Tom Beaulieu

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Is there a minimum number of people in a community in order to access this funding?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, it's been many years since the municipalities had an increase in the capital estimates. I know that they sometimes shuffle the money around from one community to another, but the bottom line never changes. So I'd like to ask the Minister if there is any possibility that this number will go up sometime soon. I don't ever remember it being anything other than $28,002,000, so I'll start with that, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 143-18(2), Capital Estimates, 2017-2018. Committee would like to continue with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment and then get into Municipal and Community Affairs, Department of Health and Social Services and the NWT Housing Corporation. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I just can't agree with that. The funding through the Building Canada Plan was given to the GNWT under three different bundles, Bundle Number 1, Bundle Number 2, and Bundle Number 3. Within those bundles, a percentage of it was taken out and it was put to municipalities.

The GNWT indicated that some was going to go to territorial infrastructure, some to municipal infrastructure. So I'm just trying to figure out how the communities can reach into the Building Canada Plan on their own to pull the money out and then reflect it in their communities? What...

Mr. Speaker, many of the job and employment opportunities I speak of would be projects at the community level, various projects that the community could carry out as part of employment. I'd like to ask the Minister if it would be possible for the Minister to work with his department to direct the client service officers to work with the communities to look at all possibilities of employment in small communities.

Marci Cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister of Education questions on my Member’s statement. I would like to ask the Minister if he is willing to review the Income Support Program in small communities, Employment Support Program, to look at the feasibility of transferring budgets to make the Small Communities Employment Support Program more substantial. Thank you.

Marci cho, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, [English translation not provided.]

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to talk about employment in small communities. The Department of Education, Culture and Employment has two programs that I will speak of. Firstly, Mr. Speaker, is the Income Support Program. This program is designed to provide income to families mostly in areas where there are very few jobs. This program is needed but should not be a way of life.

The second program I wish to speak of is a Small Community Employment Support Program. The budget for this program is limited but should be...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I wonder if the Minister could commit to having that discussion with the federal government. On the community learning centres, as we know, and in the small communities, the community learning centre, it's an active place, many people benefit from that. There is, as I've always indicated, low employment in the communities and it would be nice to be able to support adult students that are trying to upgrade their skills to make themselves more employable. I would ask the Minister if he could commit to having that discussion with the federal government to...

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Along the same lines, in the 20-year assessment there is a capital item, the community learning centre. There's a 2018-2019 in the 20-year assessment within the next five-year capital plan time. In Ndilo there is a community learning centre scheduled in the 20-year assessment for 2018-2019. I was wondering if the Minister could give me a schedule update on the community learning centre for Ndilo.

I have nothing further. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.