Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just going to switch around now to the commitment of Indigenous languages, and I want to ask the Minister if there is going to be an interpreter language translator course in a twoyear diploma or a fouryear program with a degree in the future? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. Yes, there is work, and this is under the budget of a previous section, but there is work towards developing a languages program, a twoyear diploma which could then lead into something like an interpretertranslator program or perhaps a bachelor of education. So that work is underway. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Thebacha.
Madam Chair, could this also be crossreferenced with the teacher education program? Because it would be nice that the teachers that would graduate from the teacher education program also have access to some of the courses that would be offered in the language translator course. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And I think the idea right now is to have this twoyear course and perhaps it could lead to another bachelor of education degree after another two years. But I think that's a little too far off in the future for me to say one way or the other and by the time those decisions are ready to be made, the Aurora College will be making its own decisions without influence from the Minister in terms of the programming. But I'm on the same wavelength as the Member. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Thebacha.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just looking at the line item around Skills Canada. I note there was the and it's quite small. But it's important to me. I've been a power up mentor before for the programs, and I think they do a lot of really great work. I know it's been a struggle for them during COVID because a lot of their stuff is going in to schools and dealing with children and youth and not being able to do so has been hard.
So I guess my first question is the extra $20,000 or $21,000 that was there in the 20212022 Actuals, was that a COVID bumpup?
And then could the Minister speak to whether or not we could be investing more money here in order to help Skills Canada become a bit more virtual which in the long run would help the trades programs in our smaller communities where maybe they can't travel to, say, a workshop or lab? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So as for the $20,000 difference, I will pass it over. But we do fund Skills Canada $70,000 in here as well as another, I think $85,000 to labour market agreement. And, yes, I agree. I remember when they used to go to the regional centres and have their competitions outside of Yellowknife. I think it was great. So I'd like to work with them to make that happen again to you know, to get more kids, students interested in the trades. But on some more of the detail, I can ask Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe for the 2021 year for Skills Canada, we provided them $91,000. That was a little bit more than our typical allocation. We provided some additional federal funding to them during that year. So the difference is just going back to the typical amount. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, and that's what I thought it probably was. Again, I know it's a small line item but definitely one that I think is important.
I may have this a little bit mixed up so maybe I'll just ask for an explanation. But with this language proficiency testing, is this the testing that immigrant immigrants or people who are coming to the Northwest Territories that have to that are going through the immigration process need to take, their English proficiency, and is that offered here in the territory, and why is it no longer there any money there? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Yes, that is the language that is, as the Member described it, it is offered here provided by College Nordique. Perhaps on how that is funded, because I know that we did provide a significant amount of funding to ensure that the backlog of, you know, applications for this program were dealt with. I can ask Mr. Saturnino for some more information. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. We have entered into a threeyear agreement with College Nordique Francophone to offer the CELPIP program. The $46,000 you're seeing is showing on its own line is the first year funding. The remaining two years, it would actually show under the immigration budget itself. So it's buried within the labour market program's budget line. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, I'm going to maybe make the advice that any of these campaign schools being run include some accounting training in them, because it is really hard sometimes for us to figure out where the money has gone. So I'm glad to hear that it hasn't disappeared. And I just want to confirm that that now means that that test can be offered here in the North and they do not have to travel, and I see the deputy minister and Minister nodding their heads yes. So that's great, because I have heard that has been a problem in the past.
I guess the next one I just wanted to maybe talk a little bit about, so I'm not duplicating too much, is the small community employment fund. I do see that we have had we have more money here than we did in the 20212022 Actuals, which is great. Again, I feel that this is a great way to get employment and money into small communities and into the hands of our residents.
So can the Minister speak to the plans for this work, and do we see ourselves looking to increase that in the coming years? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So I'm not aware of any plans to increase it at this point. But it is a very I think it's a successful program. I like programs like this where they're communitydriven and, you know, local communities or businesses have an idea on how to employ people and we give them money and they employ people, and that money flows directly into their pockets. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, I completely agree with the Minister. I think there that there's an opportunity here for us to mind the data of this these programs to see what to inform our work around the regional economic development plans. And I see the Minister nodding his head, and I'm assuming that that is being or that information from this is being fed into that.
But maybe the Minister could speak a little bit to how that actually works, and are we really taking a full advantage of those resources in order to inform the future plans for us as a territory? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you, and yes, there's a lot of a lot of information that's flowing into the different departments around labour markets, around local economies, and departments are working together to amalgamate it all and make sense of it all. For some information on how that works, I can ask the deputy minister to explain. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the small community employment item is a mandate item for this Assembly. So with that in mind, there is an interdepartmental working group that works to pull together information from each of the departments about what they have been doing, what they're doing now, as well as to look at what can be done better going forward. So part of that work is inventorying of programs. There's been the development of a new resource to provide to communities about the various opportunities that exist across government, as well as mapping to look at programs and how they can be approved, combined, things of that nature. And it's my understanding well, I should say that ITI, as well as ECE, are coleads on that. So with reference to some of the regional economic development planning, that information is being utilized by ITI in that context. So I think the plan is to provide a bit of an update on that item shortly in the coming days. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And I appreciate that. And I've heard earlier today already some talk about women in trades, etcetera. I guess when it comes around to these economic plans, you know, when I was first started to run for this Assembly, I heard about ridings where, you know, no women had ever put their name forward before or, you know, being told that there'd never be women elected there. And so I guess given that it would be community leadership that's sort of running these programs and designating, what's being done to kind of ensure that the gender voice or the gender lens is also being looked at as we somewhat have a bit of a patriarchal history in the North and if the leadership you know, and we've lost one of our great female leaders to the Assembly from one of the Indigenous organizations. So I would be concerned that maybe that voice isn't maybe always reaching regional leadership, and how does the department ensure that it is? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And so these are the Member's correct, these are communitydriven decisions and it's, you know, communitydriven application process. So really, she's touching on, you know, something that is very difficult for us to get at through a program like this. That's why, you know, even with the women in trades subsidy for the the Trades and Occupational Wage Subsidy, increasing it for employers who employ women in trades, that was an area where we had money and we thought we can put it towards this. But even that doesn't get at the really the root cause. So I don't really have a good answer on this one. This really is a communitygiven program and we are responsive to the communities, and that's where decisions are made. I'm not sure if I don't think the deputy minister has anything to add either, so thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, I don't know that I blame the deputy minister. And I am trying to be respectful in how I phrase this, having obviously there's no secret to anybody that, you know, where my passion lies for women and representation. So you know, I think just being live to it is probably a big concern. And then I guess my other suggestion would be that there's some way to engage with small community with women in small communities. And perhaps that's, you know, something to look at a different Minister for but, you know, getting having maybe some specific female focus. And again, I guess I shouldn't even say female or women in that it should also be people that are not gender conforming. There's the binary and the spectrum. So, you know, more of a comment, but I would like to see some sort of input to the department on these programs from that sector. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Member for Monfwi.
Thank you, I'll be mindful of the time today. Yeah, trades and occupation wage subsidy, can you give us a breakdown of the success rates in the regions and what trades? And Tlicho is not part of North Slave, okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So we might be able to provide some information on where that money was distributed to.
In terms of success, I'm not quite sure what is meant by that. It's a little hard sometimes to measure success because you might have someone who is stuck in a firstyear apprentice because there is no one to, you know, mentor them for their secondyear apprentice. So there are some issues there.
But noting that Tlicho region is not part of the North Slave, I will see if we have a list of where this money has gone, with that breakdown. If it doesn't, we will do our best to provide that at a later date. Thank you.
Thank you. Oh, just wait. Did you want me to pass deputy minister MacDonald.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I really appreciate the opportunity. I do have a list of recipients for that funding. I can read a couple of examples perhaps for the Member's benefit, but it may be best to provide a list in writing.
So some examples, you know, Arctic Canada construction, Fort Simpson Housing Authority, Inuvialuit Development Corporation. So it really is a fairly comprehensive and wideranging list of Indigenous governments and organizations, private sector, across the territory. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. So we'll Member for Monfwi, if we can get a list or a breakdown for her region, that would be great. I think that's what she's asking. Thank you. Member for Monfwi, did you have further questions?
Yes, thank you. Career development and training, the number is really low in this one. It says 30. Well, there was nothing in 2021. I think we know why. But it's budgeted for 30. Why the number is so low when in many of the small communities because there's career development, a lot of people benefit from this position. So I'm just wondering why it's low?
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. And in fairness, most of this $44 million is for career development and training in one way or another. But for that specific item, I can ask Mr. Saturnino to chime in. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister alluded to, there's a lot of funding in this budget that goes towards career development, and a lot of it is spread out throughout the regions.
This particular line, $30,000, is actually funding that is currently earmarked to support programs through the Mine Training Society. And they have, in 20212022, were not actually did not deliver a number of programs however the funding still remains there. And we use it typically for supporting participant costs, where the majority of their program is funded through the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you. Are there other Members who wish to ask questions on labour development and advanced education?
Seeing none, Members, please turn to page 54. Education, Culture and Employment, labour development and advanced education, operations expenditure summary, 20222023 Main Estimates, $54,215,000. Does committee agree?
