Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would just like to bounce back to immigration for a moment. We certainly know that immigration plays a critical role in growing our workforce and, of course, filling some skills gaps, and we find that immigrants often will be small business owners. Of course, to our benefit as a government, they will increase the population and, therefore, the transfer funding that we receive from the federal government. There are a lot of positive boxes to check off when it comes to supporting immigration.
The Minister spoke earlier about the Nominee Program, somewhat. I am just wondering if the Minister can expand on it? I know he shared some of the numbers relevant to how many people have come through the program. What is the department actually doing itself to support these immigrants as they come through in terms of do we have some supports in place? Also, maybe if the Minister could allude to what is happening with these folks after they come through the gates, so to speak? Are they finding employment, or are they enrolling in our educational systems, or are they starting businesses? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Deputy Minister Haener.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Nominee Program that we administer is an employer-driven program. It is composed of three different streams: critical impact workers; skilled workers; and NWT express entry. These programs require that there actually be employment lined up in advance. We are actually working with employers in relation to that, so folks who come in have jobs under the Nominee Program.
The Minister referenced numbers earlier; the benefit there is that it is not just the individual who is coming to work here in the territory, but they usually bring family members as well, so it is more than just the actual individual. It is their family, and the contributions that they make to the NWT, as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Haener. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I appreciate that information. Do we know where the immigrants who are coming into the territory are going? I suspect the majority of them are here in Yellowknife, but are we getting a number of immigrants who are going into some of the other communities throughout the territory? Is this a benefit for the territory, and not just one or two centres? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We can get those specific numbers. We just have to do a little bit of work to get those specifics. What we are seeing is we are seeing a lot more of that skilled labour force here in Yellowknife, for one; and then also at our regional centres that have more job opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and, yes, any kind of numbers with regard to the diversification of the immigrants throughout the territory through this program would be appreciated.
In the business plan, the department talked about, and I know the Minister alluded earlier to the immigration strategy, and in the business plan we talk about ECE and ITI, possibly looking at kind of a streamlined service, a single-window approach. Can the Minister update us on whether there has been any headway made in this kind of amalgamated immigration single-window approach? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Not at this moment. I know ITI deals more on the business side. We deal with individual applications. As I mentioned earlier, the strategy that we are looking at bringing forth and presenting to committee and to the House should be completed by June of this summer.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are we faced with any challenges yet, or still, with regard to their relationship on immigration with the federal government, or has that been streamlined at all? Are we finding that we are able to meet the goals that we are trying to outline as a government without hindrance from the federal process? If we can get some insight on that, it would be appreciated. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and I believe that is working fine with the federal government, that Members know that levels increased right across Canada this past year; and we did also receive an update that our levels have increased here in the Northwest Territories as well by about 100 extra nominees. Our levels have increased, so it is good for the territory, good for industry, good for business, and our communities as well. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is good to hear, obviously, that the numbers are increasing. Another aspect around immigration is with regard to Syrian refugees. As most know, there was a family that moved here through that program, arguably the resettlement program not long ago. I note, however, we were a contributor to that effort in the year past, but it doesn't seem like under the resettlement grants we are putting any additional funds into that pot. Can the Minister provide for us what the rationale is for that, and are we not going to support the community groups that are still making effort to see Syrian refugees come to the North? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Previously, we did allocate $90,000 for the resettlement. It has been working out. We do have one family here in Yellowknife right now, and I do believe we have a couple more, a few more actually, that are supposed to be coming into Yellowknife. We do support I believe it is $15,000 per family. We did allocate the $90,000 which has not had full uptake right now. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. I appreciate that we are contributors. It seems like we are contributors to the tune of $15,000 per, but how are we going to continue to be contributors when we do not have any money in the pot for this coming year and we're still expecting Syrian refugee families to come to the North. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Mr. Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair, and if you do look in the main estimates, there's no funding allocated for this here. We still work and continue to try to support the best that we can. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the Nominee Program, are there any Syrian folks that we know of who are coming through that program? I know that's an employability program, and so I'm just curious what the connection is there, if any? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. Vanthuyne. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I don't have that answer for the Member right now, but we can speak to our immigration folks and see if we're getting any Syrian refugees who are coming through the Nominee Program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. Vanthuyne, your time has expired, but if you'd like I could put you on again. Next we have Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My question is related on page 45 to the Small Community Employment Program. Seeing that it got a significant increase, give me an example on what the guidelines for this pot of money is? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't know what the full guidelines are on this new pot of funding that we did get that was announced in the Budget Address and we're still working on that as it's a significant increase to the Small Community Employment Program. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Because this is sort of relatively a new program, are there expectations throughout the year to access further federal funding? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. In terms of this project itself, we do wage subsidies as one area; we also do community projects if a community wants to work on a project. In terms of federal funding, we do have labour market agreements with the federal government that focuses on a few different areas, and we're always negotiating that and trying to find if we can even get multi-year funding rather than year-to-year, which has been a concern. So I want to make sure that our employers out there, industry or partners that we work with, can rest assured that we're always going to have that funding for them, whether it's through a wage subsidy or some kind of training or some kind of community project. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. McNeely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Is this program sort of going to have some reserved amounts there for all of the small communities? As you know, there are quite a few smaller communities out there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. McNeely. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. It is on the application basis, and we do work with the communities to have those kinds of programs. I know in Fort Good Hope, for instance, we had that really great program where we were able to employ youth for the summer, and I encourage all communities to look at contacting the department to see how we can utilize this to get employment in our smallest communities or find projects in the small communities. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Next we have Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So I just want to confirm what the actual amount of the Aurora College contribution cut actually is, because in the main estimates if you look at page 45, college contribution, it's less than $2 million, $1.8 or something, but if you look at the business plan it's actually $3.851 million, and that's found on Schedule 4, page 7 of 12. Beside that it says TBD, presumably to be determined.
So can someone from the department indicate what the actual cut is in contribution funding to Aurora College? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. At the time we were doing the business plans, we had also given some direction to the Aurora College to look for reductions. So at that time, during business plan review, we weren't exactly sure what the Aurora College was going to be doing or coming back in working with the department. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Minister Moses. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. So just to be very clear, then, the actual reduction in the contributions is $1.8 million, or whatever it is, found on page 45 of the main estimates; is that correct? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Mr. Lovely.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the reduction to the contributions to Aurora College for 2017-18 is the amount that the Member had stated.
Thank you, Mr. Lovely. Mr. O'Reilly.
Thanks, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that response; it helps clarify it for me.
Earlier in the House I had asked whether the Minister was prepared to give Regular Members the terms of reference for the strategic planning exercise that the college is going through; we still don't have that, and I think that's, like, over a week ago now; and one of my colleagues asked for copies of the mandate letters from the board of directors to be tabled in the House as well.
Does the Minister have any timeline for providing this information to the Regular MLAs on this side? The reason why I raise this is that is critical information for us to be able to review these main estimates properly, and we don't have that information. When is the Minister going to provide this information? Thanks, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Mr. O'Reilly. Minister Moses.
