Thank you, Madam Chair. I recall a number of years ago the two Indigenous organizations there, the GTC and the Tlicho, acquiring substantial amount of training funds through Skills Canada, and I thought that was quite complementary to the training plan that they outlined in the article there. And I'm just wondering if there's some departmental efforts in acquiring a partnership for accessing some of the Skills Canada funding available? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, when it comes to Skills Canada, we still do put money in for Skills NWT. I believe we put in $70,000. And that is matched through funding as well from the federal government. There's also Skills 4 Success that we had funding for through the federal government. That funding has since sunset. And then we also have labour market dollars that we get through the federal government. As I previously mentioned here this evening, $625 million of that funding was sunset across the country. That is, of course, met with not a lot of support from provincial and territorial Ministers. I was just on an FTP call that spoke to this again earlier today. That's the FLMM table. And I'm using an acronym against my better judgement, and I can't remember what it stands for. But it's the labour market Ministers' table. And we are constantly and consistently advocating for the reinstatement of that $625 million, especially right now with what is happening south of our border. Those dollars are incredibly important across the country. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for the Sahtu.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you to the Minister for that reply. As I recall there, I said it was really a substantial amount of training dollars. I was quite surprised that it was into the several millions of dollars for their training plan. So I thought to myself when I seen it here -- and if you're having discussions with the federal level, I'm quite fine with that there. I just see an opportunity, and I'm just wondering if the Minister is on it, which I take it she is, to acquire a maximum amount of capital there for our training plans. Mahsi.
Thank you. Do you want to respond, Minister? Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And I appreciate the Member's words. Certainly, any dollars for whether it's housing or training or both of them together or education or any part of that that comes to the territory is a win for the whole territory. And so if the federal government is creating deals and partnerships with Indigenous governments across the territory, that is certainly something that I absolutely support. I think that any dollars into the territory is a good news story for all of us. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister. No further questions. Please turn to page 54.
Culture, education, and employment, labour development and standards, operations expenditure summary, 2025-2026 Main Estimates, $18,906,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Moving on to languages and culture on page 58 with information items on page 62. Are there any questions? Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a few questions for this section. In business plan, page 28 for the Minister, it speaks to ECE's desire to include heritage resources in emergency planning. So I note that ECE has updated its business continuity plan. But could the Minister explain if this is just for GNWT assets, or is the department working to support other cultural organizations that it provides financial assistance to? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, can I pass to the deputy minister to speak in detail on this one. Thank you.
Thank you. Deputy minister Fulford.
Thank you, Madam Chair. What this is really aimed at is archaeological resources. So on the land, if you can imagine -- and you've heard the stories of climate change causing the erosion of places that used to be inhabited, particularly along the Beaufort Sea, and making sure that we're planning for those climate change events that are actually destroying the archaeological heritage, potentially, of the NWT if we're not able to plan for and mitigate and record for those events. So that's what we're talking about there. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So I note in the progress to date on that item that you also mention archival records. And that's kind of what cued me to asking about that because there are archival records outside of the GNWT's ownership within the territory. So I assume that just means archival records that speak to those heritage resources? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'd like to pass back to the deputy minister.
Thank you. Deputy minister Fulford.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And that is the other piece of it, is the archival records, it does really speak to those archival records that the GNWT has control over. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you for that clarity. And thank you, Madam Chair. On page -- sorry, there's two page numbers on this, 36 or 38, I apologize. But it's in our business plan policy initiatives, speaking to Indigenous language service standards. I realize those standards, I believe, have been released recently, which is fantastic news. But I am curious what monitoring and evaluation plan for review of that rollout, what benchmarks the standards are meant to reach. Is there an available documentation of any monitoring or evaluation that might be occurring for these service standards? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to deputy minister Fulford.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So the rollout of the Indigenous language service standards is slated for April 1st, so they haven't actually been rolled out yet, although we're keenly anticipating that. We're developing those, you know, review, performance standards, and that will be informed, I think, by our experience and beginning to implement them. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go back to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Would the Minister be willing to share those items with the committee when they are available? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes.
Thank you. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And just one final question. In both -- in the main estimates on page 59, both culture and heritage and Indigenous language secretariat, both have seen a reduction since the 2023-2024 actuals, and I was just wondering if we could get an explanation or substantiation of that. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of culture.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, one of the biggest differences between the main estimates for 2025-2026 and 2024-2025 is the movement and transfer of the arts funding to industry, tourism and investment. So that transferred not only almost $1.5 million to ITI, but in addition, it also transferred the money available through the Canada Council of the Arts MOU to ITI as well, and that was in the -- that was one point -- roughly $1.5 million plus $275,000. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, the 2024-2025 Main Estimates for the Indigenous language secretariat are slightly lower than this year's main estimates, so that's a positive, I believe, but in the historical 2023-2024 actuals, it's quite a significant drop. Could the Minister explain that, please. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, the -- sorry, I'm just going to pull it up here. Thank you.
So what we saw in the 2024-2025 Main Estimates and the big reason for the decrease is tied directly to fiscal sustainability reductions. So we had a reduction in travel for the official languages board specifically. In addition to that, we saw reduction in the contributions to Indigenous communications societies as well as a reduction on travel for a regional linguistic position. And then we also saw a reduction in the funding afforded for translator training. And then in addition to that, we have multiple mentor apprenticeship program coordinator positions within the department, and so we reduced by one of those. And then we also were holding on to significant amount of funding there for the Indigenous language adult immersion diploma that was to be delivered at Aurora College. And so that work is not yet complete at Aurora College, but we were hanging on to it year after year in anticipation of that work being done. And so the commitment was made to once the program is developed, then I would come forward to my Cabinet colleagues and work to have that funding hopefully reinstated and go through the regular planning process at the financial management board for that funding. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Madam Chair. So one thing in that list of items from fiscal restraint that caught my ear just now was a reduction in translator training. Could the Minister please explain why that was a choice that was made? Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, in regards to that line item -- and forgive me, I'm just working to pull that up here. And that was in my -- that's -- sorry, and I apologize because it was in a previous year's budget, so I don't have it readily available in front of me. And, sorry, it -- so for that specific program, it was historically undersubscribed, so we were able to kind of trim off the top without trimming in to what was traditionally used by people accessing that program. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Great Slave.
Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. It's disappointing that it was trimmed rather than advertised but more of a comment than a question, and I'll cede my time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. Next, I have the Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. For the Indigenous language, to promote, that's good. I see here Indigenous language broadcasting. And it's -- it did went down from 2023-2024. Because I know that there's -- I mean, that's another way to encourage and support Indigenous language, to promote Indigenous language. Can the Minister explain why Indigenous language broadcasting went -- if there's a decrease in the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, that was part of our fiscal sustainability reductions. And so what we were able to do is -- and that was last year's reductions that were already done in the previous main estimates. But what we were able to do was look at programs that were historically undersubscribed and trim off the top of them. But we continue to make investments into, for example, our mentorship apprenticeship program that saw 37 pairs this year. We continue to make investments, for example, in our education instructor -- languages instructor program that is in schools in multiple regions in the territory right now. We continue to fund, for example, our Indigenous languages scholarship program that has seen increases year over year of students taking part in it. So we are still making significant investments but have found ways to trim from some programs in order to ensure that we're investing in other programs that are oversubscribed across the GNWT. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member for Monfwi.
Thank you. You did mention interpreter/translator or, you know -- we've been asking -- I've been asking too -- not just me, but there's a lot of people that have asked. Interpreter/translator program, it was offered through Aurora College at one time. It was a pilot project. And I know it was popular at that time. And I'm sure a lot of our interpreter/translator that are in here probably went through that program as well, you know. Interpreting is -- I mean, it is an important -- you know, it is important for -- to promote and save the Indigenous language even in a lot of our -- our communities, when they have meetings, they do it in both language. They have interpreters/translators available but they are aging. So I know that the schools are promoting it, but we do need the interpreters/translators, like the one that we have here in the building, you know, that are interpreting. Simultaneous interpretation, it's not easy, you know, going from English to the Indigenous language or vice versa. So I just wanted to know if there's any plan -- I don't see it in the business plan but maybe possibly to do interpreter/translator program pilot project. We have the facility. Either it's you can do it in the regions, or there's other places that we can have that program. This is going to be one way of preserving our language. And we note that many of our young people in our small communities, they're not practising as much, and there's not too many speakers, you know, in a lot of places as well -- in a lot of places. So I just wanted to know if there's a plan to do some kind of a pilot project interpreter/translator program in the near future. Thank you.
Thank you. Minister.
