Shane Thompson

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Minister for the answer but still at the end of the day, if people in our smaller communities can't access these funds and one of the hindrance is the reporting. Can you not work with the federal government and make sure they understand this so that we can try to get these people in the smaller communities to be able to access this program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I thank the Minister for his answer, but I regretfully disagree. Like, I mean, at no point in time was I aware that these positions were going to be cut. Anything we receive from the finance department was in there. I guess I'll be more diligent in listening and looking at business plans from now on. I'm a little bit disappointed, you know, right now I've lost 1.5 positions in my riding, and two from this department or one full-time position if you look at the two halves. I didn't see it anywhere and I apologize. I guess I must apologize to my riding, because if I've missed it, it's something...

Obviously, when we go through it, it is our biggest budget, working with organizations in terms of what they have spent in the last year, and then what we think they will be spending. A lot of things are taken into consideration: forced growth, the reductions, but we do consult with our education authorities as well as other organizations that we do fund, and that is how we usually come to our budget. We do have a fixed number and all our educational authorities when they are working out their budgets, they got to try to make sure they get within the fixed budget. I will go to my deputy...

What about the people that have disabilities, are not employed and don't know about this? How do we get the message to them? Because I've heard from the Minister and the deputy ministers that they don't access the program. We've still lots of money still left over at the end of the day, so how do we get the message to these people that have disabilities that can access this program? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Just to clarify. This position's moved into North Slave, which is a Yellowknife office, correct? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I thank the deputy minister for that answer. It cleared up a lot.

Now, I'm hoping I heard this correctly. Is this the system for the whole NWT, for all education boards including the Catholic board and the French board? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We're talking about there's only $800,000 worth of requests for this program. What has the department done to promote it? Because I'm pretty sure there's more people that have disabilities that are not able to access this. What has the department done to promote this; to get the message out to people that this funding is available? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The position was in the Dehcho and they moved it to North Slave. Is that correct?

I'm just looking at that line, and looked at actuals of 2014-15; then I look at what the revised numbers were in 2015-16. It concerns me that we are setting ourselves up for a supplementary later on. Can the Minister or deputy minister confirm that this won't be occurring, that this is just some information system that they're talking about and it won't be coming back to the House later on? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Labour market agreement for persons with disabilities, I see about a $650,000 reduction from the mains. Why is that? Thank you, Mr. Chair.