Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And, Madam Chair, I think it's worth saying that one of the things that I really like about this Assembly is that we're using our business plans more as living documents and reevaluating them year after year. And so certainly, you know, as the Member stated that he had pointed out last year wanting to see targets added in, the comments of the Member are certainly being taken into account here today.

In regards to the number itself and what the goal is, certainly at face value here the number is to see more students accessing post-secondary. I think what you...

I look forward to the presentation as well. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, if I understand correctly, the Member is asking for updates on how students access post-secondary from high school within their communities. And so one of the things that the Department of Education, Culture and Employment has is career education advisors, and those career education advisors fill a very important role within our community schools right across the territory. And so they actually work with youth on a one-on-one basis to understand what their career goals are and what it is that they would like to do and ensure that students...

Well, certainly, no program from the GNWT launches itself. There's always a concerted effort behind it, Madam Chair. It was end of day back in January when we learned of a drastic cut to our allocation numbers of the nominee program from the federal government. Unfortunately for the deputy minister, he's been very gracious in giving me his contact numbers, so I was immediately on the phone with him. I asked for the program to be immediately paused. That was a political decision. I did not feel that we could in good faith launch a program within 12 hours that it's so drastically changed...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the Education Act was amended in 2013 to include a definition of bullying, establish safe school regulations, which include the territorial school code of conduct and a requirement that education bodies ensure the development of safe school plans. It is worth adding in here that in 2022-2023 school year, a safe and caring school subcommittee was established under the authority of the deputy minister of Education, Culture And Employment, and ECE meets with representatives from education bodies annually to discuss implementation of the safe...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So absolutely, Madam Chair, the Member is right, there is a significant increase to the investment from 44 -- sorry, in 2024-2025, it was $43.8 million, and now it's $44.6 million there for income assistance in that line item. The actuals were lower in 2023-2024, and that was because of the delayed implementation of the new program. So the increase that you see there is just under a million dollars from main estimate to main estimate comparing those, and that is from the -- the Member is right, it is from the new program. And the other increases that you see...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'll start, and then would -- I'm sure the Members would love to also get to hear somebody else talk at this table as well, and I'll pass to deputy minister Fulford who I know has wonderful things to say.

So to start, some of the things that we are doing have to do -- you know, for example, in this section, we have apprenticeship allocation certification. We also have our labour market programs. And unfortunately, while we did see that the federal government did not reinstate our labour market programs across the country, we saw a $625 million dip...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, what the Aurora College has said to this point is that the existing mode of delivery for courses through the community learning centres has not been working and that they want to re-envision what this looks like. So they've not said that they are completely vacating the adult education space. They have said they are going to be doing it different. So where I'm at right now is determining if their plan does meet the needs of the mandate of education, culture and employment. So I can't answer that here on the floor of the House right now. But they...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the reason that this program was certainly implemented back in the day was in hopes of seeing more students return to the North in hopes of ultimately seeing our population numbers grow. It was part of the strategy for population growth. We did not see, as everybody knows, our population grow as a result of this program. Certainly, if the intent was to see this program returned to the budgets of the Legislative Assembly, I would not have the authority to just start doing it again. I would have to go to -- through regular budgetary processes in...

Thank you very much. Our commitment was to relaunch the program after hearing from them. So we listened to them. We took into account their perspectives and relaunched the program. Madam Chair, there was no commitments made at the meeting because, of course, needed to ensure that we were weighing all of the facts and balancing everything out and putting together a program at the end of the day that we felt was fair. Thank you.