R.J. Simpson

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. One year ago, Members of this House made the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university a priority of the 19th Legislative Assembly. Today, I would like to provide an update on some of the progress that has been made toward this goal.

Earlier this month, Aurora College released a three-year strategic plan, which sets out the vision, mission, values, and strategic direction that will guide the college's operations for the next three years and helps set the stage for key transformational changes. Two of the four strategic pillars of the new plan are...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I give notice that, on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, I will move that Bill 12, An Act to Amend the Apprenticeship, Trades and Occupational Certification Act, be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

That took a turn. The Member was advocating for an increased minimum wage, then said the minimum wage is irrelevant, and now wants a living wage. No, I don't have a path to a living wage. Frankly, I don't have a path to ensuring that everyone makes $25-plus in the territory. I'm really not sure how we would get to that at this point. It would take a rethinking of a lot of small businesses. I know of businesses in Hay River that would go under if they had to pay everyone $25 an hour, so no, I can't commit to that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

I'll see what the report recommends. It's a complete waste of all of these people's time if I'm going to stand up here and answer these questions without ever seeing what is recommended. I understand what the Member is saying. I've worked in the industry, as well. I know that you make lower wages because you live off the tips. If that's something that they recommend, then that's something I'd consider. However, you don't get tips everywhere you work. Maybe Yellowknife isn't bad, but I know there are places where the tipping isn't great. We can't paint the NWT with the same brush as the rest of...

The SNAP program, people participating in the SNAP program are already able to benefit from the wage subsidy program, so no change is needed. It's already happening. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the NWT-specific numbers, but I know that in Canada in 2014 is the most recent information I have. That's from a report prepared by the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. For every $32 million spent on healthcare, there's about $10 million for healthcare for substance abuse, there's a corresponding $10 million spent on enforcement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Chair. For that level of detail, I would like to ask Ms. Bolstad to respond.

Yes. I do, Madam Chair.

Since the first report in 2010, the department has taken a number of steps to make good on the Education Act's requirement to provide equitable access. I just want to comment on something the Member said earlier, that the department is "passing the buck" to the education authorities in terms of the failure of small communities in terms of education. I've been here five years, and I've never heard any Minister pass the buck. The previous Minister before me, I heard her state that we are failing students in small communities. The day I became Minister, that became my failure, so I'm not passing...

I want to thank the Member for highlighting the positive contributions of the RCMP. I've stated before in the House that they don't do the kind of self-promotion that, perhaps, they could to get those accolades.

The NWT does have the highest concentration of RCMP officers in Canada. We have 416 per 100,000 people. The next highest is Nunavut with 354 per 100,000. We are staffed quite well with RCMP. In terms of the training, there's a significant amount of mandatory training that RCMP have, and in order to support that and support increased training because there's always new training every...