Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The total budget is 255.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, part of the new program is to do a performance management plan that would report on some of the findings and some of the review that takes place of the program changes and not only of the program itself but also to the communities as well where clients live so that we are looking at it very holistically.

In addition to that we do have an idea, for example, of how many people participate in programs when we take a look at the mains every year and so there is information available on an annual basis, and I would be more than happy to learn from the...

I do.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am most definitely willing to look further into any part of any regulation. I think it's really important that we ensure that we're supporting our most vulnerable residents while still ensuring that we're also maintaining fiscal responsibility. I think it's also prudent for me to also say that income assistance is intended to be a program of last resort and is intended to pick people up when they need to be picked up in order to get to the next month and hopefully be able to access programs that lift them out of that program as well. And so yes...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in addition to, you know, the accountabilities that we've described, this person also is accountable to a team of people below them that support the work that they're doing. And so it's not just one or two people that they're supporting in this work. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the benefit rates are based on the region in that it uses the northern market basket measure to determine the basic funding that an income assistance client receives. So it is based regionally considering that. While ECE understands that one size fits all might not work for everyone, it works very hard to ensure that programs like income assistance are delivered as fairly and as consistently as possible across the Northwest Territories while still taking into account that there are differences in cost of living for residents from one end of the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: NWT Office of the Regulator of Oil and Gas Operations Annual Report 20232024. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd say one of the significant changes that I've had the opportunity to speak to quite a bit today is freeing up quite a bit of time of client navigators by ensuring that we are reducing administrative burdens to a significant number of income assistance clients. That leaves about 60 percent of income assistance clients who are still reporting month to month. And it allows the client navigators to form more indepth relationships with those clients. So it means that all of a sudden they are able to make stronger connections within the communities...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the salary ranges of assistant deputy ministers are standard across the department. And all roles within the department or within all departments and across the government also do performance not performance appraisals performance appraisals job evaluations, and then as people go through their position year after year, they do performance appraisals.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not in control and neither is Cabinet of the agenda for Council of Leaders; however, if the Council of Leaders would like to see this on an upcoming agenda, I would absolutely support that and be more than happy to have this conversation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.