Okay. Go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I've certainly heard the Member. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further comments from the Member from Monfwi?
Here the part-time, we don't even have anything for part-time too as well. We have full-time but nothing for part-time. And even for North Slave, you know, like there's nothing there. So it would be nice if there was something, like even part-time, instead of a visiting worker. We just need somebody there long term to help improve the education outcome for our students. Thank you.
Thank you. Go back to the -- do you want to respond?
No, thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I've heard the Member in regards to staffing concerns. Thank you.
Thank you. Any further -- that's it? Okay, thank you. Any further questions? Seeing none. No further questions, please turn to page 40.
Education, Culture and Employment, early learning, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $35,894,000. Does committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to education beginning on page 44 with information items on page 48. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my first question is for the first line item on page 45 here, junior kindergarten to grade 12 education system services. I note that it's declined in the past three years from $10 million all the way down to $4 million. So can the department explain to us what is the story with these cuts over subsequent years?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, you see quite a large difference here, and what is it is there's a sunset of the education renewal and innovation ERI funding. There's also -- we used to do training where we would fly classroom assistants from small communities into Yellowknife to do training together. And what we learned from education bodies is that was very disruptive to the students that they were, in fact, supporting in the classroom so we switched to a virtual model. We also have -- sorry, just quickly looking here.
Oh, sorry, we also do have the mental health and wellness, the school-based mental health and wellness that used to be found in here, and has subsequently been moved to another line item.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. My next question is related to the next page, on page 46 here. Aurora College transformation I notice we've also subsequently declined that item. And as we knew, MLAs kind of negotiated extra money into there, and now it is gone.
So the first question is not actually about the cut. Mr. Speaker -- or sorry, Mr. Chair, when is transformation of Aurora College to a polytechnic expected to be complete? Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, the Aurora College mandate -- well, I believe, has now gone out. I believe it's all in our in-boxes. Thank you very much. And so that mandate agreement commits Aurora College to 2027.
Thank you. Just a reminder, I'm just a chairman, so anyway. Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
No one thinks any less of you for it, Mr. Chair.
So knowing that we've got a number of years left, I feel like it's very obvious to point out that we're in 2025, and yet the funding has been completely cut. And so if the transformation is not scheduled to be complete for another two years, what is going to be funding the transformation and how are we going to be successful? How is the Minister ensuring that we are setting this institution up to succeed this time knowing that we already missed the rollout date of 2025 that was supposed to happen? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, I'm -- the funding was not cut. There's still very much a line item in there for post-secondary.
In regards to what was cut, there was a subset of the Aurora College transformation initiative, and that was funding from CIRNAC. There was also funding that then through budget negotiations that Members did put back in, so it nearly matched the sunset of funding from CIRNAC. So CIRNAC sunset was $581,000, and then Members negotiated $500,000 for it.
In that line item, there's also a carry forward of building Skills 4 Success of $100,000. There's also some amortization adjustments. And there is in addition to that some reductions in adult literacy as well.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think, you know, I could go on and on about the Aurora College, but maybe we'll save that for some Members' statements in the next couple weeks.
Because I do -- I am genuinely curious, knowing that the mandate's out, to question the Minister about how they plan for that to be successful this time considering the previous mandate did not succeed.
The literacy funding item, I notice there's a fairly significant cut, and that seems to be over and above the closure of the community learning centres. So, overall, adult literacy is taking some big hits in this budget. Can the Minister explain to us the rationale for this? Is this a program that wasn't succeeding? Has the Minister's department simply given up on adult literacy? What are we trying to achieve with this cut here? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Mr. Chair, adult literacy is very much still within the mandate of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. This cut was due to fiscal sustainability, but this is an opportunity that we are taking to review adult literacy and basic education across the territory and how that funding was being used. We still have contribution agreements, like I've spoken about on the floor of the House, in the life of this sitting here to NWT Literacy, and then we also do have our literacy fund that are still available to communities and to community organizations, but we will be conducting a review of adult literacy and basic education in the life of this Assembly.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the way it's described in this -- in the budget is funding to organizations to deliver literacy programs. So what organizations specifically are losing out with this cut?
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to pass to assistant deputy minister Barnett-Aikman.
Thank you. I'll go to the ADM.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Apart from that reduction, we do fund literacy initiatives through the NWT Literacy Council at roughly $900,000, to the NWT Disabilities Council at $200,000, to Inclusion NWT at $85,000, and also provide funding to the broader community literacy development fund which provides financial assistance to community organizations to deliver locally developed programs that are responsive to their residents' needs.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So just to be clear, were staff listing the organizations that are losing money this year? Is that -- she kind of characterized it as those are the organizations we fund; I was asking who is losing money.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that would just be Aurora College.
Okay, thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave -- sorry, Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There are a lot of lakes around here; it's easy to mix them up.
The other question that I have Mr. Speaker -- or sorry, Mr. Chair, is other post-secondary institutions. So there's funding for College Nordique and the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. I note that there is no funding in that line item this year. Does this mean that we are not making any contributions to Dechinta or College Nordique, or is there more to that story? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, we have made contribution agreements for years now to College Nordique and Dechinta, but they're unfunded, so you wouldn't find them in line items here because we just see the value in them, and we find ways to make it work. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Maybe the Minister could help enlighten me as to how we come up with money for something that is unfunded and if we are coming up with that money, why on earth are we not simply just putting it in the budget? Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in order to do something like that, what I would be -- and stop me any time if somebody else would like to take this one. But I would have to go to FMB and specifically request for those line items if I wanted to do it where it appeared in the budget on its own line items. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Frame Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well, with the last minute that I've got here, maybe perhaps what I'll do is, you know, I thought the Member for Yellowknife North made an excellent case for Dechinta in her Member's statement the other day, and certainly I met with this organization, and what the -- what the president of that organization highlighted for me is just that any money that went to Dechinta, particularly in additional money, the things that they could do with dedicated funding would be to employ elders, employ educators, but in particular people -- knowledge holders, Indigenous knowledge holders, up and down the Mackenzie Valley. And I think that is exactly the kind of thing, that kind of employment, that many members from our communities speak to. So I think that the payoff for funding Dechinta would be huge, and I think it would be dollar for dollar a very good investment, so I just want to make that case. I should probably do a Member's statement of my own on it. And I'm out of time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Okay, thank you. Next on the list I have is the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Earlier the Minister highlighted that the wellness counsellor is -- the wellness program for school-based mental health and wellness counsellors is captured in this activity. Could she tell me which line item that would be? Thank you.
Okay, thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you very much. Sorry, just one moment, please.
(audio) back to (audio).
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to make sure that I was telling truths over here. It's found in the inclusive schooling line item.
