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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife public and Catholic school boards will be merged with local health and housing boards within three years, according to Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger, who leads a ministerial committee aimed at refocusing government priorities.

Miltenberger said all boards in the city related to education, health and housing will be combined to form one regional board.

Michael Miltenberger: adamant that the move is going ahead

The ministerial re-focusing committee is planning to reduce the number of boards and agencies operating in the territory ten-fold by 2011, combining 70 various organizations dealing with health, education and housing to form six regional boards.

Chairpersons from the six regional boards would form a seventh, pan-territorial coordinating committee, and would sit and discuss their issues with the three departmental ministers.

"We have 70 boards in these program areas administering 33 communities, or 42,000 people," Miltenberger said, adding the multiplicity of boards is creating a barrier to service delivery.

Miltenberger's announcement Tuesday came as a surprise to officials with the three school boards operating in the city.

Yk Education District No. 1 chair Duff Spence said he doesn't know how the government's plans will work because he hasn't been consulted about it.

"We haven't had any direct conversations with the minister," he said.

Miltenberger said, however, that territorial government officials did meet with CEOs representing the various health, education and housing boards in the city.

"They were given some initial briefings from some of our senior folks involved in this – to go over the presentation and show them what our thinking was at this point and how we intend to carry on that process," he said.

Mary Vane, chair of the Yellowknife Catholic school board, said she has not seen any details on the plan and would not provide comment.

"Until we see some information, we have no comment," said Vane.

The Catholic school board is currently appealing a court decision allowing non-Catholics to serve on the board. The case dates back to 2006 after the territorial government backed up a decision by the city's returning officer to allow non-Catholics to run for the Catholic school board.

A board member with the Commission Scolaire Francophone – the territory's French school board – did not wish to be identified but said she hadn't heard any information about the merging of boards either, Thursday.

Although Miltenberger said the refocusing committee recognized there would be difficulties combining the various boards in Yellowknife, he was adamant that the move was going ahead.

Miltenberger said his government will consult with the boards before the merger, but said the plan to do so is past the point of discussion.

"The issue is, we are not asking do you think this is a good idea. We are talking about how do we implement it," he said.

The government intends to take a two-track approach, he said, explaining that combining the agencies and boards in regions outside Yellowknife would be fairly straightforward and work would begin on that soon.

Spence said he sees how restructuring could work outside the city but wasn't sure how merging Yellowknife's school boards will improve services.

"That might be his plan right now, but we are unclear as to how all this is going to work," he said.

He said the Yk 1 board has been around for close to 70 years, and is projecting a $1.4 million surplus this year. The district also has the highest graduation rate in the territory.

"We are successful," he said. "I am unclear how amalgamating the boards would make us more successful."

Spence said Yk 1 is planning to hold meetings with the Catholic board to have "a united front" in terms of asking questions to clarify the issue.

Miltenberger insisted that the merger plan should not be viewed as a cost-cutting exercise even though he acknowledged that it will help reduce administration costs.

"Anything that is not used in administration that is freed up will be used and absorbed by the program side," he said.

The refocusing committee was born during Premier Floyd Roland's spring budget – who was also finance minister at the time – to look at inefficiencies with delivery of programs and services from the government.

Agencies in Lustel K'e, Dettah and Ndilo will be lumped in with the Yellowknife boards to create one North Slave regional board entity, said Miltenberger.