R.J. Simpson

Thank you, and I believe the Member's questions were more focused on our mandate and increasing the availability and affordability. A lot of what we have done is focused on quality and shoring up the foundation of our childcare, but, to the point of increasing it, affordability and availability, you know there is still obviously much work to be done. Thank you.

Thank you. We can't parse out Income Assistance from the entire Income Security program. Income Assistance is about, I'd have to look at the exact number, here, $32 million, but the client service officers who distribute Income Assistance also deal with the Senior Home Heating Subsidy and a number of other programs. So, of the total of $52 million that is spent on those programs, $6.5 million is spent on administration. Thank you.

I am not quite sure what the Member means by "interactive," if that's the people working at the centres or if that is like a touch screen type thing. That would really be up to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment who runs those. I would definitely encourage it. I know that at the north of 60, for the 60th parallel visitors' centre, when you enter the park, we have the big sign, which is strictly in English, but then, as soon as you enter the park area, the sign includes all the Indigenous languages.

That is distributed to heritage centres outside of Yellowknife. For example, Hay River received $60,000 a year; I believe Norman Wells receives $118,00; Fort Simpson, $55,000; Fort Smith, $198,000; and, actually, the Yellowknife Historical Society received $60,000 of that. Thank you.

The evaluation of the funding formula will take place in the coming years. We just put this mandate out, and committee knows there has been a lot of back and forth. The policy shops and all the departments have been going full-tilt and haven't necessarily had a chance to lay out our plan for the next four years. That's what we're working on. We know what we want to do. How exactly we're going to do it, that's still being worked out, so I don't have the details of this funding formula, but it's going to take engagement, obviously. I have my own concerns with this. As a Member for four years, I...

Sure. Similar to the comments I made earlier today in the House, I am open to looking at that because I get calls from businesses all the time who are just doing their best to stay open and keep people employed, and sometimes this subsidy or the little bit of help they can get makes the difference between having to lay someone off and helping someone get to that next year, so we will do what we can. Thank you.

Thank you. Currently, the museum is free for everyone. It's by donation. I am sure many people, if not most people, don't donate anything, but as far as the history of those discussions, if you don't mind, I can hand it over to my deputy minister, Ms. Mueller.

Thank you. The department doesn't really employ teachers; the teachers are employed by the education councils and education authorities, but we do teacher surveys. Perhaps for more detail I can go to Mr. MacDonald.

Thank you. I appreciate where the Member is coming from. In our modern world, everyone has cellphones. Everyone uses the Internet. It has become sort of a necessity of life. It has been recognized as such by multiple organizations. We do allow clients to use phones and the internet in the Income Assistance office. In this budget, though, we aren't contemplating adding a phone or Internet allowance. There has been some work done on that. Just looking at a basic phone plan and a basic Internet plan on your phone, we are pushing, I think, an additional $2 million or so is what it would cost...

I appreciate where the Member is coming from. I know it's difficult for small businesses across the territory right now, and apprentices and journeypersons are in high demand. It's difficult to compete with the wages that are being offered by the mines and by government and by big industry, so to have that wage subsidy, it helps. If you're a small business and you're going into your third year with an apprentice, you might be concerned that you might lose that apprentice, and we need to help support them, so I am definitely going to look into this. We're going back to industry and to small...