and the rest did not get an increase.
What was the increase for?
How come there was a $74 thousand increase to that line item?
There is a partnership between us and I believe the members are aware with the official education in Nunavut and the federal government, and that’s where there was an increase from 732 to 746 and the development of the official language by many communities.
Mr. Alagalak (interpretation): Thank you, Chairman. Under that same line item, under G-22, I think it’s part of G-21, centre of excellence program, there was some funding last year, but there’s no funding for this year.
Is it eliminated or is the funding that was to be received, did they run out of money?
There used to be $63 thousand; is it eliminated in 2005/06?
On G-22, the $63 thousand, that was a contribution agreement we had with Lakehead University that dealt with some of these areas around centre of excellence in dealing with children with special needs, and that contribution agreement ended as of March 31, and we are just waiting now from Lakehead University if they are going to renew that contribution agreement and have it put in.
For budget time, that $63 thousand agreement hasn’t been in place and it’s something that we are continuing to work on.
So for accounting purposes in this budget, it was deleted because we didn’t have the money available.
So I hope that helps clarify it.
Is there any word from them as to what they are going to agree to some contribution in 2005/06?
The Lakehead University receives that funding under a contribution agreement they have with the federal government.
We think it’s an excellent program and they are still waiting for the federal government.
The federal budget is right now announced, too, so it hasn’t been approved.
So we are optimistic that they are going to make it, we will be then get that money and then we will be able to partner with them.
Going back to G-20, I understood what the minister was saying in regards to the decrease in funding, but I would like to ask another question.
As we all know that we are going to be receiving a bigger school and they will have to do reshuffling of teachers in that bigger school because the other school has too many students now.
The teachers over in Arviat are teaching a large amount of students in one classroom.
I just wondered whether if the minister is aware of how many more teachers we will be receiving in Arviat.
I have had an opportunity to be in the schools in Arviat a couple of occasions now and I know the issue that the member is talking about.
I want to take this opportunity very quickly to say congratulations to the principal Mr. Durant in Arviat in the excellent remedial program that they are running.
In this budget, I am sure, we will be in a position to help them, especially on those remedial education under the special needs assistance program.
I don’t know how many new teachers will be going to any community, again, it will be based on what the need is, but we want to be able to do this based on the schools’ needs themselves and then prioritize and so on.
Over the next several weeks, if the budget is finished on time, early in April and May, we will be able to make that determination.
Again, it depends on what the enrolment numbers are in the community and so on.
Yes, I am happy that you did not say how many students or how many teachers will be there because as we all know that the new school is very big and the other two schools are very big as well, but there’s hardly any room left.
Like you said, as soon as we approve the budget, you will be able to find out where the priorities will be put in regards to more teachers in the schools.
I think they all know that in which communities that we are short of teachers.
Is there someone in the community that’s there to review how many schools would be needing more teachers in which communities?
There’s a process in place at the local level in the school, they are in contact with the regional office.
So in this case, they would be in contact with the caseload office and we would look at the total school enrolments and then what the needs are in those schools.
The principal, for example, in a given school in Arviat might come forward and say; look, I have got X number of students in a given class, and then we would be able to look at the allocation.
Part of the allocation may be a new teacher position under the Federation of Nunavut Teachers or it may be special needs, for example, which is what they have been asking for in Arviat and so on.
So because when the budget is complete, again, we will look at our enrolment numbers and those positions, I hope, would be in position, for example, we have got to recruit them.
If we are going to bring in a new position, do we have housing for them.
So all those types of factors need to be looked at.
So the quick answer would be that we would be in a better position in August or September with the beginning of the new school year how many new positions would be going into a given community.
At the end of August, there’s a lot of schools that start out in September and August and we start out at the end of August.
I would like to help the minister by saying that we are going to start using that new school this coming school year.
I think there has to be something done before the beginning of the school year in order to find out the number of students and how many teachers there will be because the public out there wants to know, too, as well.
The teachers, as well, want to be able to know how many more teachers will be there... (interpretation ends) I should really say that in English.
If the qualification of those existing school teachers are hoping to go for a promotion, or into higher qualification, in a teaching area that maybe they ever wanted is the question he asked that if there would be some money for a new position in the school.
So, I understand what the minister’s proposing or is in the good hands of others to make an announcement right after this budget has been approved.
Some of those existing teachers are awaiting and hopefully that they can go on to some courses to qualify for new positions in Arviat.
So, I just wanted to say that as a comment, I guess. (interpretation) Thank you, Chairman.
I will have additional comments on this issue.
The member is making an excellent point because in Nunavut, unlike a lot of other jurisdictions, school start times and end times depend on each given community and each District Education Authority and they vary right across the territory.
So the member makes a good point.
Under the collective agreement that’s in place for our teachers right now, all teachers in Nunavut, they have to give us 60 days before the end of the school year to let us know if they are coming back as a teacher.
So once we have that information, then we know how many teachers we would be recruiting for and how many positions we would have to fill.
That would not be inclusive of any new positions.
So, as soon as the budget goes through in the House like I said, we will start working on that and we also have the enrolment numbers based on September 30 of the preceding years.
So that’s the enrolment numbers.
The enrolment numbers right now in Arviat are the numbers that we would be moving forward on in April and May and looking at what positions are in Arviat.
So we would hopefully be in a position in middle May to early June to know exactly what those positions are because we have their position numbers.
So I appreciate the member for bringing that issue up.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. (interpretation) Thank you.
First of all, I would like to state that education is very important and the schools are very important.
Our youth need to go to school and the teachers work very hard to take care and to teach our children.
So I am in support of school operations because we are proud of our teachers who work really hard.
On behalf of them, I would like to say thank the teachers and also the District Education Authorities.
Some of them in the communities are operating very well and some are not operating as the others.
I wanted to ask a question in regards to that, Chairman.
It’s not going to take too long and I am sure that I will want to leave, and I will speak in English. (interpretation ends) Mr. Chairman, I would like to change the tune a wee bit, I will maybe ask the Deputy Minister.
I know I made my point that the education and the schools are quite very, very important institutions in our communities because they have a very important role in guiding our children in trying to acquire education that are important to them to facet the future and so on.
But I have some questions about the respect to the role and the relationship, and I certainly like the objectives that are stated on G-15 of the business plan with respect to cater to as well to the relationship between District Education Authorities and communities and families.
But I would like to ask the Deputy Minister exactly how that is sort of carried out.
I am leading up to something, if we don’t conclude it today, I will continue it.
I think the relationship is an ongoing responsibility mainly because you have different groups of components or memberships in District Education Authorities.
Some in places like Iqaluit are probably prominently non-Inuktitut in some respects; in some communities, very prominently Inuktitut groups; and in Rankin Inlet, it’s probably mixed.
How is that communicated once the budget is approved, you deliver the money to the operational funds, operations and maintenance, to District Education Authorities? What do you say to them?
Do you say, to them, that in lieu of the objective is the policy we would like you to continue to perform as you did last year or is there something different?
How is it actually implemented when the funds are released to communities?
Could the deputy minister give a better or different tune from the minister’s comments from the last few days?
Ms. Hine: Thank you, Chairman.
I appreciate the question from the member and he was correct.
The District Education Authorities are elected bodies from the communities and they are all individual entities.
So their experience do differ from each one and they will differ from each elected, as the numbers change within the community.
So it’s an ongoing relationship between the department, the communities, and the school staff.
The regional school operations have a continued role with the District Education Authorities.
They attend meetings when the District Education Authorities ask.
We provide, as we were saying earlier this week, we provide an ongoing assistance whether it’s for governance, whether it’s helping with administration.
We continue to monitor their progress and we do this, again from all aspects, from the school administration, from the community, from parents because they are elected officials.
As far as how we tell them about their dollars that they receive, we do them number-ways, but the main important one is the fact that it is in writing and the money is released through a contribution agreement.
The contribution agreement clearly states of what the roles and responsibilities are as far as it ties to the dollars that are provided through the District Education Authorities, and also the, of course, roles and responsibilities of District Education Authorities are also stated in the Education Act.
Chairman: Thank you, Ms. Hine. Mr. Curley.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. I appreciate the comments from the Deputy Minister. I think it’s important to continue to monitor that kind of possibility because there are differences, probably in the performance, the ability to carry out programs and administer financial as well as obligations as per the contribution agreement.
I think there’s also capacity building that should be considered in some of the District Education Authorities.
The reason I am stating that is because I think in Nunavut it’s quite easy to politicize everything.
We can micromanage your budget, your details and so on, but I don’t believe that’s healthy from the political level down to District Education Authorities.
But I want to focus on the relationship aspect, the fostering cooperation between schools, communities, and families.
How do you actually communicate that, I would say again, there has to be some plan of action as to reminding some District Education Authorities because there were some District Education Authorities that have, in a place like Rankin Inlet, that have a majority non-Inuit in the schools.
How do they know that there needs to be a fostering relationship with the communities and families or, if I may say, Inuit culture for all that matter?
I think it’s really important that we have that very solid relationship established.
I know in places that are bigger, it’s sliding down the hill too fast.
There are good examples here in Iqaluit, and the member just talked about that earlier.
The Chairperson of the Iqaluit District Education Authority is Christa Kunuk, who is an Inuk. The vice-chairperson of the Education Council in Iqaluit is Assena Allurut, who is an Inuk.
The previous Chairperson of the Iqaluit District Education Authority Council is Mr. Andrew Tagak, who is an Inuk.
The District Education Authority is an elected body from the community and they deal with a lot of the issues, especially when we are talking about Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit and so on.
Within the District Education Authority structure itself, if parents have concerns or whatever, it’s handled at that local level, and that local body or locally elected, and they are understanding what’s happening in their communities.
I think the District Education Authority, and I think the member agrees with this, it’s probably one of the most difficult positions as a person who is elected as a politician because you are dealing with really rubber-hit-the-road kind of issues like education.
Chairman: Thank you, Minister. Mr. Curley.
I still appreciate the comment because I think we need to continue monitoring how the relationship with the Inuit and the non-Inuit or the French Canadians, for all that matter, really thought.
I think there has to be some ideas presented to them because some of them are not as good as, like I indicated earlier, not very sociable in some respects, and I really believe that if we are going to foster the relationship between the community, the parents, groups, if it’s schools, it has to be the same.
It has to be, in some respects, I think there has to be minimum events that are beheld or to allow our community, the parents as a community, take part.
I really believe, you know we have such a wide open funding to them, that we sort of expect them, you know, they are elected so they are okay.
But what I am trying to say is that I think we need to guide them a bit in that respect so that we can some events that are going, not only when some dignitary comes from down south, should we get together as a community then so that there are healthy relationships developed?
Could that idea be communicated to you as a result of your contribution or even through a letter, occasionally to sew how it’s going?
Maybe the Deputy Minister could take part in some of these events in other communities.
On a regular basis, I know like over the last several months there has been some work down south with the Chairpersons of the different District Education Authorities on roles and responsibilities, and I would agree with the member that that’s something that we can and prevent either by letter form or with the contribution agreement.
I think it’s a good suggestion and that’s something that we would take up on.
I had a couple of other points.
In places like Iqaluit, it’s pretty predictable when the weather like this comes on, everything is shut down, it closes and so on.
So people normally probably decide that they will not go to school with the weather like this.
It will automatically happen that schools will be shutting down.
But it’s not so in places like other communities.
Sometimes in negotiating with the school District Education Authorities, it would have a little more consideration as to whether or not it’s healthy or safe to go to school.
Why is it so predictable or not predictable in some other communities?
This has been a debate I think with a lot of us who have been around for any length of time why things close down so much and some of our colleagues like to joke about the Iqaluit blizzards.
Having been in different places, I tend to agree with the member when you look at when things close and so on.
As an example, I don’t remember ever being in Qikiqtarjuaq or being in Clyde River or being in Hall Beach., I don’t remember the schools closing at all during a blizzard, but then we start thinking about that and I was talking to my wife, who works in one of the schools, and the communities were a lot smaller than 20 years.
There were 350 people in Hall Beach and that the town was pretty condensed.
Now the towns are spread out more, and for example here in Iqaluit, when you look at having to get a bus all the way from Apex or Tundra Valley or Happy Valley all the way down to Nakasuk and so on.
So the communities are spread out more.
The District Education Authority ultimately has the responsibility when it comes to looking at school closures and that can be done in a number of ways.
For example here in Iqaluit, the City of Iqaluit may say, look, we don’t have any equipment on the roads, the roads are closed.