R.J. Simpson

Mr. Speaker, I give notice that on Monday, March 6th, 2023, I will present Bill 72, Opioid Damages and Healthcare Costs Recovery Act, to be read for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you. The goal of the senior home heating subsidy is to subsidize heating. So it's not to cover the entire cost, and we aim for 80 percent. There was a topup early in the life of this government to the program to ensure that we hit that 80 percent. Given the dramatic increases we've seen, we're no longer at that 80 percent. So what we did earlier well, I guess it was last year, was we provided a onetime topup to the program, and so that's reflected in the 20222023 revised estimates. In the upcoming fiscal year, we will look at our budget and look at the cost of home heating fuel and see...

Thank you. And this is one organization that's receiving those inflationary increases so that's why they get the whole $2,000 more. And going forward, I expect that will stay. I understand they do receive funding from other departments I think more than we provide. And I agree. I mean, they provide great experiences. I can get the deputy minister to speak a bit more about this but I will say that from the anecdotal evidence that I've seen, that students benefit greatly from this and it is an amazing program. Thank you. To the deputy minister. Thank you.

Thank you. So day homes are forprofit businesses and nonprofit organizations are, you know, by definition nonprofit. And they have higher operating expenses. They generally have to rent or lease a space. They have salaries. So the parent fees that come into the day care centres versus the day homes don't go quite as far. And so day – child care centre employees are not paid don't earn as much as day home operators. So what we want to do is raise the wages of the child care workers so that we're going to attract more people to the sector but also to try to get everyone on par with each other...

Thank you. I know that I think I'm travelling every week after session for maybe a couple months. But if we're talking if the Member's talking about Fort Resolution, that's an easy day trip for me from Hay River when I'm in town so I'm happy to find the time to do that. Or if the Member's talking about other areas, then we'll work that into our schedule as well. Thank you.

Thank you. So the idea of the new program is it will have one application. If you're a senior and you want assistance with your home heating fuel or you need income assistance, you will make one application and based on your income, you will be, you know, provided either the home heating or income assistance. So that is the plan. Thank you.

Thank you. So there are different ways of providing services in schools across Canada. Some jurisdictions do what we do and they partner with other departments. Other jurisdictions, the education the department of education will actually provide a lot of those, say healthrelated services like the Member might be referencing. And so we are looking at different ways of providing those services.

One of the things that we're doing is renewing the curriculum. And a lot of the services I guess, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to hand it over to the deputy minister, a former teacher who can...

Thank you. $2.3 million is what we are projecting for this upcoming here, and we do not have a wage grid in place. What we are doing is we're providing wage topups essentially. We are providing it this year and in the upcoming fiscal year, we plan to increase that funding. Thank you.

Thank you. And so there used to be a limit on the number of semesters that, as the Member said, P2s could access remissible loans. We have or we are proposing to remove that as well. We've tied the amount of those remissible loans again to the Canada market basket measure. We've increased them again. We are proposing to remove income testing for spouses and not tying them to the years of schooling in the NWT. Thank you.

Thank you. And I know that Alternatives North has been interested in this for some time and then I think they have produced reports in the past possibly, but I know they are working on another one and the department has been involved with them. So it is not something that is completely off our radar. But the Member's correct, it's not going to happen in this budget. But, I mean, the next Assembly could definitely make that a priority. Thank you.