Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm sure many are relieved to hear that; I certainly am. When these individuals are going for treatment, where are they going? If not Alberta, is it British Columbia? Is it Ontario? Saskatchewan's out of the picture. Alberta's out of the picture. So where are we sending these folks to get the care that they need? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if an outofterritory referral is made for an NWT resident, including child or youth, and medically necessary service is not available in Alberta, we arrange to have these services made available in other locations in Canada. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, I think Alberta's feeling pretty unsafe these days and I think this is a safety issue. So is that taking into account if patients are coming to get care, are we ensuring it's gender affirming care and we're taking their safety concerns into account when we're making when we're making those travel arrangements for them? Thank you.
Sorry, Mr. Speaker. We are continuing to work with Alberta in there's nothing has changed, and I want I think that's the thing is right now, within our health care system our referral process is to Alberta. There is no change in that referral service. The they are still they are still providing the service in Alberta. If and I think so people are aware, we will continue like our department is continuing to work with the Government of Alberta to clarify Alberta's proposed policy and how they may impact residents of the Northwest Territories receiving outofterritorial referrals. And for you know, there's referrals that have to go elsewhere, Mr. Speaker, they will still fall within access to care. So if they can't access the care in Alberta, we will provide the medical travel that's necessary for those members to travel to other areas where they can access the care. I hope that answers the question. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It does confuse it somewhat. So I mean, Premier Smith's been pretty clear that these changes are taking effect and, you know, these are transphobic and, you know, atrocious policies that no health system in Canada should have, so are they is the Alberta government making exception for NWT patients within this policy? I'm just want clarity on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this time within the Department of Health and Social Services like, within my department, we are, as I mentioned, connecting with the Alberta health department on the proposed policies that Alberta has made. We will continue to keep those discussions ongoing to see if there is any changes and if there are changes that are going to impact the residents of the Northwest Territories, then we like I said, we will have other options for those members to be able to access the care that they need. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm excited to ask the next batch of questions to the Minister of education.
Under the Student Financial Assistance Act, section 10(3)(a), so that doesn't mean much to the public, but what it is is it specifically points out to the cap of SFA provided to Northerners attending postsecondary school, Mr. Speaker, which happens to be $60,000 in total. That's your total cap of what you can take.
So, Mr. Speaker, recognizing the costs and ever changing needs of Northerners seeking education and recognizing the fact that we want to support Northerners to get education and even go on to graduate education such as become lawyers, doctors, etcetera, and come back here, Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to address the cap by raising it to what would be considered reasonable and modern amounts reflective of the needs of students attending postsecondary school? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was this idea was explored in the previous Assembly when the review of Student Financial Assistance was done and, at that time, the decision was made to not expand the cap and to put dollars from ECE, in fact, into other programs. There was changes made to the Student Financial Assistance Program at that time, but this change was not one of them. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I didn't know that the 19th Assembly could fetter the decisions of the 20th Assembly in this regard, Mr. Speaker. I mean, that was the old Minister. We don't have any use for that old Minister. We want the new Minister to take some leadership around that. So, Mr. Speaker, would the new Minister of education be willing to go back and address this cap?
Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point, you know, there's been conversation about putting extra dollars into early learning and child care. There's been comments about expanding the or removing the cap and putting dollars in there. There's been requests for putting more money into seniors' home heating subsidy. And there's only so much that I can move dollars around within the department in order to accommodate those. So some difficult decisions are going to have to be made on behalf of this whole government as a team. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, we're not really talking about a lot of students here. We're literally talking anywhere from 10 to 50 students who need to go beyond that $60,000 cap, Mr. Speaker. What's the Minister's apprehension, really, at the end of the day for expanding the cap? Because we know it's not a lot of students, and she would have the numbers of how many exact students would be attending. So what's her apprehension? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. No, I hear what the Member is saying, absolutely. But whatever I provide right now has to be provided to future students down the road, and I am I've done the research in the previous Assembly on this one. I've spoken to students who are part of that minority of students that are looking for that. I understand that trends in postsecondary education are changing across the country and that people are taking on average five years to do their bachelor degree these days instead of the four, and they are wanting to continue on and potentially do a law degree or a master's in something else. And I you know, do we really want to support these students? Absolutely we do, and we want them to come home. That being said, Mr. Speaker, we do have a budget that we have to maintain, and we have to make sure that any decision that we make for one student can be accessible by every student in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Most of that answer was certainly acceptable. The second half, less good. I'm certainly going to say that.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister be willing to do an analysis on how many people actually uptake on the full potential $60,000 and weigh that in the sense of information and balance that against those who go beyond the need of the 60,000? So in other words, are all students accessing the full amount, and can we do analysis over the last two years? And I think we shouldn't go too much further than that because spend a lot of time and money doing it. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I love data and evidencebased decisionmaking, and I'm always game to see what numbers are out there. Thank you.
Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given my theme this week is employment, and I likely sound like a broken record to the Premier on this issue, but I'm glad to see that a regional director of finance has been hired in Inuvik. My question is to the Premier on where we are with the department on the regional director for infrastructure sorry, regional director for the executive in Inuvik. Thank you.
From Inuvik Boot Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're in the same place we were when the Member asked a couple weeks ago. Thank you.
So I assume, then, that the same position as the position is ready to be advertised and we'll soon have a new regional director up there?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The position has not yet been filled so we are still looking into this and considering all of our options as we develop the mandate for the 20th Assembly and we look at the budget for the upcoming sitting. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when developing the mandate and reviewing it, then am I to assume that the position may or not be filled, or is the position going to be filled?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're looking at all of our options. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary.
So exciting. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I can't contain my excitement. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, my next set of questions is targeted to the I shouldn't say targeted, but being offered ever so kindly to the Minister of education. And so during the campaign, a lot of the teachers complained about the BC curriculum coming in because the lack of foresighted training for and prep for them. So in other words, they're being handed these packages of saying hey, now good luck, and they had to implement it. Mr. Speaker, what can the Minister of education do to help support these teachers who still haven't had the full and robust training in the BC curriculum which they have asked for? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I find that the news isn't all bad. A lot of people that I've had the opportunity to speak with, parents included, are quite excited by the opportunity presented to the Northwest Territories by the BC curriculum. That said, I do have meetings booked with education bodies in April, and I'm very excited to get their feedback at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I had heard and spoken to some people on the education industry that report cards could have been delayed, and there was a bit of an offtherails process about having the right training and ability to fill out the report cards based on the BC curriculum.
Mr. Speaker, would the Minister look at sending people to the education boards to make sure that we have that knowledge on how to work through them in a cooperative and collaborative way? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'll make the commitment to first find out if there is a challenge at the education board and school level. And if there is a challenge, I will make the commitment to ensure that it's addressed. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I might not have had a third question but I just want to clarify on the record, in my case I'm not worried about board; I'm worried about boards as a territorial MLA and hence the issue to me is if it's reflective in Yellowknife, it could be reflective in every riding. So will she ensure that all ridings are sorry, all education districts receive the same type of question and support? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for Yellowknife; I'm the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for the Northwest Territories. So yes.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, seeing as there's extra time, I thought I ask my friend the Minister of Finance if she what she's going to do to support the mining industry here in the Northwest Territories. She's got the money. We need some tax credits. Has the Minister reviewed the submission the prebudget submission that the chamber of of the NWT Chamber and Nunavut Chamber of Mines has put forward to the federal government for a North of 60 tax credit? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have been a Minister that's been advocating in support of a North of 60 tax credit now for the mineral resource industry for four now going on five years. I have done so alongside Ministers from Nunavut and the Yukon as well and have done so at the finance table as well as at the mineral resource tables that I have been sitting at under previous iterations as well as the Minister of Infrastructure responsible for energy and for regional energy initiatives. So we'll certainly try to find further opportunities to do that.
I can say, Mr. Speaker, that to date, the federal government has not been receptive but hope spring's eternal. Thank you.
And I'm glad to see the Minister spring into action to support our mineral's industry.
Mr. Speaker, if the federal government's not going to fund it, what are we going to do? What tax credits and incentives can the Northwest Territories offer to our exploration industry to make it more to level the playing field with other jurisdictions? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the mineral exploration tax credit is a flowthrough tax credit tool that's used, and it's not one that would be effective here. We don't have the sort of financial institutions and large-scale investors that would make it useful as a tax tool from the Northwest Territories. We really are looking at the federal government where for them, in our view, there would be no revenue losses. It would be an opportunity to really just create this opportunity for more investment in the North and for an incentive to invest in the North.
To look more generally at what can be done to incentivize investment in the Northwest Territories financially, I mean there certainly are programs that are run obviously through the department of my colleague to my left, of ITI, and, you know, always be looking at different opportunities across a whole of government, but there's a lot that we can do, you know, within the fiscal sustainability strategy that we do have to look at what's effective. So looking at some of the programs and services that we offer, looking at ensuring that we make those programs and services effective, everything from tax credits and the mineral incentive policy to also the kind of direct engagement that you'll see where we had multiple Ministers attending at Roundup recently, meeting directly, sitting down, listening to the proponents, and making sure they know that they have an opportunity to see ways to fit through the system here in the Northwest Territories. That's something we can offer, and that's something that we are doing. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I recognize that we are we are a small jurisdiction in the global field of the minerals industry. We do have a great program, the Mineral Incentive Program. The Minister talked about it. Will she triple the Mineral Incentive Program? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a nice little opportunity to note that unlike other systems where a Minister of Finance might actually create the budget for the government, in our system I don't actually create the budget for the Northwest Territories government, Mr. Speaker. The financial management board, which is all Ministers, sit together. I chair it. But I actually don't even vote at it, Mr. Speaker. I bring people together. I'm responsible for the policy, responsible for the management, but every department does come forward with their incentives, with their initiatives, with their asks, with forced growth. All Ministers are part of financial management board and the decisionmaking that goes into it. But, again, in terms of speaking to industry and wanting them to know that certainly from the perspective of Finance, very live to what's happening to our GDP, very live to what's happening to the potential for revenues that come into the Government of the Northwest Territories, and want the industry to realize that this is a good place to invest, that they have a government that's wanting to work with them and that's going to help them find ways to see good return on their investment here. Thank you.
Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And I know our friend, the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment, is a big supporter of this program. So I'll ask will the Minister in her capacity as a Member of Cabinet, a Member of this consensus government, lend her support to the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment to increase the total amount of Mineral Incentive Program to at least double, if not triple? Thank you.
(audio) anywhere else, Mr. Speaker. So while we've gone down from tripling to doubling, Mr. Speaker, all the initiatives come through together. So the first step, of course, is the development of the mandate, which as done by Cabinet, but certainly involves review and input from Members, and then with that we'll go through the process of the budget establishment, and that includes once we've got that mandate we can look at initiatives. Initiatives are meant to actually then support the mandate. Obviously one of our four key items is economic growth, and the mineral resource industry continues to be the driver of the private sector in the Northwest Territories. So, Mr. Speaker, whether it's this initiative or whether it's another, certainly Cabinet and the Department of Finance, as part of Cabinet and the leader from the perspective of the financial management board, Mr. Speaker, we need to achieve that mandate. It includes economic growth. What that's going to do, we'll have to wait until the main estimates in June to find out. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. Please and thank you. Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
