Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, with the new Canada Child Benefit, it is not looked as income anymore, so like I mentioned earlier we have more families that are on income assistance that are receiving considerably a lot more dollars. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
I think I will just leave it. Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Seeing no further questions or comments from the committee, please turn to page 40, Education, Culture and Employment, income security, operations expenditure summary, $48,766,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will proceed on to the next activity, labour, development and standards. The activity description is found on page 43. The activity detail is on page 44 and related information items are found on pages 45 to 47. We will start with 45 to 47. Questions? Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I understand that attracting immigrants to the Northwest Territories is a priority. I am wondering what actions the department will be taking in the next fiscal year to pursue increased immigration? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We are currently developing an immigration strategy. The good news is our nominations program has been increasing by about 25 per cent each year, and last year we actually reached our goal and actually went above and beyond. I believe a total in 2016 we had 128, which was above what is normally seen. We continue to promote that program, as well as working with ITI on the business side, but we are developing an immigration strategy right now in partnership with ITI. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, could the Minister share with us what the goal is for the nomination program for 2017-18? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I believe it is 100, and I am pretty sure that we are going to go above and beyond that again if we get the same applications that we did this past year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it sounds like the goal for 2017-18 is lower than it was for 2016-17; do I have that right? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually our goal for the last fiscal year was at 80 and we got above that, so we are just making it reflective of the number of applications we are getting, and it will change from year to year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, what additional resources does the department put in to the increased nomination program goal? When it goes from 80 to 100, what is the extra money that is being spent by the department to meet that goal? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and there are no additional resources. We believe that we have a strong division in the Immigration Division that is able to address the increase in numbers that we are seeing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, are we as a government actively looking for nominees for this program or are we just accepting applications as they come in? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. As I mentioned, we do work with the Department of ITI. There are a couple of different streams that a person can come and work up in the North and be part of that Nominee Program. Obviously we do work with our industry partners and private companies that do need temporary foreign workers, as well as through our stream where it is more application-based working with that. I know the federal government does a good job of going out in terms of promoting the program worldwide, and we are just benefactors of the work that they are doing. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, has the Minister given any consideration to actively recruiting people through the Nominee Program to come to the NWT given the value of having additional people here in the NWT? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We do have that opportunity when we are sitting at the FTP meetings. Currently we are going to be meeting with the Francophonie at the end of March and we are going to be working on how we can look at getting more French-speaking people into the Northwest Territories working and meeting some of the demands for that type of work, but right now it's more done at the FTP level. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I realize this is a shared responsibility. The Minister's labour market forecast says that we need thousands, literally thousands, of people in the NWT over the next 15 years in different kinds of skilled professions. So is immigration not one of the ways that we are going to meet this demand for skilled workers? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and definitely I think that we are going to need to look outside of our jurisdiction but also look outside of Canada when we are looking at the skilled labour market. We are hoping to have that immigration strategy that we are currently working on be released sometime this summer; possibly June I think. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am looking forward to seeing the immigration strategy. Will it answer my questions about how we are going to get more immigrants to fill our skilled job positions? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and yes, it should answer those questions in terms of how we are going to fill our in-demand jobs in the Northwest Territories. That document, along with the Skills 4 Success document that we tabled, is going to be reflective of each other, so it should help us fill those in-demand jobs in the North. Thank you. Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am switching gears now to Aurora College. As we know, the Minister and the board have made a number of cuts to programming. Will there be additional cuts in administration, leasing, and other related college expenses that come as a result of the program cuts? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Deputy Minister Haener. Sorry, committee, I will go to Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as part of the Aurora College reductions in 201718, there are a number of components that are being proposed, including some amounts for administrative reductions and, again, the Teacher Education Program, the Social Work Diploma Program. There are going to be rent increases and student housing increases so the contribution that is provided to Aurora College will go down because of the own source revenue that they will be able to generate. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and, Mr. Chair, has the department studied the effect of the cuts on the communities in which they are taking place? What are the indirect costs of these cuts? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. No, we did not. I will look at some of those to the question the Member asked. With these program cuts, they are being phased out, so with the social work program, it will still run for two years. The TEP program will go until 2020. Once we have that strategy out with Aurora College, we will see where we will be directing our resources. At this time we are not even sure if another program will replace it, but we will see when the strategy comes out, how we will take those into consideration. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Ms. Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, can the Minister say whether the department is contemplating further reductions in the Aurora College grant beyond the program reductions that have been announced up to this point? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Green. Minister Moses.
Thank you, and I think Mr. Lovely with his response earlier answered that question with the future reductions going on with the college. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Sorry, Ms. Green. Your time has expired but we could mark you down again. Next, we have Mr. Vanthuyne.
