Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I would say the biggest barrier is budget. If we want to be able to provide more than the aim or the goal of 80 percent of heating costs to low and moderate income seniors across the territory, we would need to increase the budget for that. If the goal was to provide 100 percent, say, of subsidy for the cost of heat to seniors that are considered low and moderate income and who are not on income assistance, we would need to make sure that our budgets do reflect that and that the policy of the program reflects that as well.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, currently we budget about $2.2 million for this subsidy every year. We added approximately half a million dollars using internal resources in 20222023 and then again in 20232024 in order to acknowledge that heating fuel costs have gone up. While we recognize that heating fuel fluctuates throughout the year and when it is higher than usual, we do try to put more funding into this subsidy. But like I said before, we cannot afford within the department to continue to fund from within. We would need to have increases done to the program as a whole...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Member for the question. As the Aurora College is arm's length and it is its own institution, the chair would be able to be contacted by the committee and be invited to appear in front of committee. I think it would be a great idea for committee to form that relationship with the college and be able to understand the board of governors' vision and where they'd like to take the college. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in short, none. And the slightly longer more informative answer in that is that under the Act, because Aurora College is arm's length, the board of governors oversees hiring of the president and the president reports directly to the board chair. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in regards to the peer group placement, I want to start there. And what is really crucial about that and what determines if, you know, a student well, what it calls on is that a student stays with their age group because studies have shown that has a huge benefit to students. And what's really important there is when students stay with their grade level, that when they go up to the next grade that they are given an education plan that outlines the student needs and how those will be met in the next grade level to ensure that we are still meeting...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, while the department doesn't practice social passing as a policy so to speak, it does endorse peer group placement for students in the Northwest Territories. This is researchedbased education practice, and it's used in many jurisdictions across Canada and worldwide. What I want to add here, though, is that peer group placements do not prevent parents, students, teachers, and also even the education system as a whole, from holding appropriate expectations for students to continue growing in our territory. And I think it's really important that amendments...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that while 59 applicants were approved from Tlicho region, there were 13 people who were denied for the seniors' home heating subsidy and that is because their income was over the income threshold. And what I do want to add here, because I want to acknowledge that some residents participate in seasonal employment, if somebody is denied because their previous year's income is too high but their income  or their employment has changed in the following year, they can actually seek a reassessment from the department so that their income...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, right now the rates are not intended to cover 100 percent of the seniors' heating costs. They aim to help with 80 percent of the heating costs. In early last year, there was a review done on the seniors' home heating subsidy, and it was done to review the amount that was being provided to seniors and to see what we could do from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment in order to either increase that amount or create certainty for seniors. And so what was done at that point was providing costs over the month to seniors in order to ensure that...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I am not responsible for operations within the college itself, but I am responsible for the oversight and also the funding provided to the college. And I do have a few accountability tools that I can use in that role. So the first, of course, is regular discussions with the chairperson and regular checkins, and I can state that we've already started those together. There's also the strategic mandate agreement, and the agreement sets out the operating parameters of the college itself and is developed by the college with input from ECE and with approval by...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, in the course of the last term we did a lot of work on legislation to do with Aurora College. So we had the Aurora College Act itself that was done. We did the PostSecondary Education Act, and we also had the opportunity under the previous Ministers to reestablish the Aurora College board of governors. And in terms of my role within that, I provide as Minister responsible for postsecondary oversight of the NWT postsecondary system as a whole, and including holding postsecondary institutions accountable under the Aurora College Act itself and...