Any further comments? I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the department is undertaking an inventory of its land reserves. Can the Minister speak to what the objective of that inventory is. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, when looking at the priorities of this entire Assembly, each department was tasked with seeing themselves in all of our priorities. And so for starters, with our looking for available land, we are specifically looking for is there ways that we can contribute to the intent to build more affordable housing in the territory. And I would also say that I am in addition to that also kind of keeping a lens on what might work well for future sites for early learning and child care centres. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Well, as and I know that the for instance, the federal government has made this commitment to develop public land for housing, which I think every every Canadian hopes to bear fruit, including those in the North of 60. When it comes to housing, teacher housing is a major issue, particularly in the small communities. I think the Minister's kind of opened the door a bit to this with her response. So do we have a game plan for how to address the urgent need for quality and affordable housing for teachers in the rural and remote communities in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am lucky enough to serve on Cabinet with a housing Minister who also calls one of our small communities home and is also very passionate about making sure that the teachers who live in her community and in other communities in the Northwest Territories have a place to lay their head so that they can provide quality education to our students. So the Minister and myself have already begun to have meetings about how we can work together to support one another in this effort because we recognize it as a significant need across the territory.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Yes, and I appreciate that that is a requires more than one department to come up with a solution to that problem, and presumably working with municipal and Indigenous governments as well.
I will move along to the addition of a new assistant deputy minister for the language and culture division. The department has been quite capably providing this area of public policy for many, many years without this position. Why do we need it now in a time of fiscal restraint? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, culture and languages have traditionally been well, languages, for sure, have traditionally been within the division that serves our JK to 12 education as well. And as you can imagine, they are both large subject matters and equally as important as the other. And so the intent there was to really pull culture and languages out of that division and provide it with its own necessary spotlight to make sure that it has all of the resources that we can provide it to be able to continue to grow that area because it is a critical part not only to education in the territory, but it's also a critical part to healing our territory as well.
Thank you. Before I go back to the Member from Range Lake, I would just like to remind Members that we're focusing only on the pages I mentioned, which in this case is on page 36 on corporate management. So I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. And I don't want to speak to the languages and culture key activity. I wanted to speak to a senior management position within which fits, I believe, into corporate management. But I can move on if you wish, Mr. Chair. But I would say to that response, I think everyone understands at least in this Chamber understands the importance of language and culture. And I just I don't know if a new ADM is going to do the things the Minister's talking about. I think if we want to expend more financial resources on language and culture programs and do something big and bold that way, or perhaps create a new ministry or new department or new agency, those seem like better ways to emphasize the importance of language and culture. I don't know, can the Minister explain more how one position is going to fundamentally improve and main stage these programs? Is that sorry. Is that the problem? Do we not have enough senior corporate leadership in ECE to properly showcase languages and culture in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it is one of those ones where, you know, we look at the way that things operate and sometimes we have ideas how to make them better. Sometimes they work out. Sometimes they don't. This is one that the department is very confident will help us grow our resources for culture and language, specifically especially language revitalization. There's you know and like the Member said, none of us will disagree with that. I think one of the things that's really critical about this as well is we were able to internally fund this position. We did not have to go back and request additional funding for this position within the department in order to make it happen. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, how, I guess is my question. Like, I understand what the Minister's saying. This position is going to fundamentally improve service delivery. But how? Because, you know, it's one it's the addition of one person to provide leadership over the entire division or the entire key activity and all the staff that deliver those programs. So how is this one person going to make a difference? Thank you.
Thank you for your question. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, for the operational detail of that one, I'd love to pass to Mr. Fulford, the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. A few comments that I think the nature of that work lends with a high level of accountability that can deal at a high level with Indigenous governments, with the federal government. There's a lot of intergovernmental work involved. The past experience has also shown that bottlenecks in approvals can happen where it was previously housed, and that will also be something that would be resolved by this new organizational structure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. How can we, then, as an Assembly, gauge whether or not this new position is effective the way that the department intends it to be? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I will pass back to the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I would suggest that there's measures by which this households the department accountable but also by the many partners that this new position will be dealing with, and likely they'll have their views on the success or lack thereof and will be talking to the Members and will hear about it. So I think that those accountability connections are there. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. So I think I made my point around this. I think often we see the solution to a lack of a a lack of a wholeofgovernment approach to public policy issues be solved with a new ADM. I don't know why it's an ADM, but it always seems to be a new ADM that will dramatically improve service delivery. And I don't know if that's historically been the case. I'm very and I'm skeptical if it will be the case here. But if you know, if this is how the department wants to expend its resources, then I wish them the best of success. But I hope that they can return to this House and clearly demonstrate that the bottlenecks have been resolved, that there's more accountability, and that these programs are having bigger impact than they had under a previous corporate structure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none. No further questions oh, I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Maybe just to pick up quickly, what type of targets are you setting for this particular position? I mean, we must have some matrix to decide that it's warranted and needed, and so can we get some objectives on how they're going to change this story. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I will pass it to the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The organizational structure that is contemplated here is in process, so that involves some of what the Member is talking about. So while it's not finalized, it's something that's top of mind. And, in fact, ECE is known for having in place those kind of structures to evaluate the steps that it takes, whether they are programs, policies, what have you. So thank you.
Thank you. I'll go back to Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you. Would FMB have would they have had to approve the addition of this particular position? Thank you.
Thank you. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes.
Thank you. I'll go back to Yellowknife the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I guess I'm going to ask what's the sales pitch to FMB based on the results and targets and the necessity of this position, could you give it to us. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it was the same along with what was shared here publicly today from the deputy minister and myself to himself and the Member for Range Lake.
Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
So just to reaffirm, there's no targets or objectives formalized yet on this particular position? And if so, what's the salary range on this? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the salary ranges of assistant deputy ministers are standard across the department. And all roles within the department or within all departments and across the government also do performance not performance appraisals performance appraisals job evaluations, and then as people go through their position year after year, they do performance appraisals.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife Centre.
I'm just trying to get the sense of why they're going to exist other than believing they'll do a good job. I mean, I think this money could have been better placed in a regional centre, whether it's great places like Fort Providence who really revive languages. You know, we have Tsiigehtchic, you know, or McPherson who are struggling to keep Gwich'in alive; Gwich'in's key. So I'm just curious as to how that rolls out. Thank you.
