Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I would like to continue my questions for the Minister of Education on the Small Community Employment program. Mr. Speaker, I said that this was disappointing, and the Minister said it was not disappointing, but I think I would know if I was disappointed. Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask the Minister, considering that he was not in the room when we were negotiating $3 million, if he consulted with anyone. I am wondering if he even consulted with the Minister of Finance before making this decision. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and yes, we do go through a budgeting process with O and M, and some decisions are made when moving forward on where we implement our dollars, and this was part of those discussions. Thank you.
I am going to try for the third time here: did the Minister consult with someone else before he made the decision to take this money and put it outside the small communities? This was clearly a small community fund. This was clearly for small communities. This is clearly understood by this side of the House, that this was for small communities. Did the Minister consult with anyone else on his side of the House before making a decision to move this money out of small communities into the regional centres?
Yes, there were policy decisions made at the departments that we supported to focus on the success of this program. As I mentioned yesterday in the House, we also have communities that are hurting economically, and we want to make sure that we continue to support all residents across the Northwest Territories. We looked at some of the communities that were ineligible before that we thought we could bring into the eligibility list, and those are the communities that I mentioned in previous answers to the questions.
This program was not to prevent communities from being hurt by economic downturns. It was to change the employment rates in the small communities because they are much lower than anywhere else in the NWT. That program was put in place so it could address the issue of low employment rates in small communities. I said in my Member's statement, they are clearly way below regional centres, and way below Yellowknife. I am asking the question: did the Minister make this decision unilaterally to take the money out of the small communities to try to address the economic downtown in other communities in the NWT?
I just want to mention again that, previous to the enhancement of the $3 million into the program, it was at $1.2 million previously and was not being fully utilized. With the increase of that $3 million, my staff is working with the communities to try to promote that program so we can see more success. We are six months into the program with the new funding. I encourage the communities, and even the small communities and the communities that are now eligible, to work on getting applications in to get the employment, as well as to get the training that they need so that they can become part of the workforce. I encourage businesses, Aboriginal governments, as well as other governments to put their applications in. We want this program to succeed.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this program is not for what the Minister thinks it is for. We know. We negotiated this. We know exactly why we negotiated this. We negotiated this money, $3 million, and we asked for a lot more than that. We dealt with the Minister of Finance, and we negotiated this money to address the low employment rates in small communities.
I have asked the Minister now 16 questions. I am trying to find out what happened. How did this shift occur? All the Minister is telling me is that there is an economic downturn, we are trying to help this; this is very clear. We are trying to address low employment rates in the small communities. Why did the Minister make the decision to take money out of small communities to try to address something else that was not what the money was intended for? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, the focus on the Small Community Employment Support Program is around employment and training development. We know what it is for, and that is why we worked with committee and Members to enhance that program. We want to see success in this program. That is why we made some enhancements. I will go back to the department and get some more clarity for the Member on some of these policy decisions that were made, and I will get back to the Member on that. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.
