Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Annual Reports for the Education Bodies of the Northwest Territories for the 20212022 School Year, ending June 30th, 2022, volumes 1 and 2. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Industry, Tourism and Investment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. They're thin but they're still important. I wish to table the following two documents: Socioeconomic Agreement Program Review Summary Report; and, Northwest Territories Tourism 2023/24 Marketing Plan. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Tabling of documents. Minister responsible for Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I wish to table the following document: Northwest Territories Department of Health and Social Services 20212022 Annual Report. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I now call Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of committee? Member for Kam Lake.
Madam Chair, your committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 81319(2), 20232024 Main Estimates, Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you, committee. We will proceed with the first item. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, do you have witnesses?
Yes, I do.
Sergeantatarms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Minister, would you please introduce your witnesses.
Thank you. I have Mr. John MacDonald, the deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. As well as Mr. Mike Saturnino, the assistant deputy minister of labour and income security. Thank you.
Thank you. Welcome. Committee, we are going to be continuing on with Department of Education, Culture and Employment. And we are on the section labour development and advanced education, beginning on page 57 with information items on page 58 and 59. Are there questions from committee? Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I am seeing a significant decrease in the top line item of advanced education and strategic initiatives. And I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why we're seeing such a huge gap between the revised estimates for 20222023 and the main estimates for 20232024. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. That represents an influx of cash that we received from the federal government as part of their contribution to the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic university, and it was not recorded in this year because we received it last year. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, given that the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic is far from anywhere near done, are we expecting additional influxes in cash flow from the federal government for the purposes of that work? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. I sure hope so. We have been engaging extensively with the federal government. As I've stated, the Premier has spoken directly to the prime minister about the importance of this initiative and the need for federal support, and I've engaged with a number of my federal counterparts as well. So we are very hopeful. Thank you.
Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I hope so as well because I've noted on the next page as well that the under contributions that it is marked as zero there and that's a big concern to me because that can be a very expensive venture.
Madam Chair, my next question is in regards to the apprenticeship and occupational certification. I'm wondering how many apprentices does this budget serve? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. We are supporting about 300 apprentices right now. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Given that the goal is always to increase the number of apprentices and given that also Housing is taking on a bigger role in ensuring that apprentices are present on all of their contracts for their builds. There's also been asks in the House for apprentices to be included on more government contracts and for Infrastructure to look at also building that into their contracts, I'm wondering why this line item isn't increasing given the increase in demand and the different avenues that Members are asking for the government to increase the number of apprentices across the territory? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. So we haven't been expending all of those funds and so what we've actually done, in the last fiscal year, was increase the amounts and increase the eligibility that increase the number of people who are eligible to receive funding. So we are taking steps to spend the money we have and if we need more money, you know, there's always opportunities to go back to the feds. So, again, these are great problems to have when we're running out of money to support apprentices and trades people. So if we get to that point then we will ensure that we have the funds to support them because it is you know, obviously it's a priority here in the Northwest Territories. We need trades people. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering how many apprentices can this budget support at $2.249 million?
Thank you. Minister.
I'll hand it to Mr. Saturnino. Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The $2.2 million includes departmental salaries and O and M costs as well, as well as funds that we use to pay for technical training seats. And there is a separate line in here for the wage subsidies themselves, which makes up about half of that amount, and the wage subsidies could fund probably about onethird of the apprentices that we presently have. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering if the SNAP apprentices also come out of here?
Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. If they are SNAP apprentices, they would come out of this budget. If they are SNAP students, they may be eligible to receive funding through the labour market program's line instead. Thank you.
Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I should get started at ten minutes, not seven; I was hoping you wouldn't notice that.
My next question is in regards to the wage subsidies for SNAP students and apprentices. Are the wage subsidies for SNAP and apprentice students the same? And there's also been talk of wanting to see SNAP students expanded into all the communities in the Northwest Territories. And is this budget built to actually support that type of increase in SNAP students across the territory, or is this budget actually built to support a certain number of SNAP students in the territory? Thank you.
Thank you. Minister of ECE.
Thank you. I'll hand it to Mr. Saturnino.
Mr. Saturnino.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The budget is intended to support apprentices more broadly, not specific to SNAP students. SNAP students receive the same subsidy as other apprentices with the exception of across the board, if you're a female apprentice working in a nontraditional trade, there's additional supports there. But generally speaking, they would fall under the same pot of funding. And in past years, we had not fully expended that amount. We're now coming close to spending all of it and if we were to exceed the amount we have, then that would become a different conversation at that point. Thank you.
