Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have some questions for the Minister of Infrastructure as well. So when she says things that the records are not as good as they could have been in 2014, 2015, my archivist heart comes out and I go oh dear. So, fundamentally, that is a huge red flag for someone who understands how the government keeps records. So we have records disposition authorities within every department, including her department, including back in 2014, 2015, Mr. Speaker. And so my question is how are we not keeping records that we are bound to by law? Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Minister of Infrastructure.
Mr. Speaker, it strikes fear into my heart as a lawyer who is under obligations to hold records as well. So I can't answer for what may or may not have happened back in 2014 or 2015, Mr. Speaker. What I can answer for is the efforts that we're making today to make sure that we don't find ourselves back in this situation. Not only today but looking back even a few years now within this -- within more recent government, changes to the procurement process, changes to the records management. We have a procurement committee. It might seem like an extra layer, but to not have coordination amongst procurement shared services, infrastructure, and the departments that are being serviced by them, makes it far too easy for things to be missed and to not be properly tracked. There's changes in the capital planning process to better provide information about long-term costs associated with a project.
There's a single place where procurement now lives, both a dashboard that is publicly available, and, again, within the Office of the Comptroller General which is our counterpart to the auditor general's office.
Between all of those things, and likely more that I've missed, and it's supposed to be a short answer, Mr. Speaker, I am satisfied that we've made a lot of change, and we'll continue to look for opportunities to do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, you know, it's already at the barn door, you can't close it in the past; I understand that. So what sort of forensic audit did the department do to try and seek out those records and indeed how did they cooperate with the OAG? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the work between, I believe -- well, multiple departments and the auditor's general office of Canada went on for I want to say two years. It might have been slightly longer than that. That's fairly extensive, and I'd be happy to perhaps provide that by way of a written response. I won't do it justice here. The Department of Finance and the Office of the Comptroller General works with the Auditor General's Office of Canada on an annual basis. They prepare all of the audits for our government. And so, again, I think there was two parts to the question, and I'm thinking I'm missing the second half. But, again, in short, Mr. Speaker, happy to commit that we will provide some detail on the extent of the work that went on and the extent of the collaboration we had with the auditor general's office. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd just like to continue on the line of questioning and dig a little deeper with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Mr. Speaker, I had asked about the possibility of daycares charging fees in order to make up the gap. Is there perhaps a loophole that could be found in that daycares would not be charging fees for providing daycare but simply for charging -- for extras, things like providing meals, things like extracurricular activities that I know parents love having for their children. So is there some way that we can find a way around the rules that are being put on us by the feds? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the agreement that we as provinces and territories have with the federal government for childcare, we aren't allowed to charge additional fees. The piece that keeps coming back out is places can do fundraising. I do understand, though, Mr. Speaker, as a working parent myself who uses different entities to care for my children, that this is very difficult to do. We also know that many sporting institutions do charge fundraising fees if parents aren't able to do fundraising. And so in answer to the Member's question, I am currently looking into what loopholes might exist. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that answer. That does, I think, provide somewhat of a path. I mean, fundraising is something that they could be doing in order to do these extra programs, so that's something I can bring back to them as an option and I hope the Minister -- but to get to the next question, Mr. Speaker, if charging fees isn't allowed, I'm looking at what can we do to change this gap -- to close this gap as MLAs. I know that my colleagues probably join me in wanting to do what we can for the daycares, do what we can to help them expand, help them operate to the best of their extent, so what -- does the Minister have any ideas for what we can do on the territorial side to help these operators? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I'm hearing from operators, and from Members on the floor of this House, is that they're looking to pay their staff more, and they're in a situation where they are provided a certain amount from Education, Culture and Employment in order to do that, and Education, Culture and Employment can only cover a certain amount of that based on our budgets. What I can say is the bulk of increases to the early learning and childcare budgets for the Department of education have been from this program and even right across the department, Mr. Speaker. And so we, for our current funding, are certainly tapped out. The Members did negotiate an additional $3.5 million in our previous budget negotiations, which was a huge help. But what we are continuing to hear is that that is not enough. We know that across the country that jurisdictions are having to put more and more money into this program. Thank you.
Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly I'm interested in hearing back from the Minister what they need to help make a difference, and I can advocate on this side with my colleagues to see if we can get that done.
Mr. Speaker, considering the problems that this new program is causing, and I'm hearing it from many of my constituents, and I'm sure it's happening across the country, can the Minister work with her colleagues in the provinces to advocate to the federal government for better flexibility for implementation of this program seeing the issues that we've been seeing, knowing that it's not really working as well as it was intended, can the Minister advocate for changes at the federal level so that we don't have as many roadblocks in front of our operators? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can share with the Member that since I started in this role, one of the common things heard at our FTP table is that this agreement -- or these agreements were signed before record inflation occurred and that, as I had previously said, jurisdictions are putting more and more money into this program in order to make it work. So that is something that I will certainly continue to share with the federal government at every opportunity that I do get at these tables what the reality is that we are hearing from our childcare providers. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has announced that there are new changes to the Indigenous employment -- or Indigenous recruitment policy -- thank you -- which replaces the affirmative action policy. We're going to be bringing back P1s essentially and allow Indigenous Northerners to have priority status. Before that wasn't possible because of the Constitution. Has the Constitution changed? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Finance.
No, the Constitution hasn't changed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, then how has the government derisked this issue? It was unconstitutional before, that was the concern that changed the policy, now the policy remains the same, at least for one class of individuals. Can the Minister explain why that decision was made?
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is the issue of residency that creates the risk that we would be concerned with respect to the mobility rights under the Constitution, so section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provide that all Canadian residents have mobility rights. And so it is specifically with respect to saying that persons who are living in the North or have lived in the North or have lived here for some period of time, that classification is the concern. But membership in a group that is historically disadvantaged, so this is where Indigenous Canadians and Indigenous Canadians who are Inuit, First Nation, Metis members particularly from a group within the Northwest Territories, that group membership can still be one that is, under section 15 of the Charter, allowed to have an ameliorative program; in other words, preferential hiring. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the change and support it, just to be clear, but, Mr. Speaker, there are other people of groups that are similarly disadvantaged or similarly of minority status, including people with disabilities. The disabilities council has come out and made it clear that they do not think this is a good move to make for the community. So why can we not include other protected minority groups under the Constitution in the affirmative action policy -- or in the priority action policy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I agree, an excellent question and appreciate it, Mr. Speaker, and there will be divergence of views on this. I recognize that. It is an area that when we did engagement over a year and some, 2023-2024, it's an area that I, frankly, found interesting to read and learn more about. There is, again, divergence of view on it. But one of the views that the Department of Finance has here ultimately adopted is that folks who may experience some form of disability don't want to have to self-disclose in order to be able to gain advantage, and so what we would like to be in a position, under the diversity and inclusion framework, is to say firstly that there is an opportunity for recruitment and for staffing officers to positively provide accommodations to someone rather than wait for the person to have to self-identify and as such, we can create a workplace where people are naturally accommodated from the moment of applying through to their work time, and they can do that through the duty to accommodate and through the diversity and inclusion framework rather than relying on having them to have to self-identify to participate in affirmative action type program. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Finance. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We found out with great shock there last year that the northern bonus program was cut in the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. It was embedded into the deepest of the budget details and I, like many members, didn't realize it had been done until after the fact. My question for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment is simply this: What type of analysis had justified that choice to eliminate that program that is very near and dear to many of our returning students here to the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife Centre. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as Cabinet, the financial management board, we looked at all programs from -- well, not all, sorry -- most programs from our departments that were not legislated or afforded through federal funding, and we evaluated what we could redirect for -- because we have a lot of spending happening in our health program, and we know from Members on the floor of this House, and even from our own constituencies, that health care is very important to residents of the Northwest Territories, and we desperately wanted to see more funding redirected to that sector. So we went through different funds, and we evaluated different programs within our departments and found that the reason that this program was instituted within Education, Culture and Employment was to try and encourage more graduates to return to the NWT, and it was not increasing the number of graduates that were returning to the Northwest Territories. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, the Minister said something probably where I was going next at the end of her last answer which was believing that it did not increase the return. Would the Minister, in a response to my previous question, be willing to table that analysis before the House; in other words, as a return to the oral questions or whatever function she wishes to desire, also with the analysis of is it actually playing out as initially planned? So in other words, have they reviewed and studied the initial decision? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if the Member would like me to share with him the number of students that were returning when the program started versus last year, more than happy to do that. As far as reviewing a program that just ended, Mr. Speaker, we haven't really had space or time to see impacts of that. What is occurring here is now students who have repayable loans need to repay those loans, and students who have remissible loans are being asked to stay in the North longer in order to remiss those. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have a number of constituents who are quite upset about this. As a matter of fact I even have a few of her constituents asking can we bring this back. If the Minister will table this information, I'd appreciate that. If she feels she can only send it to me, well, I'll take that too.
Mr. Speaker, I'm asking when -- often when we cut a program, we'll say we'll do an analysis after the fact, like extended health benefits, we heard that promise. Would the Minister be doing any type of 360 analysis after the fact to assess the impacts and choices made by the department? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I'm more than happy to discuss this with the Member if the program isn't there. I would like to understand what the Member is looking to understand. If he wants me to table numbers of students who come home after they complete graduation in order to see how those change over time, more than happy to share that information with this House. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Colleagues, our time is up. Oral questions. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm requesting, Mr. Speaker, if we can go back to point number 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery on the orders of the day paper. Thank you.
Thank you, Member from the Sahtu. He's asking unanimous consent to go back to orders of the day, point number 5, recognition of visitors in the gallery. Any nays? Seeing no nays. Member from the Sahtu.
Thank you, colleagues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to acknowledge my cousin Wilbert Cook's son, Tyrell Cook-Gargan, as the page for the Assembly. Welcome to the Assembly. Good to see the young people participating into the hearings.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the following document: Government of the Northwest Territories Response to Committee Report 9-20(1), Report on the Review of Bill 8: An Act to Amend the Student Financial Assistance Act. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Tabling of documents. Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I wish to table a letter I received from the Northwest Territories Family Violence Shelter Network seeking reinstatement of annual Building Shelter Capacity Funding. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
I now call the Committee of the Whole to order. What is the wish of the committee? Member for Inuvik Boot Lake.
Thank you, Madam Chair. The committee wishes to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates, Health and Social Services. Thank you, Madam Chair.
