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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Four months after announcing plans to merge Yellowknife's two school boards with health and housing into one regional board, Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger still doesn't have answers on how to handle issues specific to Yellowknife - like property taxes collected for education.

Signs, like the one pictured above, have gone up around the city as Yellowknifers react to the GNWT's board merger plans. Finance Minister Michael Miltenberger has seen at least two of them and was quick to point out his name was misspelled. "I don't know if they're trying to be clever," he said. - Herb Mathisen/NNSL photo What is the board merger? The territorial government is planning to merge 70 regional housing, education and health boards into seven: with six regional services boards and one pan-territorial overseer board to co-ordinate management and administration. Why is the government proposing it? The board merger is being rolled out in an attempt to streamline inefficiencies in administration and service delivery. Miltenberger explained the rationale behind the merger by stating there are 70 boards in the NWT delivering programs and services to a population just over 40,000. "We have more governance per capita than any jurisdiction in North America," he said. When is it sent to go through? On April 1, Miltenberger will come forward with the work compiled thus far on merger plans and said the government will then consult with affected organizations. The implementation of the merger is slated for April 2011. However, Miltenberger acknowledged unique challenges in Yellowknife, meaning the merger may happen later in the capital city. What organizations will be involved? Health, housing and education boards: (North Slave Region) Yk Education District No. 1 Yellowknife Catholic School district Yellowknife Housing Authority Yellowknife Health and Social Services Authority Yellowknives Dene First Nation Housing Division Lutsel K'e District Education Authority What organizations are not included? Stanton Territorial Hospital Commission scolaire francophone (both are considered territorial boards) Criticisms of merger: Board members may be appointed by ministers. Not enough consultation from education boards has gone into the initiative. Undermines Catholics' right to have their own school board. Reporting structure erodes ministerial accountability and responsibility by giving too much power to regional board chairs (housing, education and health accounts for nearly 70 per cent of budget). Boards need to be tailored to each region: cookie-cutter approach won't work. Planning is based on dated data.

The refocusing committee in charge of board reform will have a plan ready for April 1, which Miltenberger will take to community groups for a more comprehensive consultation process. A proposal was released on Jan. 29, outlining possible scenarios for implementing board reform. When asked about the issues surrounding Yellowknife - municipal taxes, elected boards versus appointed boards, bringing school employees into the public service and into new bargaining units, Miltenberger said he isn't sure how his department will deal with these issues.

"We could have sat here and come up with a package complete in every detail and said here it is and this is what we're doing," the finance minister said. "We would have been vilified and heckled even more than we are now for being closed, not open and making decisions ahead of time."

Mike Huvenaars, the assistant superintendent of business for Yellowknife Catholic Schools, said his district will receive over $3.6 million in property taxes this school year. Yellowknife Education District No.1 received just over $3.9 million for the 2007-2008 school year.

The government faces growing pressure to be more efficient with its revenue and Miltenberger said its because of this his department is working to streamline the administrative side of regional boards. The GNWT currently spends approximately $1.2 million on regional boards and an additional $900,000 on district education authorities which control about $350 million in annual programming.

"We just have too much governance," he said. "We're spending a couple million a year just on running boards. The boards are working within the structures that are there. We're saying as a government that is under growing pressures to be as efficient and effective as possible that we need to come up with a more integrated and effective way to deliver these services and money would be more efficiently spent with a more integrated administrative system.

"We want to make our administrative and governance structures as efficient as possible and spend only the amount that is necessary. The amount of money we're spending to replicate all the (administrative) and finance structures would be more efficiently provided by smaller number of them with integrated services."

In a proposal short on specifics to this point, Miltenberger did provide an example of how the government could benefit from the merger. According to Miltenberger, if the city had one school board the GNWT wouldn't have had to spend $26 million on the St. Joseph school retrofit which is currently nearing completion.

"There are dropping enrolments and a surplus of space and two boards were unable to come to an agreement on lending space," he said, referring to how Yk1 refused to give up one of its schools to the Catholics when faced with a 60 per cent enrolment rate. Yk1 agreed to lend space to the Catholic board while St. Joe's undergoes the retrofit but wouldn't give up the school.

Then-education minister Charles Dent said Yk1 was wasting money by keeping open half-empty schools.

"Two separate boards in a community of 18,000 people and they could barely agree on lending space, and we ended up spending $26 million on a school in a community that if it had one board wouldn't have been built," Miltenberger said.

Mary Vane, chair of the Yellowknife Catholic school board, doesn't agree with the minister's perception of their relationship with Yk1.

"I think it's an unfair judgement," she said. "I feel the relationship we have with Yk1 is a good working relationship. We run two distinctly different school districts, each with their own credibility."

Duff Spence, Yk1 board chair, said his district won't take responsibility for the choices the Department of Education made in funding the school's retrofit.

"It's a bit revisionist on his part," Spence said of Miltenberger. "I signed a lease with YCS and provided them with the space they needed. We've always been community-focused and done what's best for children. When the government takes us to task over things they've decided on is completely offside."

Vane said choices in education are important in the North, as they help ensure the economy stays strong.

"Without choice in Yellowknife there would be teachers who would choose to leave and parents who would leave," she said.

"There would be parents who would choose not come to work in Yellowknife without that choice. In an economic downturn, it's extremely important that we remember that choice contributes."

In session Monday afternoon at the legislative assembly, Miltenberger said board reform is a work in progress and the plan may take different shapes depending on the region and may be implemented in phases. He also asked for people to be more open-minded about what they are trying to do.

"We want to provide better and more effective services for our residents," he said in his minister's statement.

"We encourage you to come to the table not with a no, but with a list of what is most important to you and your ideas about opportunities to work better together within communities and regions."

One MLA at least is taking the "no" approach. Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen asked Miltenberger to "cease and desist" with the board reform policy on Monday, stating the government had more pressing concerns to deal with.

Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay said he had yet to see any information proving the merger plan would make Yellowknife boards operate more efficiently, adding the future model would add a whole new level of bureaucracy.

"They haven't articulated sound reasons why it's a good thing to be doing and what it is they are trying to address," he said. "I don't know if I trust them to treat Yellowknife any differently.

"They can say they will, but they haven't put anything on the table that is going to suggest that they will or how."

He said the merger plan came out too early and said it's another example of the government ruling by "fear and intimidation."