Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to start out with a huge shout out to Kelsey Wrightson, who is the executive director of Dechinta and is very active, and we have great meetings, and I love hearing about her vision. So the Post-secondary Education Act came into force in 2022, and this provides the foundation to build the new system. So through the act, a quality assurance system for the accreditation of certificate, diploma, and degree programs and institutions was created, and this includes the opportunity for designation as a private college. So staff with education, culture and employment...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member's absolutely right. The SKIP program is for centre-based learning. Home-based operators who have preschool aged children with specialized or individual needs are able to receive $5,200, annually while the child is enrolled in the program, and that is the additional supports that ECE currently provides to day homes. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, ECE is certainly open to providing any additional supports that people need. This would be done on a case-by-case basis. ECE has not received any type of request at this point, and if people have a situation where they need additional supports I encourage them to reach out by emailing earlylearning@gov.nt.ca.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we sat in this room back when that first came up when we were reviewing the main estimates, it was discussed that there was a desire to seek wage parity between centre-based providers and people who were working as classroom assistants in our JK to 12 education system. As it stands, our home-based educators have already achieved that parity based on their higher aftertax income that they do have. However, our centre-based providers still do make less than our education assistants. And so the goal there is to use that $3.5 million that, thank...

Mr. Speaker, I don't have that information on hand and could not confirm that for the Member. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is right; they're not social workers but they do a very good job at the work that they do and they're very committed to the work that they do. They are committed to making sure that they let residents know what opportunities there are because there are other people in communities and other people within departments who do have things like access to the programs that I spoke about and who also have access to different workshops that are happening in communities. So, for example, Prosper NWT has delivered workshops to over 150 people last...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are certainly some options for other funding. I did use the example of fundraising. If there is another source that a childcare facility is looking at bringing in to access funding, certainly would want to know about it and be able to work alongside the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to explore that option. We certainly do want our childcare facilities to stay open and stay operational.

I think a couple of things here, Mr. Speaker, I will absolutely acknowledge that the original agreement was signed before extreme inflation...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there's everything from training workshops, workforce development, through Education, Culture and Employment, not just ITI. There's also support afforded through on-the-job training. And so ECE does do wage subsidy programs that employers also do have access to. Workshops are everything from arts focused to tourism focused and even agriculture focused as well. And you know, when I look at the numbers, there's certainly some good activity happening within the region, but also always, always looking for more opportunities as well. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point we're working with Aurora College to really gain clarity on what the picture will look like, and our actions from there will be to determine how we go about working with our education partners and stakeholders across the territory to ensure that at the end of the day we still are providing options for adult education and opportunities for education and employment in our small communities across the territory. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that this afternoon those reports are now online and as soon as I stop answering questions, I'll be able to send an email to my colleagues to let them know those links. So, Mr. Speaker, there -- to start, there was a facilities master plan that was released by the GNWT in September of 2022. In April of 2024, there was community learning centre reports, along with What We Heard reports, that were commissioned by the GNWT and also community learning centres facilities report. These reports, Mr. Speaker, did not identify the closure of...