EdinburghNLP/nunavut-hansard-plusplus huggingface dataset:
Is the minister going to guarantee that the availability of those courses will be there for students who wish to take them in our system?
Yes, the whole idea not to water down the system, it is to enhance it.
For example, right now at Grade 12 you have to have English 30, or an English 33 based on the Alberta exams to graduate Grade 12.
Do you have anymore, Mr. Tootoo?
Another thing that I want to get to and going back to the DEAs, and specifically dealing with the DEAs, that to just confirm with the minister that the way that they are funded is on this formula, revising formula as the day turns, or whatever, that they are all funded equally through that formula?
I am wondering the first question is how come on G-20, where they have District Education Authority contributions; there are two separate columns there where the Commissions Scolaire Francais contribution is separate, is the DEA for the French School.
Why is it separate from the other contributions?
It identifies some of the issues around the differences with the d’Ecole Francophone de Association.
It depends on the in the budget item here how the money is transferred.
For example, as the member knows, that there is a funding agreement in place that we have with the federal government.
Right now, for example, there is $189,000 provided support for the administration as well as the delivery of the French educational program.
The salary for the Director General for the Commission Scolaire, is included in that amount.
Go ahead, Mr. Tootoo.
Is that separate funding then the regular DEA’s funding.
The Francophone District Education Authority, the scolaire receives different fundings than our regular DEAs.
We still provide some logistic and financial support to the DEAs, the Francophone DEA, and on top of that they also receive funding from the federal government through a bilateral arrangement with the federal government under the legislation of the federal government.
That is why there is a bit of a difference there with the amounts of money.
My question was if this the same type of funding that all the other District Education Authorities get, that this funding covers off the same thing for that District Education Authority and that is what I was trying to clarify.
It seems like if they’re all covered off the same, as the Minister had indicated earlier by the formula and then I would assume that it’s something over and above what they would have out of that $9.972 million.
There are some funds that because of the francophone minority education rights under the Charter, there are monies that we provide to the District Education Authority.
Again, the amount is highlighted there.
The federal government also contributes funding to the francophone education council to run the programs as well as the school and run the administrative issues of the school through that type of a contribution agreement also.
I think this is the first year that we’ve seen this in here and I know that the school has been open for more than a year.
I’m just wondering what happened in the past and why are we seeing it in there now.
Was it paid to them through a different format in the past?
I’m just wondering why all of a sudden it pops up now and it wasn’t there in the past?
Under the legislation that is in place under federal law, the federal government, when they look at opportunities for the Francophone School Association, it’s not the same as looking at a District Education Authority.
They actually fund a school board, as it were, the federal government.
So they look at the Trois Solei Ecole Francophone Association, not as a District Education Authority, but that’s actually a board.
That’s why you have a superintendent position.
We had just set that up under the legislation because of the situation here in Nunavut to comply with that.
That is why the member sees that in there now.
It’s in a different format.
It’s actually school board.
They have a superintendent and we have to fund it that way.
Again, the lion’s share of their funding doesn’t come from the Government of Nunavut.
It comes through the bilateral agreements that are in place with Nunavut, with the association and the federal government.
If they’re recognized as a board, and I know there is not other boards in there, but say if like here for example, in Iqaluit, where there’s quite a number of schools.
I think there is about 1,350 students just in Iqaluit, not including Apex.
If the Iqaluit District Education Authority and the Apex District Education Authority wanted to get together and form a board, would they be eligible for some of this funding as well.
Chairman: Thank you. Mr. Minister, go ahead.
Again, it’s different.
It’s like comparing apples and oranges.
In this case, the federal regulations set up the school board for francophones which is what they’ve done across the country in 13 jurisdictions, the ten provinces and the three territories.
Nunavut is no separate or different from that.
The Government of Nunavut doesn’t have any education boards and we have the local District Education Authorities.
So, we wouldn’t be in a position to fund those.
I know as the minister is probably quite well aware of, before Division, Yellowknife was in the same situation.
It was just one thing and they decided that they wanted to form their won board for Yellowknife.
My question is to the minister if that is a desire and a wish of the District Education Authorities here, would they be able to look at doing that?
That’s one of the government’s issues under the legislation.
As the member remembers, we did pass that session, which dissolved the Board.
Under the new Education Act, that’s one of the issues that I am sure will be raised when we look at the governance issues of the District Education Authorities and how those authorities are in place.
Chairman: Mr. Tootoo you are out of time, so I will lead to the next person.
My question is in regards to the school counsellors in the smaller communities.
Do they need a certain level of qualification and certain training requirements?
Usually, the school counsellors are always the same people and there is no development or further training provided to these school counsellors, and we don’t have any more being trained.
How do the school counsellors get assessed or is that the responsibility of the District Education Authorities?
The District Education Authorities don’t have enough power to do that kind of stuff.
The hiring process is for the different departments under the government are pretty much the same.
In this case, they are pretty similar again, under the Department of Human Resources, there would be a job description, and then it would be minimum qualifications that would be met for the position.
In this case, if it were a school counsellor.
So the person that would be hired would meet those minimum qualifications and then would be made a job offer.
One of the good things I can say about the counsellor position, as the member knows, indeed, this is one of the positions where we have actually got unilingual counsellors in schools working as the school counsellors and I think that’s a good opportunity where the members have talked about before where people who were unilingual couldn’t get a job, they have actually a full-time job, a member under the Nunavut Employees’ Union, the counsellors fall under that mandate and has the position.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): So the minister has brought it out.
So what kind of training do you provide for those people, if they are unilingual, they are not Grade 12?
So they are not required to have that much training or credentials.
It seems like they just baby-sit the students, they don’t get any support from the government, and some of them have to retire because of their age.
Usually the students go up to another grade when they shouldn’t.
Chairman (interpretation): It’s sort of like that.
I think one of the things we have heard over the last several months, in consultation on the budget and the members have brought up in the House to see more schools’ counsellors across Nunavut.
In some regions we have very few or none.
I believe there is only one school in the Kitikmeot that has a school counsellor.
Mr. Chairman, most school counsellors are hired directly from the community.
They bring different skill assets to the position including the ability to communicate with the students, counseling skills, and so on.
We have two types of school counsellors in our community, one being the vocational counsellor, which actually helps the students at the high school level when they are looking at the job opportunities, placements, and so on.
At the lower levels, like the K to 6 levels, for example, you have school counsellors who work individually with the students that might have some issues, work with the parents at home, and so on.
Professional development is handled in two ways, whether through professional development delivered by for example in the Federation of Nunavut Teachers’ Conference, which was done for the teachers under professional development fund, is the same thing at different aspects of professional development with the Nunavut Employees’ Union as employee members.
At the same time, the local schools, as well as the District Education Authorities involved, there are all of their staff, which includes the counsellors in different opportunities for professional development.
That may include, Mr. Chairman, for example, in some cases, doing sign language, but because we’re dealing with students with special needs and at the same time instead of saying it, like the members implication of what the counsellor does, they play a huge role in the schools.
Sometimes, when teachers aren’t available, counsellors actually step into the classroom.
So, there’s a huge opportunity and role for our counsellors at the school level.
They are getting professional training at different times through the year.
At the same times, there is a bigger need for counsellors across Nunavut, because many of our schools are asking for those positions.
I appreciate the member being in support of the counsellor position and the good things he’s trying to bring out about those positions, so I thank him for that.
Chairman: Thank you. Go ahead Mr. Barnabas.
Of course I fully support the counsellors but if you look at it this way, we have grade 12 in some of the communities but then again they have no counsellors even for the high school students.
They don’t get any kind of support in the school system because they don’t have school counsellors.
But we do have school counsellors for the elementary level.
These counsellor positions are given to the District Education Authorities and then problems are created and we definitely have to do something about it, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: I didn’t hear a question.
Mr. Barnabas (interpretation): What my question is, how many of the smaller communities up to grade 12 have counsellors, and how many don’t?
We have 42 schools in Nunavut and we have about counsellor positions.
Some schools may have two counsellors, for example, the high school here in Iqaluit.
However, it again depends on the region.
This budget, if the budget goes through for the first time, we’ve got money allocated to hire counsellors against the schools as the member is saying where we don’t have counsellors.
So, we’re looking at for the first time again, hiring at least another 7.8 PYs or almost 8 position, 8 PY counsellor positions as part of this budget and that’s part of the over 80 new positions that this budget is bringing forward.
I think that is good news and I thank the member for bringing the issue up and again supporting the much needed position of counsellors in our schools.
Of course I give my full support to the counsellors and of the unilingual counsellors especially but if you never completed your high school and you’re trying to help the students in the higher grades, I don’t know how they can do it.
Is it possible for the smaller communities to get high school counsellors?
The member again touches on the issues the counsellors deal with.
One, especially at the lower school levels is the counsellors who deal with issues with families and so on, where there may be truancy and that.
At the higher school level, say grade 9-12, we would like to have more vocational counsellors.
Those are counsellors who actually work with students on deciding their career path.
That would be a different set of skills or a different skill set that that person would need, so that would be a little bit different on those types of hires.
So, again, this is what we’re trying to do with in the budget and we appreciate the member again echoing these concerns and supporting those more career counsellors and other counsellors positions.
Chairman: One moment.
I do believe we don’t have a quorum Mr. Chairman.
Chairman: Thank you, for reminding us.
I am from a smaller community and I used to be a member of the District Education Authority.
The District Education Authorities don’t have enough authority to coordinate the school counsellors for example.
If they were having a problem with a school counsellor, what type of authority do the District Education Authorities in regards to dealing with that counsellor?
I agree, again, with the member.
There are some issues around governance with District Education Authorities, again, that frames part of the debate we will be having with the Education Act.
Chairman: Thank you. (interpretation) Are you done?
Mr. Curley is not here.
There was a couple of things that I forgot to ask earlier that came to me after, and I know the minister touched on it last week or the week before, I can’t remember, it’s has been so long now.
Hopefully the minister will remember.
It’s on the funding that was there for the Centre for Excellence.
The minister has indicated over and over again that there’s more emphasis in his budget for special needs, and looking at this, I think that’s exactly what this program did.
I believe the minister stated last week that it was just an accounting thing that had to get deleted, and they hope to have it in again once the federal funding gets approved.
Does that mean that, for our processes, for accounting purposes, that we will be seeing a supplementary appropriation for that amount for the Centre for Excellence Program?
Again, this is a program, you know, we are quite pleased with it, with Lakehead University.
Again, Lakehead gets their funding from the federal government and they are awaiting that program to go forward.
My understanding is that the federal government may come to a vote sometime this week.
I would suggest to you that in a couple of weeks after that, Lakehead University will be in a position to know what their money that they have asked for would be forthcoming.
Our issue here is in-kind; we have an in-kind contribution to help with the Centre of Excellence.
Again, it’s a program that we believe in.
Again, the major funder is the federal government and it’s channeled through Lakehead.
I think it will probably be two or three weeks before we realize if they have received their funding as indicated.
I know that he said that it’s an in-kind donation, it’s not a cash donation, but I guess in the past it has been $86,000, $65,000, and $63,000 in donations in-kind.
I know, for anticipating that again, you would think you would see that amount in there again, and I am little worried by not seeing it there that it will not happen.
I know, if we use the staffing, for example, it’s something that I have raised in the past that we budgeted if we are 100 percent staffed, even though we know we are not going to be, but still the money is there, and I see that same thing here.
So he said it was an accounting thing that they had to delete it, take it out of there.
So I would just like to get some clarification on that, and if it’s an in-kind donation, why is it not showing up in there?
Why is it taken out?
Is it something that we are going to be anticipating in the next year?
Again, it’s about $60,000 and then it was $86,000.
So, it’s a very, when you look $180 million is a very small amount, but the member is correct, it’s a good program.
This is money that we facilitate with again, Lakehead University, because the project is based on the federal budget, and so on.
When we looked at last year’s budget, remember we were late, and the federal budget has been in place and they knew what the amount of funding was, and so on.
When we came to do the administrative work on this budget, the federal budget hadn’t come to the House, there were issues around the federal election, the minority government and that, so logistically the timing wasn’t there.
In this case if Lakehead gets their money and so on, we would step back up to the plate, again with in kind contributions and if we need it extra dollars.
I can’t see the same amount the 30, 40 or 50 amount, then we would try to fund that internally, out of our own budget.
And then if that was a line item, because of internal transfer again it would be in the budget again next year.
That is the reason why it wasn’t in the budget this year because the agreement hadn’t been done by the feds, and we couldn’t allocate just in case they got money.
We can only allocate based on a pretty sure thing, especially on a third party situation like that.
The member is correct, it is a good program.
With the support of the House and the member, we will be able to move forward, and in the internal fund, if we had to.
We have to wait to see what happens in the next couple of weeks.
Chairman: Go ahead, Mr. Tootoo.
I thank the minister, I believe that I got what I was looking for was a commitment from the minister that whatever happens, once we find out what happens down there that whatever programs and services that are offered through Lakehead University for any of our residents that they need to take part in it, they will continue to be able to access those services and programs in the coming, year and not be able to because there is nothing in the budget here.
I was looking for a commitment that that wouldn’t be the case.
I believe that that is what the minister has indicated.
I would just like to ask him to verify very briefly, if that was the case for sure or not?
Chairman: Can you clarify it again, Mr. Minister.
Mr., Curley.
I have a question with respect to the funding policy of these schools.
So far the only funding available to the DEA’s is from the government.
Do you have a sort of a funding policy from private sources, as to what amount to how much?
If not, what they can do in the local community?
The legislation that is in place which guides the DEA’s is the enabling legislation.
What that means is it gives them the opportunity to be able to leverage funds from third party sources.
Those can include the programs that are delivered whether it is juveniles program that is being delivered, whether it is the DARE program that is being delivered.
So it gives them the flexibility to be able to leverage other funds from other sources other than the Government of Nunavut.
Chairman: Thank you. Mr. Curley.
Is there a limit as to what amount that they could be funded?
Do they have to be a certified programs and what not?
Is there some guidelines in place that they must adhere to?
And they are not subject to clawbacks if they don’t qualify in some areas?
For instance, can they be used to increase, salaries of some people working at the school?
As an incorporated society in Nunavut there are guidelines and regulations that the society itself has to follow.
And as the member indicated there is also regulations and rules under the legislation that guides us, which is the Education Act.
In those types of issues there are limitations put on.
However if a individual DEA has been successful in accessing third party funds, for example, which provide remedial instructors, and so on, in the classroom, the Government of Nunavut would not be in a position where they would clawback money from a third party source.
That would be the DEA funds.
The Government of Nunavut could look at clawback of funds from the DEA, for example, when we took over the custodial positions in different communities, where in the past where the DEA was paying the janitorial positions, we took those positions over, and took the funds with them so that we could actually use them to pay for the same staff person.
I’m still trying to get whether or not there are limits to the contribution or anyone can give to groups because I believe these local District Education Authorities are not non-profit organizations, therefore they must break even at a given time.
They cannot, I’m not 100 percent sure whether they can continue to use any surpluses that are built us.
So, in the other amount, what is the amount, the limit that each community or whatnot District Education Authority can raise to support local school curriculum and operations?
We have some District Education Authorities for example, right now that actually have surpluses.
It could be a result of some of the things Mr. Curley has talked about or some of the contributions they gathered over the years.
The quick answer is that if the District Education Authority has raised money and they have a surplus, then we’re not going back in there and taking their money out.
However, when you do an analyses or an evaluation of the funding that is in place for a District Education Authority and let’s say the budget was $100,000 a year, and over four years they hadn’t spent that money, then maybe at some point we would do an analysis saying well, is it maybe receiving too much money and that some other school could use that fund.
So, those types of things are an ongoing process but as a rule of thumb, we don’t go in and take out surpluses.
It is my understanding that the legislation that is in place is enabling legislation.
It enables them to access third party funding for different programs if they so desire to do that.
The limit or the contribution agreements is based on the legislation that is in place.
I really believe that should be improved as far as I am concerned because there are no guidelines as to what amount could be raised.
For instance, could they raise 50 percent of their operating budget.
Could for instance, during election time, there can be some increased activities are to provide grants or contributions to the School Boards, or what not.
What are your guidelines as far as a political donation, politically have directed grants to School Boards?
I think I understand what the member is asking is how the disbursement of funds are made under the District Education Authority and what are the cost categories that they may disperse that fund.
For example, could they support Mr. Curley in his re-election if that’s what they chose or me?
Could they support NASA in doing a moon flight?
It could be anything, so, if I’m reading the member correctly, that’s what he’s asking.
If there are guidelines, on what categories of expenditure the District Education Authority can make.
Mr. Curley: Thank you. I think the Minister tried to rephrase my question instead of answering it.
I’m really seeking answers because, for instance, by the end of your term, there could be some third party funding activities that will increase.
As to what amount should they be contributed to an unspecified kind of a funding request but they are initiated by a third party.
Are there any rules to that kind of a contribution or what not?
As I said earlier, the contributions agreements with the majority of our District Education Authorities, I think 100 percent of our District Education Authorities get the lion’s share, the majority of their contributions from the Government of Nunavut.
Within that contribution, there is what’s called a contribution agreement where it spells out the terms and references of the conditions.
I don’t have a copy of a given contribution agreement with us here to see what the guidelines and so on are.
So I can get that information for the member and make it known what those rules are, maybe even a draft agreement that he can look at.
I have a comment to make.
It’s just a question on the operations for the District Education Authorities’ responsibilities in communities.