Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Your committee would like to report on its consideration of Bill 72, Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act.

Bill 72 received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 2nd, 2023, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review. The standing committee held a public hearing on May 19th, 2023, and completed its clausebyclause review of the bill with the Minister of Justice on May 29th, 2023.

Mr. Speaker, the committee reports that Bill 72, Opioid Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act, is ready for consideration...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, there's also the travel form that students need to fill out online and share there.

So, Mr. Speaker, in addition to the online services, what students are also looking for and it's not just students; it's potential employers, postsecondary institutions across Canada, as well as even the polytechnic here in the Northwest Territories, people are always looking for information because information allows us to make strategic decisions, it allows us to know what's going on in the world, and especially with our own students here. And so I'm wondering if the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions today are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I'm wondering, point blankly, Mr. Speaker, will the Minister increase the total number of eligible semesters for all NWT students given that what we're seeing as far as trends of who's accessing SFA. The students that are accessing beyond a bachelor's degree for graduate students is less than 4 percent of all of the students, and students that are accessing even more than four years is limited to under a total of 9 percent. And so I'm wondering if the Minister is willing...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, Bill 79, An Act to Amend the Judicature Act, received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on March 29th, 2023, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

Bill 79 brings the Government of the Northwest Territories into compliance with requirements under the Canada Free Trade Agreement and addresses two concerns raised by the judiciary.

In the committee's review of the bill, no stakeholder submissions were received. The committee had no concerns with the bill either.

The clausebyclause review of Bill 79 was...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. I very much appreciate that.

Mr. Speaker, the last change that I highlighted in my Member's statement today was the change for remissible loans. It added that for the eligibility requirement of students, I would like to understand why the GNWT wants to remove the eligibility requirement of students being schooled in the Northwest Territories for remissible loans without adding a return to the North clause for nonNWT schooled students. This has been one of the strongest retention tools that the NWT has, and I'm wondering...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, I wanted to save the Minister some printing and get those changes in before he printed his new rules.

I think there's a lot more focus that's needed on this one because I think that there's something that can be done here in order to include more students in this in the Northwest Territories without it meaning more money from student financial assistance in big dollar amounts given where we're at.

Mr. Speaker, back when I was a student using student financial assistance, I was walking around with my flip phone, I was T9 texting or whatever you used to call it, and...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Wednesday is the deadline for getting feedback to the GNWT on the student financial assistance regulations. The regulations call for an increase to unlimited semesters for Indigenous students, and this is great news. But why stop there? The draft regulations maintain the six year or 12 semester basic grant cap for nonIndigenous students. Mr. Speaker, this does not keep pace with postsecondary or labour market trends or make sense given how SFA is used today.

Today, the average time to complete a bachelor's degree is almost five years, and the NWT labour...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to present to the House Bill 90, An Act to Amend the Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, No. 5, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the North is a pretty incredible community. When someone starts a new business, we show up and don't mind waiting to be one of the first to support a new venture. We love telling people about our experience and sharing encouraging words as our neighbours settle into entrepreneurship, and we love doing this because of the impact business brings to our community. While fulfilling their career goals, businesses step up when a sports team needs support, contribute to residents experiencing loss, and bring life to our communities.

But I wonder, Mr. Speaker, if...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hear the empathy from the Minister and I also hear the acknowledgement from Ministers and Members on kind of the cumulative impacts of having to evacuate, as the MLA for Hay River North said earlier during their Member's statement, two, three, four consecutive years here, going on with disasters from really, from the impacts of climate change and so we're just going to continue to see more of them. But we also heard the MLA for Hay River North today during their Member's statement speaks about how the fire is only six kilometres away right now, and so...