Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to follow up on questions asked by my earlier colleague from Yellowknife North which is to the Minister of health.
So if we're not cutting frontline workers which, of course, I'm not in favour of cutting frontline workers, how do we get more with less? In other words, where are the cuts going to come from? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this budget is going to be before the House, there is an allocation that goes directly to NTHSSA. It's NTHSSA has to come up with their budget what's in the -- for what's in here and to build their budget within the allocated amount. So what right now we are looking at is that the direction has been given to -- and it is every year to the governing council is to come up with their budget and present their budget. What I can say is when I do receive that budget for the 2025-2026, I will have that conversation with Cabinet, and then I will -- I've also committed to having that conversation to Regular Members as to see how we're going to move forward within this next year with their budget. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, you can't take away and still have more. You can't take away and still have the same. So, Mr. Speaker, I'm trying to understand from the Minister is what's the focus. And that isn't just in the budget. We have two health czars working on this particular problem. So, Mr. Speaker, can the Minister tell this House what is being considered as reductions within this master plan of reorging health? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as I said, I have not seen NTHSSA's budget. I have not seen -- they have not presented it yet. It usually comes within -- in this month. I will be having a conversation next week with them. What I can say is that this is what goes on every year, within our -- and so once I do have it -- like, I can't say whether there's going to be cuts. The PA started in December. You know, we went into mandatory leave. We're here sitting, it's the 7th of February, so they're working on, you know, how -- like, the contract for the PA is over the next two years, so trying to look at what programs that we're working with health sustainability unit to look at the -- we're going to be looking at the programs and services that we provide, what's funded, how it's funded, what level of service are we providing. Those are all the things that we're going to be taking in account. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister from Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To be clear, not to get ahead of the budget discussion of health, so I'm not going to be specific because that's a debatable item soon, but the contribution is defined already. So I'm worried that direction has been given or direction hasn't been given, and even worse, Mr. Speaker, the health budget, including the territorial budget, will have been approved and cuts come later when the Assembly dims the lights. So, Mr. Speaker, what direction or what is being protected to ensure we're not getting cuts that aren't fully communicated to Members and the public so we can talk about them in advance of them being done? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This kind of conversation on the floor of the House about cuts when we don't even know what the budget being presented is, so this is where I'm at is I'll update the Members once I have a conversation with the NTHSSA. I have yet to receive budgets from the health authorities. And so after I have those conversations, I'll have conversations with my Cabinet colleagues, and I will have conversations with the Members on the other side of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I just wanted to follow up on a couple more questions to the Minister of health. Earlier to my statements and my questions, I just wanted to ask the Minister to see if we could get a cost that's associated to the funeral costs here in the Northwest Territories and that could -- if it's provided to the House. Thank you.
Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Health and Social Services.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can get back to the Member on what -- like, what the budget is for that part -- the burial program. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. If the Minister could also provide the expiry day of these contracts. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my understanding the contract expires April of 2026. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with the land claims being settled throughout the North and the regional governments are taking shape, community governments are taking shape, my question to the Minister is come April 1st, 2026, would the Minister take a look at how they could work with regional governments so that they could look at providing the funeral services to their own community members based on their culture and values. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this program is for -- not just for Indigenous governments, it is for low income families to be able to access to assist with funeral costs. So, I mean, I can have more -- you know, I will commit to looking into what the policy is and how it's being provided. You know, and I think if there are ways that Indigenous governments want to support, if there's ways to do that, you know, we can also look at that. I mean, I'll commit to reviewing this policy before it does go back out for RFP. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Health and Social Services. Oral questions. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And I apologize if -- I believe it was asked; I'm not sure if it was answered. But given that the Aurora College now will be closing down, or intends on closing down, the early learning centres, is the department of education and culture now going to pivot, pull that funding back in, and then continue those programs through ECE?
Thank you, Member from Boot Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, right now Education, Culture and Employment is working with Aurora College to gain clarity on what aspects of adult learning and basic education that's delivered through CLCs is going to continue to be delivered through CLCs and what parts will not be. From there, ECE will be able to determine a go-forward plan because they still do maintain the responsibility at the end of the day of ensuring that there are access to education and access to employment opportunities within communities. So depending on what parts of that Memorandum of Understanding that ECE has with Aurora College continues to be maintained, that will determine what portion of the funding continues to be afforded to Aurora College and what part is no longer afforded to Aurora College. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I apologize, I said early learning. I meant adult learning education. So, yes, so our mandate is to provide that. The buildings are certainly still going to be there. So then just for clarification, then, the intent is, moving forward, once the negotiations or once the discussion happens with Aurora College, that we continue to provide that service and those learning centres will be opened and staffed as they were previous to the college making those decisions. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm glad that the Member asked the clarifying question because that's not what I said. So I want to be very clear that what that looks like going forward, I cannot say. I cannot say how those opportunities are going to be afforded to communities. I know that, for example, one of our community learning centres is currently being used as classroom space for some high school students in a community that very much needs it and very much needs that that part -- for that community learning centre to continue as that type of space. I can say that some Indigenous governments have reached out to ECE or to Aurora College and have said, hey, we have a different plan for what we want our community learning centre to be. And some post-secondary institutions have also reached out as well. And so I think that we're -- although this has been certainly a shock to the Northwest Territories, I think that we're in a really good position and have an opportunity in front of us to re-envision what these centres become and what adult learning looks like in communities. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I thank the Minister for that. And she kind of answered a little of my last question which would be has the department now reached out to, certainly in the areas where the Indigenous governments are very much involved in adult learning, have their own programs running through, and has the department now kind of looked to -- and I know the department works with Indigenous governments to expand that given that there's likely going to be a gap here that needs to be filled. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in multiple instances, the department of education hasn't even had to pick up the phone. As soon as the media articles hit the online waves there, the phone started ringing. My phone certainly did and as well as the department as well as Aurora College. So once we have clarity as to kind of what the landscape looks like, then would be the opportune time to start making phone calls and being able to actually have concrete conversations about how Aurora College intends to go forward so that we can have conversations based on known factors. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a question for the Minister of ECE regarding income support.
Mr. Speaker, it's my understanding that in order -- I have a lot of experience helping constituents with this, but for them to get housing support they have to go to the Yellowknife Housing Authority to get on the housing list first. But unfortunately, most of these people don't actually need the full-fledged housing support through Yellowknife Housing Authority and have no intention because they're not at risk and they're certainly a low priority. But what it does is create an administrative burden for the local authority here, and I have no doubt it creates a local -- administrative burden for all housing authorities. So I'm asking the Minister of ECE would she commit to having a conversation with housing to ensure that we're being efficient with our time and resources rather than bottlenecking the housing system up by a process, an unnecessary process, embedded into income support that really is unnecessary. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member is in luck. The Minister of housing and I really enjoy working together. We have already had multiple conversations about this and have already provided direction to our departments and look forward to sitting down with the departments, continuing those conversations, and then being able to share the outcomes of those conversations with Members within probably the first or second quarter of this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Member from Yellowknife Centre -- no, Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker -- and thank you to my colleague. Mr. Speaker, I just want to ask the Minister of Finance, have we given up on Restoring Balance, the fiscal sustainability strategy of this government? Thank you.
Good question.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
(audio) Mr. Speaker.
Can the Minister explain her budget, then? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure that I'm -- I'll wait a minute.
Question out of order. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. Thank you -- oh, Mr. Speaker, thank you. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, when can this House expect to see the cuts that are promised that will get us to $150 million in additional surplus that the policy puts up because we aren't seeing it with the estimates that have been coming out to date. I'm not talking specifically about what's in those estimates, but we have not seen those -- the range of cuts that have been promised, that people are concerned about, people want to know what's going on. So if we're still doing the strategy, when are we actually going to see these reductions? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, only one side of this House is talking about cuts. The government is not talking about widespread rampant cuts. What we have talked about is having a budget that is providing stability. Beyond -- I won't get into the details of it because that's one of the rules of the House the public may not be familiar with, that we don't talk about things that are still going through the processes of the committee that happen on the floor later today. But, Mr. Speaker, Restoring Balance is about just that. It's about restoring balance. It's not about cutting things when we don't need to or when we can't. It's about ensuring that we have financial future. We have achieved some of the goals of that already. In the last budget, we had some reductions that resulted in us having a significant surplus, and that got us through a very difficult year of low water among high fire -- and among other various challenges.
Now, again, we're coming forward and saying we are looking to spend all of what we need to on our capital budget so we don't need to take on debt for that. We're expecting to do the same this year as well. And that's all part of Restoring Balance.
Mr. Speaker, we ultimately would like to see our total debt come down. The net debt is a number that I certainly keep an eye on. But, Mr. Speaker, we need to do that in a methodical way. We are in a time of uncertainty, both in the territories but particularly in Canada and, really, around the world right now. And so with that, Mr. Speaker, we need to maintain balance. We want to restore balance. But we want to do it in a way that is reasonable and responsible. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following two documents: Supplementary Estimates (Infrastructure Expenditures), No. 3, 2024-2025; Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures) No. 2, 2024-2025. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Tabling of documents. Minister of Environment and Climate Change.
