Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I guess we do provide a lot of funding to our most vulnerable residents in the Northwest Territories. If you look at the line item there, it is in the millions, and, if you look over the last few years, there has always been an increase. We have to make sure that we are reflective in terms of taking care of rent, taking care of utilities, food, clothing for these families. We do that on a case-by-case basis. I think the program is working well. There are triggers, external triggers, that provide us to make changes to our income assistance. Currently, we do look at it...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, there are no layoff notices that are associated with this foundational review, so I am not sure what the Member is getting at. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair, no. I just want to say thanks for all the comments and feedback, and, moving forward to the next fiscal year, I'm looking forward to seeing some of the programs and initiatives that we will be rolling out with the approval of the main estimates for Education, Culture and Employment. We will continue to work with standing committee as we move forward with the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. The education authorities already knew this was happening. This is the second year, and it was already out of their budget coming into this process. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That level of detail I will have to get from the Aurora College. They do review their own programs, so I will have to get that information, and I will get it back to the Member. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll take the Member's comments, and I'll bring it to Cabinet for further discussion. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I have mentioned in the House, all the programs within ECE, we always review them. I am not sure what would trigger a review of the income assistance rates, but we believe that we do provide income assistance adequately on a case-by-case basis. Mind you, income assistance is the last resort for our residents who have tried every other avenue for getting some financial stability or other resources before coming to income assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Currently, the discussion paper is before standing committee. We are also getting that information out to some of our other partners and stakeholders on that legislation to get their feedback. So I believe the discussion paper is before standing committee, and, as I mentioned, getting that discussion paper out to leadership, really, in the Northwest Territories to see how this legislation is going to work. Thank you.

Sorry for the confusion, Mr. Chair. Once we get that response formalized, then we will send a letter to standing committee, and we will be sharing that with the education authorities, as well. It was the discussion that we had our last education leaders meeting. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. They're going to be both, really. They're going to be supporting our CDOs, getting out into the schools, into the communities to try to get our students in high school onto a right career path and support, have those extra supports. We do have some documents, the Skills 4 Success, labour market, needs assessment, and using those as part of the guiding tools that will help them do their jobs. Thank you, Mr. Chair.