R.J. Simpson

Thank you. That's a good question, and those are the kinds of questions that we have to answer every time we spend money, what was actually achieved by this. This is a difficult file, in many ways, because there are so many barriers to improving access and affordability. Some of those are the fact that it's difficult to find people to do this work, and so, you know, wage subsidies that are offered through this program help to retain employees for daycares who may have otherwise not continued to be employed. Is that concrete evidence? Perhaps we need to do a better job of evaluating this. I can...

No, I haven't looked into that. It would be difficult to sort of extrapolate that from other jurisdictions, to say, "This has worked in other jurisdictions, so it will also work in the territory." We are vastly different from most places that would do this type of research. I have been very open with the Members that I want to have an Income Assistance program that helps people get back into the job market. A lot of people on Income Assistance, they are in and out. Some, there are additional barriers that keep them out of that job market. What are those and how can we assist them to get into...

Thank you. That flexibility is available. We can do that, from my understanding, without a change to the regulations or any acts, and so again that is the type of initiative we might be looking at. We need to be flexible. We have journeymen retiring at an accelerating rate, it seems like, and we have not been doing what we need to do to replace them over the past number of years. All across Canada, we are facing a shortage in skilled labour, and, just like anything else, the North is an extreme example of that. This is at the front of my mind. We are not going to build local economies, we are...

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Currently, we have official language guidelines, and these guidelines lay out the signage rules for government buildings. In addition to English and French, exterior building signs are to be translated into the local official languages. For the main directory board signs, the ones you see inside, the official Indigenous language appropriate to the local area should appear before English and French. Currently, the department under the Indigenous languages action plan, there's so many different names here, I can't keep them straight, but the Indigenous languages...

Thank you. Part of the work we are doing with the new arts strategy will be to make sure that we are quantifying exactly what that is. I can hand it to my deputy minister. She might have some more detail. Thank you.

Thank you. In the early years of the agreement, money could be carried over, and so it shows up in here as more money at certain times. Then we have the decrease in the early childhood development and learning agreement due to the fact that it's sunsetting. Those are the issues with that. I agree; investments in early childhood are the best bang for your buck you can get, probably across any department. Thank you.

Thank you. That's actually related to the overpayments referenced earlier by the Member, so the additional $500,000 that went out the door with the Indigenous language and education secretariat, that's reflected in that same number right there, as well as the changes in the other program detail lines.

Thank you. That is due to a sunset of the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement with the Government of Canada. Thank you.

Thank you. Making his first appearance at the witness table, Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. I am very familiar with this. I have had constituent businesses who have brought this issue to my attention time and time again, and I have had discussions with the department about what we can do to address this issue. Questions earlier in the House today reminded me of this. You know, dental hygienists can't perform their work because there are no dentists around. Similarly, apprentices can't get their hours and can't move to journeypersons because there are no journeypersons around. We have discussed some different approaches, and, in the mandate, we have an item in there that...