Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my left I have Mr. Jamie Fulford, who is the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And to my right, I have Shannon BarnettAikman, who is the assistant deputy minister of education and early learning.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will definitely put in a plug for, you know, if anybody has any French translating drafters out there, who are both lawyers and very skilled in the language of French and translations, please come live in the Northwest Territories and make this your home. We have some work for you. But, yes, as soon as we can get that done, that is something that I very much look forward to getting out for engagement and making sure that we can put that new regulation in play. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in that top line item there, the $8.2 million to the $6 million, that line item reduction is due to some fiscal sustainability reductions. So for starters, there is a sunset of education renewal and innovation funding but from our fiscal sustainability plan, there's also a switch to virtual meetings related to committee meetings and a reduction of the number of training sessions as well by our student support and wellness programs. There's also a trueup of mentorship allowances and substitute wages to support the budgets under the school funding...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, one of the things that is important to know in these two main estimates for 20232024, as well as 20242025, is they both have the funding for the new income assistance program included in them, but because we weren't able to launch that program, the actuals were far less because we weren't able to get those dollars out the door with the new program. I think it's also worth knowing as well that we still have not returned to our prepandemic levels for income assistance uptake as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, part of the work under the Canada Council for the Arts grant is to do work through a coordinator whose role is funded through that MOU in order to ensure that we're doing what we can as a territory with the funding that we do have in order to multiple that by accessing additional federal funding as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in the $10.6 million that was mentioned, that federal funding announcement, how those dollars are going to roll out, that plan is being worked on in conjunction with sector stakeholders as well as Indigenous governments and education bodies to make sure that we're all working together. I know that a lot of this comes down to us making sure that we're stacking funding together, that we're working together with additional funding mechanisms to bring it all together and make sure that we are doing what we can with the dollars we have to create more...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department was able to look at the last five years of that spending line item and able to identify that over the last five years, typically $150,000 of that subsidy was not spent. And so I would absolutely love the opportunity to go over budget on that line item this year and would challenge my colleagues to help me find employers willing to help us do that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some arts funding programs through the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. The one that immediately comes to mind for a project like this would be the small arts grant. The small arts grant provides funding up to $5,000 for art projects across the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I want to start off by just pointing out that the two or kind of apples and oranges because one is talking about JK to 12 education; the other's talking about Aurora College, and they're very separate. In regards to the Member's question about the reduction for our territorial schools and administration, that number is enrolment driven. And so while I did, as Minister, use that number to bring to my colleagues within this fiscal sustainability exercise, that is a number that goes up and down year after year because it is based entirely on enrolment...

I was passing back to the Member, sorry.