Caroline Cochrane

The small community employment fund is actually one of the successes of this government, in my opinion. It is actually putting money into the communities based on where the community thinks that it would be most appropriate. I can't stand here and say what successful projects are, because, in my opinion, every single community is a successful project because that community has defined where they want that funding to go.

One thing I would like to say, though, and I have said it to the communities that I have had access to, is that most of the applications that I have noticed coming in for the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Within Education, Culture and Employment, there is no direct funding for signage for trails. However, the good thing about consensus government and the departments is we do try to work together, so I have spoken to my colleague with Infrastructure. There is actually funding within Infrastructure, probably within the community access program, that can be utilized. We are more than willing to work with the MLA if he would like some more information on that.

As we all know, this Assembly is coming to an end at the end of the month here, so I can't commit that the program will always continue. I can certainly say that that program has been successful. I want to, again, thank some of the MLAs on the other side who have come forward to actually get it funded more. It is successful, it is working, and I am hoping that future governments will carry it forward into the next Assembly and in Assemblies to come. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to also take a moment, even though they're not in my riding, to recognize Felix Lockhart, Rhonda, grandson Tristan, and even though she's not here physically, I'd like to recognize Sandra Lockhart. She was one of my best friends and, while she was ill at the end, I told her to write her stories and what I did get was I got to read her last published story in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Inquiry Report, and I will treasure it forever. So, Sandra, you're not here physically, but you are here in my heart forever. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I move, seconded by the honourable Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, that Bill 48, Post-Secondary Education Act, be read for the third time; and, Mr. Speaker, I request a recorded vote. Mahsi cho, Mr. Speaker.

Any good program needs money. We all know that. I don't think I am going to get any argument on that one. Part of the action plan, an action plan is supposed to be comprehensive. The strategy says: this is what we want. The plan says: how do we get to that strategy? If we are not looking at how we are getting funding, then that would be a detriment to the plan going forward, so we will be open to accessing outside funding sources. I also want to say that we are already doing some of that. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment regularly accesses outside funding sources, such as...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is quite disheartening to hear these comments today, in all honesty. I had a conversation with the MLA the other day about one organization representing the interests of all of the people who would be covered within that. This is an example of how, sometimes, it doesn't work really well.

We started out with the Arts Strategy, and between November 2018 and March 2019, we have done 16 key stakeholder engagements, we have 277 general public members who responded to an online survey, and then we realized that we hadn't engaged with the Arts Council, the NWT Arts Council...

Again, the act is kind of vague on the authority of the Minister, and I'm very respectful of them, they're all elected positions, so I'm respectful of their allocations and what they see fit for their regions. We don't tell the district education councils what to use their surpluses on. I felt that was very limiting; it's very patriarchal, it's not how I practise, so we gave the flexibility to say, "Tell us what you're going to use your surplus on."

The sad thing is, Mr. Speaker, that the South Slave District Education Council never identified busing as an issue within their surplus plan, so I...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The MLA is right; the Legislation, it starts with us. We approve the budget that is going forward for schools. At that point, then, ECE allocates the budgets to the district education councils, and we use a school funding formula for that. That funding formula has different aspects; some for inclusive schooling, some for French languages, some per capita for the number of children in school. Then the education authority, at that point, we kind of lose our authority within that. ECE does not have a mandate within our education net to provide direction to any district...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Today I would like to recognize a dynamic group of individuals who are here with the Jane Glassco Fellows. We have staff, and we have fellows as well. I'm just going to name them all, and excuse me if I do mispronunciation of names. I'm going to try my hardest.

We have Sherry Campbell, Melaina Sheldon, Ashley Carvill, Chloe Dragon Smith, Don Couturier, Heather Bourassa, Hilda Snowball, Julianna Scramstad, Kaviq Kaluraq, Kelly Panchynshyn, Kristen Tanche, Killulark Arngna'naaq, Luke Campbell, Tina Decouto, Tony Penikett, John B. Zoe, and Vivien Carli. I appreciate you all...