R.J. Simpson

Thank you. It's hard to predict a lot of these programs, but I think that, if you look at the statistics of the number of people who are getting to a certain age, more people are going to become eligible for the programs, and hence there is going to be more uptake. That's certainly what we've seen. You know, there are also fuel prices. While these aren't tied to fuel prices, necessarily, if a senior runs out of fuel, we don't just leave them hanging. If they've used their entire benefit and they still are eligible for Income Assistance, we'll help them out so that their house doesn't freeze in...

We don't have the actuals for this fiscal year yet, as we are still in it, but in 2017-2018, there was $948,000 spent, so nearly the entire budget. In 2018-2019, it was down to $655,000, so there was a carry-over of over $400,000, and that is due to a decrease in the number of apprentices, the new registers, from 92 in 2017-2018 to 70 in 2018-2019.

Thank you, that increase to travel was to support training opportunities for Indigenous governments. Thank you.

Thank you. Yes, we do. We track the funding amount entering each education council's or authority's region as well as the number of positions that that money is being used to fund. Thank you.

Thank you. If you will just give me a moment, I have to pull up that information. In 2018-2019, we had 486 full-time students and 1,523 part-time students enrolled. I will get you the graduation numbers shortly.

Thank you, Madam Chair. That, it seems like it would be a simple fix, but for some of the details on this, with your indulgence, I would like to hand it over to Mr. MacDonald.

Thank you. If the Member is looking for metrics of how many scholarships, what we have done, the numbers involved, we will definitely put that together. Thank you.

Thank you. Online portals aren't free. I mean, there are always costs associated with them. I've seen them in the previous government, and honestly, if we had an online portal, it would free up time for our client service officers who, I think, are all overworked and who would probably appreciate being able to have the time to do what they're supposed to be doing and not be running themselves ragged. I don't know if it would result in any savings in wages. Thank you.

Thank you. I know that we still offer scholarships for Indigenous languages, and we have Indigenous language broadcasting money in the contributions section, instead of the grants section. There's been a bit of a reallocation. I believe these were program-specific, the ones from 2018-2019. I can get more details on that, though, for the Member, if that's okay, Madam Chair.

Thank you, and of course maybe we can do it all at once because I haven't had a chance to get in front of committee once yet, so, next time I get an opportunity, I will make the most of it. Thank you.