The cost to the government for positions such as this is less than anticipated increased transfers from the Federal Government. The cost is about $90,000 per position while the government receives $30,000 per person. In addition, there will be increased profits by local businesses because of more customers. The average family is 3.7 people which means hiring more teacher assistants will increase government revenues by more than the cost of hiring them.

Schools in Yellowknife and the larger communities are grossly understaffed. The Pupil-Teacher ratio is 16 when the average in the country is 13.8. The larger the community, the larger the PTR can be without impacting Education negatively. The average student in Canada lives in a city of 500,000 people. This means a PTR of 16 would be high for a city the size of Winnipeg or Hamilton. For a city the size of Yellowknife or a community the size of Inuvik, it is ridiculous.

This problems caused by under-staffing in schools could be reduced by hiring more teaching assistants and librarians and, at the same time, increased revenues would more than make up for the additional costs involved.