Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think one of the key components that was explained by the deputy minister was exactly what it is, a coordinator role, moving things along, playing the accountability structure of this division, and ensuring that we're able to reach our objectives and our targets. We have some pretty lofty goals as far as a territory of what we want to see, and I think they're important goals that we work hard to reach, and we can't reach those goals on our own. It requires an extreme amount of coordination with our stakeholders and our partners in that, being Indigenous governments, and also a lot of coordination and partnership with the federal government as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. What that just described sounded like a middle manager who worked with communities and community programs and schools. Maybe you could explain a little further, if you could, why they need to be an assistant deputy minister. That's I don't know the exact salary range but I mean, it's in the range of $200,000, I'm sure. So I mean, why couldn't a manager do this or two managers? You know, one north, one south. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in addition to, you know, the accountabilities that we've described, this person also is accountable to a team of people below them that support the work that they're doing. And so it's not just one or two people that they're supporting in this work. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
So who is this team and where exactly are they and who is supervising them now?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. For the operational detail of that, I will pass it to the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So part of what this revised structure allows is a consolidation of areas like languages, for example. So right now, there's an executive director that's responsible for the French language secretariat. There's a director responsible for the Indigenous language and education secretariat. And what it allows is some economies of scale, putting like together, and really elevating the profile of these important pieces of the work of ECE. We have we're in the process of doing those, as the Minister mentioned, job evaluation. That work will be made public imminently in the next month or so likely. So that role supported the heightened accountability and salary of an assistant deputy minister reporting directly to me as deputy minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
So specifically how much is targeted to this particular position all in? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The total budget is 255.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. What other considerations were given other than hiring another seniorsenior manager? Why didn't we just hire a middle manager or a programs person to help support the communities and committees working to continue to strengthen their language? And we could easily put one in South Slave and the North Slave for half that price. Thank you. Well, not half, but you know what I'm saying.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, given the different options that exist, which were essentially leaving it as is, and comparing that to where we would like to be or how we would like to be able to support languages and culture across the territory and the effort and focus we'd like to see go into that, this was determined to be the best option in order to do the work that we wanted to see done within the department. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I mean, by that philosophy, we would have a trades deputy minister because we support trades or a teachers deputy minister because we want to see more teachers or like-minded thinking. I mean, so why can't it work with managers or program people? I'm not convinced in any way a senior executive needs to do this position in nothing's been sold to me as opposed to if you really want languages, why do you need another upper echelon bureaucrat? Because ultimately the other question to it is is it already staffed? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the position is not already staffed. And the other thing that I think is worthwhile adding in is I do have an assistant deputy minister of trades. Trades are very important, and he is waiting in the back room. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Okay, I'll certainly say touché on that one. But it speaks to the broader point, we should have deputy ministers on every subject or ADMs, sorry of every subject, whether it's xray machines and deputy minister of nursing, and like, every area we have. I just think this is a horrible waste of money. And if we want to really support these, we should be giving them to the communities to inspire community homegrown programs. People don't need another another, like I said, upper echelon person. They need program people on the ground. So that's my comment. If I was given an opportunity, which I'm leaning towards the clerk, I would look potentially maybe to a motion to delete if I had a chance to get one. Because I don't think this belongs here. We should be talking serious about doing real things. Thank you. I don't have the number.
Okay. Thank you for your comment. I think it's loaded. Is there any further Members that want to make ask questions? Okay, I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
There we go. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, so this department is crucial in a an important part of our efforts to reduce poverty and give people support and keep people out of the justice system, otherwise known as integrated service delivery. I know that the Premier has made this kind of the centerpiece of what his work in the Premier's office is to bring government together and offer integrated service delivery, eventually moving to a broader service NWT kind of model. But in the meantime, our most vulnerable citizens who need the most support are kind of the first stage of integrated service delivery. So can the Minister speak to how her department is building stronger integrated service delivery in partnership with other departments? Thank you.
I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is going to take me into the income assistance section. So it is absolutely one of our deliverables under or business plan to work collaboratively with the primary's department, and that would take us into working with departments as well, like housing with Minister Kuptana. Within and one of the things we talked about quite a bit today was the ability of the new income assistance program to free up some time of the client navigators within the income assistance division so that as they are working with some of our most vulnerable residents, they are able to point to different services and programs that might be available. They're able to form relationships with staff over at housing, for example, and frontline staff over there so that there is a tighter connection between those programs. They are able to work with community partners and form relationships there and find out how they can create these pathways out of poverty together and/or pathways to supports that residents are looking for. So whether that is supports to education, entrepreneurship, or employment, that those pathways are created and are supported for residents of the Northwest Territories. So I would say that is the strongest way that we are working on the beginning steps of integrated service delivery over at education.
Go to the Member for Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So this is important work, and I think the Minister laid out quite clearly how it works and how it will benefit clients, in particular clients who are, I think don't want to stay trapped in poverty certainly or even require these levels of services. I think everyone wants to get back on their feet. So this is I do support integrated service delivery. I've always supported integrated service delivery. I've seen how transformative it can be, especially for those who make frequent contact with the criminal justice system. What I think is missing here are some timelines and outcomes. It's fine to say that we're going to kind of these are our goals, this is what's going on, we're working with it's being led by another department. But surely, there must be some timelines and some goals for the suite of programs that ECE offers to clients that can be measured and they can be accountable for. Is that possible? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, this is work that we will be doing in conjunction with other departments. And we definitely, as far as income or ISD, rather, is concerned or not, the lead on that, and so it requires some collaboration on our part, but we definitely saw it as being important enough to make sure that it was included in the business plans right off the bat. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Okay, thank you. So as this corporate management also covers policy legislation and communications, earlier this year there was quite a public snafu with communications where an inappropriate meme was shared with the public inadvertently and it had to be pulled down. What steps are we taking to avoid those kind of missteps? This is again, lots of communication comes out of this department. It's responsible for a lot of like, for language, for culture, for promoting language weeks, culture weeks, all these kind of things. They have to do a lot of communications work. So what are we doing to make sure mistakes like that don't happen again, and are we properly resourced in, you know, vetting like, do they have enough staff and resources to properly vet those kind of things before they come forward? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Yes, Mr. Chair, it was immediately taken down and an apology was immediately issued to residents of the Northwest Territories. And right away, following that, checks and balances were put in place with staff to ensure that something like that did not happen again, and we were able to use our existing resources to make sure that that was done. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. I suppose the question is like, and I appreciate that the apology was forthcoming and it was swift. It still made the news, which no communications professional wants. So I'm just wondering if I know, again, a lot of work has been done in previous years to centralize communications corporate communications, and I have heard anecdotically that perhaps that's that hasn't given departments the kind of capacity they were promised. So how is that working from the perspective of ECE in their communications function? Is the centralize is the shared communications function serving this department given it has such a large area of responsibility around important communications related to its public policy mandate? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am quite confident that I'm quite confident in the work of the communications staff at the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. You know, I hope that they won't be judged on that one incident because there have been a tremendous amount of success stories that have come out of that office, and they work very hard. They have done a lot of beautiful work on behalf of the department and have been wellresourced to be able to do that. They are a team that works exceptionally hard and takes great pride in the work that they do and the importance of the work that they do and are able to work collaboratively with corporate communications while they do that work. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
So thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear, like I am a big believer in no blame culture, especially when it comes to improvement, continuous improvement. So you blame the problem, you don't blame the person. And in this case, you don't blame the comms people. So I agree with the Minister, they've done great work, and I don't want my comments to be misconstrued as going after individuals or trying to apportion blame to hardworking public servants. I always said we have the best public servants in the biz, and I completely stand by their work. What I am saying is let's look at the problem. This thing happened. Is there a way we can resource these folks so they aren't, you know I'm sure they're running up against a lot of deadlines. They're working on a lot of projects. Like I said, this department has a ton of output. I'm just wondering if that shared corporate communications model is effectively serving this department given its high volume of public facing communications. And maybe this is a question more for the deputy minister. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd be happy to pass it to the deputy minister if the Member would like, but I can also let the Member know that communication is where I came from, and so it's very important to me that we have a communication division that is very well resourced and that we are able to actively and proactively communicate with members of the public, especially when a lot of the programming that comes out of this department is crucial and exceptionally important to residents of the territory. And so I can reassure the Member that the I have not had been communicated with that there's more resources needed, although I won't be shy to come forward now that I know I have an ally on the other side if I need more funding for comms. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And if I could just squeeze in one quick question, I would like to hear from the deputy minister just to get the perspective of the actual department. I appreciate what the Minister's background comes from, but I would appreciate hearing from the deputy minister on this. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The Minister's views are completely in accord with mine, and I have nothing further to add. Thank you.
