Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, we do have community health workers in the health cabins, and they have some minimal training to be able to do the minimal assessment - temperature, blood pressure, and then they will consult with -- and I believe Kakisa is through Fort Providence. And so if there is -- and if they believe that they get approval and they need to travel or they either wait until the nurse travels to Kakisa, and if they need to travel sooner than if they get approval, then if they have to drive they can claim their kilometers or, you know, like, through that process. I can get more detail -- and I think I've asked -- I think -- that's the thing is, I've asked there to be more of a clear process from the department to be able to work with NTHSSA on that process so that way we can have -- so, you know, when people are coming to MLAs or when they look for that information, that it's clearly -- the process is clear, because one time -- when people travel on their own, then -- without being approved to travel, then they don't get their travel approved, like, through medical travel. So -- and that does come up sometimes when -- especially from people from the small communities around Yellowknife and they come and they make their way here without any approval from the health centres, and then they want to stay at the boarding home and then it's not allowed because that's a medical travel boarding home. So there is -- so we need to clarify. And I have that on -- to be done.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Deh Cho.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that. It's very important for people in the -- you know, to have some kind of assurance or to know for sure that this is what they can do and the -- I don't know if it's called CHR, the person that provides the care in the health cabins, to know this information so they could pass it on to their community residents so everybody's aware. You know, more information is better than nothing, so if can you clarify that and get that organized for them, that would be really good. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's more of a comment than a question. And I have nothing further. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further general comments? Okay, seeing none. Thank you.
Moving on to seeing no further questions, committee, I will now call the department summary on Health and Social Services, operations expenditure, total department 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $704,240,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Thank you, Minister, and thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us.
Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses from the chamber.
Okay, committee, we will now move on to the next department but before we do, we'll take a short recess and give the translator a chance to rest. Thank you.
---SHORT RECESS
Committee, we have agreed to consider Tabled Document 275-20(1), 2025-2026 Main Estimates. We will now consider the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Does the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment wish to bring in witnesses into the House?
Yes, please, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. Does committee agree? Thank you. Sergeant-at-Arms, please escort the witnesses into the chambers.
Okay, would the Minister please introduce her witnesses.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to my left is Jamie Fulford, deputy minister of Education, Culture and Employment. And to my right is Terri-Lynn Locke-Setter who is the assistant deputy minister of corporate services.
Thank you. Welcome.
Committee has agreed to forego general comments. Does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled documents? Committee, agreed?
Agreed.
Thank you. Committee, we will defer the department summary and review of the estimates by activity summary beginning with corporate management starting on page 36 with information items on page 38. Are there any questions? Okay, I got a Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I assume this is as good a place as any to be asking business plan related questions; can I confirm that?
Go to the Minister.
Sure, Mr. Chair, whatever works best for you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. The first thing I'd like to ask about is just, you know, I see some new targets in the business plan, and I want to say first and foremost that I am happy to see those targets. I think that was one of my comments last year is that I felt, you know, we had to actually articulate what we were trying to achieve.
One thing I want to ask about, I mean, the targets are still quite vague. For post-secondary, it just says we want to increase them; it doesn't say how much, so it's -- the target is an increased, but it isn't a target, again, and in some cases, you know, the target is maintain or increase students. So I get to ask kind of an overarching plan, I mean, do we have -- can the Minister describe to me what the plan is for workforce development particularly related to the mandate commitment of growing and enhancing the northern workforce. What is the plan, because the business plan is a bit vague about it. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the plan includes not just, you know, one avenue or one item. It includes many different -- like, a suite of supports for residents, and that's everything from, you know, our wage subsidies and supports for employers so that people can do on the job training. That also includes our wage subsidy, for example, for apprentices and creating additional pathways for people to access things like apprenticeship. It includes things, for example, like our transition to the BC curriculum in order to ensure that students are supported to get to a level of wanting and being able to achieve post-secondary as well. I would say there's also pieces of that within ITI and some of the work that is being done on that side which I'm happy to speak to when we get to that department as well. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so I mean fundamentally speaking, do we have a plan related to this mandate item? Like, do we have -- how do I say this. I mean, are we measuring our northern workforce, determining what is preventing it from growing, and implementing a targeted plan to grow it? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Absolutely, Mr. Chair, that is largely based on our Skills 4 Success plan. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll leave that as my comments on the business plan for now. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is a very perhaps silly question but on page 37 of the mains, the fees and payments line under expenditure category has gone up since 2023-2024. Can the -- and I've looked throughout the various functions of BC, and it seems to be going up through most of them. So can the Minister explain what fees and payments going up means? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, if the Member will just give me one quick second, I would be delighted, and there's no such thing as a silly question.
So historically we have an under spend of fees and payments. These typically go to costs for fees, licensing permits, registrations for workshop, development and training within the department. So as I said, historically we had an under spend of fees and payments and so that's what -- that's the difference that we are largely seeing there. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, yeah, that was just sort of a general question throughout the department, so I appreciate that.
Going to the business plan, much like my colleague from Frame Lake, I have a sort of a wider picture question. I know the department is working to revitalize/amend the Education Act. I'm curious if the Minister can speak to what kind of process they are looking at to develop that legislation with Indigenous partners. Is it going to be through the process convention that is established for lands and resources legislation, or will it be a new process? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, no, it won't be a mirror of that process, but it will be a collaborative process. We've already undergone the part of the process where we have approached Council of Leaders and Council of Leaders' participants, many of which have provided us with names of officials who will be part of a working group that will work collaboratively with the department on that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And when might a draft outline of process conventions be available for a review by this House? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, that's the first order of business, is deciding how we would like to work together and to give us an idea of kind of how that will look from start to finish, I'd like to be able to pass to the deputy minister.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So as the Minister mentioned, we're just initiating with the Council of Leaders and striking a working group to begin that work. We expect that there will be many similarities from what I believe the Members are familiar with when it comes to legislation -- land and resource management legislation that goes through the IGC. This is a little bit of a different and new project, and we expect that we'll have to engage at each step along the way as we're kind of striking new ground there. But that'll include engagement not only with Indigenous governments but with the education bodies themselves and others. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So is the Minister and Cabinet envisioning that this process will be perhaps, for lack of better term, a pilot project for legislation that deals with the social envelope, is it going to be more widely expansive, or is it only for the Education Act and you'll take lessons learned moving ahead? I mean, I realize this is all theoretical but I'm just curious from sort of like a 30,000-foot view. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly this is the first piece of social legislation in the Northwest Territories that will be collaboratively drafted by -- or sorry, with Indigenous governments, and so this is -- it's certainly not lost on me that this is a great opportunity to show how we can work on such an important part -- important piece of legislation together.
I also think that in order to do this work justice, it has to be done collaboratively in the Northwest Territories, and so not only is this an opportunity but it's something that really is a requirement for us to be able to move forward in really the spirit and light of what we expect not only from ourselves in this room but also what residents expect of us.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Turning to a different part of your business plan, under housing, the priority of housing, ECE has noted that you will complete a review of ECE's lands, reserves, and surplus, and all surplus land will be identified by the end of March of 2026. Is there a reason for why it's taking that long? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, not only do we have to make sure that we go out and we itemize all those pieces, we also need to make sure that we're conferring with our body partners on this. But in the meantime, we have had successes recently as far as taking pieces of land that are earmarked as ECE pieces of land and repurposing them. A great example of that is the skills training centre within the community of Fort Good Hope is going on what was traditionally a piece of ECE land that we were able to work with the community on and is now being turned into a training centre. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
