Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the changes to the program did allow for more unearned and earned income to be maintained by residents. Should residents be, you know, full-students or be pursuing post-secondary education, we do have a very robust student financial assistance program that we can move them into that does also come with living allowance supplements as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister explain what employment programs are available to young people on income assistance. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, we have career development officers that work for the department of education and their role is to connect, through our client navigators, income assistance clients with job opportunities for people who are able and are willing to take that route. So these career development officers have access to a suite of different workforce development programs that can be paired with an employer. So there is funding, and substantial funding out there, for example for training, for helping to pay a wage for somebody as they learn how to do a job, to really ease some of that stress off an employer who really is wanting to support somebody to improve their skills. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
So this morning, Aurora College informed committee that they would be reallocating about $2 million of the funds that previously went to the community learning centres and CLC staff towards online learning, including hiring three online program coordinators, hiring three new tech support staff, and 1-800 support lines and online platforms, possibly buy everyone a computer as it seems they were promising to ensure that everyone would have access to modern technology.
Does the Minister support this dramatic shift in approach from face-to-face learning to spending those same funds on essentially tech support and online platforms? Does that approach fit within the current mandate agreement laid out given the Minister's expectations of the college? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what I do support here is the college looking at different ways to access our learners across the territory in a more efficient way. What they've identified is that -- concerns over access to the programming that students want. With those additional positions that the Member referenced, there's also six adult learners that will also support that program in addition to tech support and online mentorship and wraparound services. These are the types of services that they could not afford to -- students across the territory before looking at a shift in the programming. And what has been passed along to me is that along with a program that has a borrowing system for hardware, for computer hardware, for students across the Northwest Territories who need it, there will also be people that support with -- you know, how to learn online, student life, being able to really support the whole student wholistically.
I think it's also worth noting that there was community learning centres in 19 communities before, and now an additional 10 communities will have access through online learning to these post-secondary programs which afford them not only access to the adult learning and basic education but also the programs that they might want to transition into after that. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if we fully embrace this vision that the future is digital and if the college changed all of its programs to online programs, does the Minister consider that in that case the college would still be fulfilling its mandate? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's very difficult for me to base all of my answers on hypothetical. I think what the college is looking at doing is exploring how this works for Northerners, and I would expect that they would be consistently evaluating this shift and this change.
The other thing that was referenced today was different opportunities that communities are taking advantage of with additional partnerships both through Indigenous governments and through community governments. And I think that those will continue to flourish in the territory as well. We do have relationships through Dechinta, through College Nordique, through Wilfrid Laurier University, and, of course, Indigenous governments are also forming their own relationships and their own workforce development plans, which I intend to continue to support through our workforce development funding as well. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can the Minister justify why we would spend public money on Aurora College developing online programs when many students already access online learning programs from other places and, in fact, that's the entire sort of attraction of online learning, is that you can get it from anywhere. What would Aurora College's niche be in this space? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we're certainly at an interesting juncture in the life-span and chapters of Aurora College. So Aurora College has a mandated responsibility for accessing -- or for community members to be able to access educational opportunities. So that still exists within their mandate agreement which is why they continue to find different ways to deliver that programming but because they have autonomy over operations and how they choose to deliver that, that is entirely up to them as a decision. And because of the noninterference clause, I don't have the ability to reach in and tell them to do it how I would like to see it. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Earlier today the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment has signed a deal to extend the Canada-wide child early learning -- learning program, the $10-a-day program. While families are appreciative of these efforts, daycare providers are still -- or childcare providers are still very concerned about a system that looks to be unsustainable. The funding's been extended until 2031, 2032, without any changes, which means no additional funding to address the concerns that have been raised by the sector or increasing wages for workers in the sector for another five years. I know the Minister's live to these concerns. Can the Minister speak to why no increases in the contributions to the Northwest Territories were secured in this recent extension of the deal? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can promise this House it was not for lack of trying. As the Member also would have seen in the same news article, we weren't alone in resigning that agreement with Canada. That agreement is to the tune of $80 million over the lifespan of that agreement, and it is very difficult to say no to $80 million that supports families with young children to access childcare.
I absolutely acknowledge what the Member is saying about the fact that there are challenges with that program and the implementation of it in the Northwest Territories, issues that I very vocally shared with my federal counterparts over the course of the negotiating period. I was incredibly active in speaking with the federal government about ways that that program does not fully satisfy the needs of the Northwest Territories and can also advise the Member because of those conversations, we did not sign the agreement until the 11th hour. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I mean, it's becoming increasingly apparent that this program's not working. I don't think it's working anywhere in Canada. But leaving money on the table is not an option but finding money from within is. So one way we can do that is the funding formulas may be the same across all provinces and territories, as the Minister pointed out, but there's different legislative environments. And in some cases, they allow for extra fees, voluntary fees to be charged in jurisdictions, including Alberta. Will the Minister bring changes to policy and legislation to allow voluntary fees to be charged by childcare providers in the Northwest Territories? Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Certainly as previously committed to in this House, that is an aspect of the agreement that I'm currently looking into with the department. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you. I've looked into it as well, and you know who else has, Mr. Speaker? Mr. Speaker, the childcare providers and their advocates, the associations, have looked to it -- looked into it as well. They want these changes made. So can the Minister commit to doing more than looking into them and actually change these things, make a commitment to change these things before this problem gets worse. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my concern is implementing or agreeing to something on the floor of the House without doing my due diligence because in the end, we could end up having our agreement cancelled which costs this territory and families in this territory a tremendous amount of money. We would risk losing our agreement with Canada if we are found to be in contravention of it. So I want to ensure that I'm doing my due diligence before making an $80 million mistake. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just want to make follow-up comments to questions from earlier.
When I talked about the winter road, it was mentioned between 7 to $8 million. I see that as being an investment for putting the road in like that. But overall, Mr. Speaker, my question would be to the Minister of Infrastructure. I think at this point in time, if we don't start looking for solutions then I'll be back year after year asking the same questions. I think it's important now that we look at maybe building -- when I talk about a pre-feasibility study, it would be nice if we could do that and look at a plan for 5 to 20 years. And when we -- if we do that pre-feasibility study, we could look also at the all-season road, winter road, perhaps even runway expansion, and also, you know, looking at a chip seal program for our community. But before we could even do that, my question to the Minister of Infrastructure: Can we look at -- get a commitment from her to start a process so that we are able to look at doing a pre-feasibility study on these four items I just talked about? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, pre-feasibility studies are not free. They do involve expenditure of public funds. And now the pre-feasibility study I was being asked about earlier was for a road across Great Slave Lake to the tune of, again, even just preliminary estimates, being 7 to $8 million every year because the road, of course, melts every single year, and now there's pre-feasibility studies for several other additional projects.
Mr. Speaker, again, on the fly, that's several significant expenditures of public funds for projects that I really don't have a good estimate on other than the one I've already indicated is quite challenging and likely not to lead to a reduction in cost of living. Happy to take the other ones away, look more carefully. There may well have been some pre-feasibility work done at some time. I don't know that standing on the floor so I will certainly make that inquiry and perhaps can start from there in terms of where we can go next. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Again, the reason why I'm bringing this up is to really try to identify how we're going to address the issue of the high cost of living in the community of Lutselk'e. So we could get together with the chief and council and talk to them about it, but we need a process to do that. And so I guess what I'm trying to say, Mr. Speaker, is that there needs to be a process now. We have to look at figuring out what the cost might be and plan for 5 to 20 years down the road. But right now at this point in time, you know, we could talk about it but to me, it seems like it's -- I bring it up, and I brought it up in the 19th Assembly, we talk about it, and it's been pushed aside. And at this point in time, we got to look for a solution. And we talk about building a relationship, that's what I'm talking about. So my question again is that can we start working together in partnership and bringing this issue up with the Indigenous governments in Dettah and N'dilo -- sorry, Yellowknives Dene First Nation and Lutselk'e Dene First Nation. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, Mr. Speaker, with respect to a concern on high cost of living and looking for solutions, one of those areas where there's high costs is the fact that there's a lot of fuel that has to get transported to the community and a lot of that is being transported because the community right now of Lutselk'e is running on a diesel generator to generate all of their power. And yet, Mr. Speaker, I do believe there have been some initial scoping studies done about micro hydro facilities. That would reduce the cost of living potentially, certainly bring a more reliable, sustainable power system and one that would reduce the amount of fuel that's being brought in. So that is an area that might have some impact. I don't know for sure. But that's exactly the kind of thing a feasibility study might do. I understand the chief of Lutselk'e has some interest in this. I'm certainly happy to follow up on that. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Final supplementary. Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to offer an invitation to the Minister to work together with myself and meet with the YKDFN on their capital needs but also to go to Lutselk'e together and meet with the chief and council and have that dialogue and discussion and next steps going forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I'd like to know if the invitation -- I'll put it out there for her to accept. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm happy to return to Lutselk'e. It's always a good experience to be there, a very pleasant and beautiful community, especially if it's fishing season, but certainly happy to go back and further these conversations.
Similarly, Mr. Speaker, not that long ago myself and Minister Macdonald were able to meet with YKDFN, both chiefs, in the community of Dettah. Also happy to go back. I expressed at the time that more of those meetings would be good. It took a long time to find a time then. I don't want a lot of time to pass before we can do a follow-up on that meeting. So, again, very happy to be able to say that here, that we're looking forward to continuing the conversations that we began recently. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member's statement, I spoke about the importance of defending Canada's sovereignty and making sure the Northwest Territories is one of the leaders in that effort. Arctic defense spending has become a national subject of -- or subject of national interest, especially from those who want to be our next Prime Minister. The leader of the opposition has pledged to build a military base in Iqaluit. Next door, our neighbours in Yukon have established a security advisory council, and they've already been successful in finding some federal funding as well. We can't wait for the federal dollars to come to the North because other people are going out to get them. So what is the Premier doing to ensure we have a robust security and sovereignty strategy that brings federal dollars, federal investments into the Northwest Territories, not only for the jobs and the growth but for the safety that our residents deserve? Thank you.
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Mr. Premier.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So when we started this term, Canadian sovereignty and Arctic security weren't on the tops of our list of priorities given that, you know, those are federal mandates; however, they've come to the forefront of discussions all across Canada and especially here in the Northwest Territories. And so a lot of the work that we have been doing actually feeds directly into the notions of sovereignty and security. By advocating for the Mackenzie Valley Highway and putting that infrastructure in place, that is increasing our sovereignty, assuring our security. And that was referenced by Minister Blair in interviews he's done subsequent to the announcement that investment in infrastructure in the North is an assertion of sovereignty. And so we put work into projects like the Mackenzie Valley Highway, like the Taltson Hydro Expansion. We've been putting work into critical minerals. I've been working with my colleagues, particularly the Minister of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on ensuring that our regulatory system is as efficient as it possibly can be. And, of course, critical minerals are important to Canada's security, Canada's sovereignty, and, you know, North American security ideally but given the current situation, we are focusing on Canada.
I've had a number of conversations with Minister Blair, the Minister of National Defense, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister Joly, Minister Leblanc, all centered around this topic. So we have already been doing the work and we are putting together -- I don't want to say a strategy but we're putting together some guiding -- a guiding document perhaps on how we're going to move forward addressing these issues. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate those conversations but, I mean, we're asking them to invest in what we're already doing. I mean, we had a Prime Minister -- Prime Minister Harper came here every year and apart from a few big projects here and there that some Members are very familiar with, we didn't get much for it. We're still underfunded. We still need more infrastructure. So what we're looking for here is defense spending, and that's still something we're only starting to see trickle out. We do have the leader of the opposition pledging to build bases in other northern jurisdictions. So can we have a focus on Arctic defense spending as one of the items of an updated federal engagement strategy? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would say that when we engage the federal government, we want to package our asks in a way that is going to be palatable for them, in a way that they are going to want to consume. And Arctic security, Arctic sovereignty, is very sellable right now to the federal government, and so the Member can rest assured that it has been and will continue to be a major component of how we engage the federal government. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Final supplementary. Member from Range Lake.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, allow war packaging that way but unfortunately these projects -- else I'm mistaken, and I invite the Honourable Premier to correct me, but these don't count toward our NATO -- or 2 percent of GDP NATO spending. They don't count. So what I'm trying to do is if we're moving to 2 percent, or maybe even 3 percent now, if we're going the way Europe's going, to divert some of those, if not most of those dollars, into the Northwest Territories. So defense spending is crucial. It's more nuanced than just repackaging our current asks. So can we get a commitment to advance defense spending and specifically tie it to these increases that are coming from our NATO commitments, tie that to the Northwest Territories. And even if the Premier wants to go and speak to the other northern territories and develop a tri-territorial plan or pan-northern plan, I don't care, but let's get some of that money flowing here and make it specific to defense because, again, those projects we're advancing are not -- do not count towards that 2 percent. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So if we're speaking specifically about defense infrastructure, that's something we have to leave up to the military. I don't have the wherewithal to tell the military where they should build a base to best deter the Russians or anything like that. That being said, we -- I've been having conversations, as I mentioned earlier. I spoke with Minister Blair earlier this week and I said that, you know, it's important that we are involved when they are putting their mind towards military spending. If there's going to be an expansion of, say, in Inuvik of the military presence, well, we might need to upgrade the water treatment plant, we might need more childcare, we might need other types of infrastructure that would generally be municipal or territorial, and so ensuring that that happens. And so we are working with the federal government to ensure that when they decide on how they're going to spend this money for their military installations that we are going to be part of those discussions and that Northerners and northern companies and Indigenous governments will all benefit. So, you know, I could go on and on about this; perhaps I'll just leave it at that. Thank you.
Oh, I remember what I was going to say. The announcement as well, from Minister Blair, was not just an announcement of the forward operating support hub locations but also an increase in the amount of money going towards those facilities. So we've already seen a significant increase in the commitment of the federal government on defense spending in the North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Premier. Oral questions. Mr. Clerk.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Pursuant to Rule 7.27, I have received follow-up information for Oral Question 568-20(1), Lowest Return Airfare for Income Tax Returns, asked on February 28th, 2025, by the Member for Great Slave to the Minister of Finance.
Further to the response provided to the Member for Great Slave on February 28, 2025, regarding Lowest Return Airfare for Income Tax Returns and the indexing of northern resident's tax deduction since 2023, the following additional information is provided:
The northern residents travel deduction requires applicants to determine the lowest return airfare for their calculation. The lowest return airfare is the cost of the cheapest round-trip airfare available when the applicant's travel began, between the airport closest to their residence and the nearest designated city, which for the Northwest Territories is Edmonton. Northwest Territories residents can determine the lowest return airfare amount to claim their travel deductions by gathering documentation to support the quoted return airfare between the airport closest to their community of residence and Edmonton on, or close to, the date of the travel or they can use the Canada Revenue Agency's lowest return airfare tables.
Following consultations with Canadians, the Canada Revenue Agency started to provide lowest return airfare tables as a convenience for tax filers who do not want the take the extra effort of collecting documentation. However, Northwest Territories residents still have a choice. They can determine the lowest return airfare amount to claim their travel deductions by gathering documentation to support the quoted return airfare between the airport closest to their community of residence and Edmonton on, or close to, the date of the travel or they can use the Canada Revenue Agency's lowest return airfare tables.
Using the Canada Revenue Agency's tables is the most convenient method because these amounts are readily available, will not be disputed by the Agency, and do not require further documentation. However, the Canada Revenue Agency determines the annual tables by working with a business travel service provider to determine the lowest economy fares that are ordinarily available during a quarter for airlines operating in the prescribed zones, using prices for flights between eligible airports and designated cities. Tax filers who are not satisfied with the Canada Revenue Agency's tables can check for the lowest economy return airfare from the Northwest Territories tax filer's community to Edmonton on the day they are travelling and save the information in case the Canada Revenue Agency checks. In most cases what the traveller paid will be lower than the lowest economy return airfare purchased on the day of travel.
The Canada Revenue Agency administers the Northwest Territories' income taxes and should be the first source for Northwest Territories residents to use for questions on filing their income taxes. For help on any income tax topic, Northwest Territories residents can contact the dedicated telephone service for territorial residents at 1-866-426-1527, which the Canada Revenue Agency set up to assist Northerners with individual tax and benefit enquiries.
With respect to indexing the Northern Residents Deduction, I have not raised this issue with the federal Finance Minister since 2023. The Northern Residents Deduction changes taxable income and so a request to index the Northern Residents Deduction is complicated by the tax collection agreements between Canada and all provinces and territories except Quebec that require the same definition of taxable personal income. The Northern Residents Deduction reduces personal income tax revenues and so requesting that the Northern Residents Deduction residency component be indexed for inflation requires the support of other territories and can be challenging to advocate for if other provinces perceive additional benefits flowing to the territories as not necessary, which has been the case in the past. The Department of Finance will update its analysis on indexing and provide this to the Standing Committee on Accountability and Oversight by the end April 2025.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Oral questions. Member from Range Lake.
Okay, thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, sorry, I was confused by our procedures. Mr. Speaker, I too would like to ask just some clarifying points from the presentation that Aurora College gave to Members this morning.
For the physical assets of the community learning centres, the actual buildings and physical infrastructure that are present in the communities, what is the fate of that with the shuttering of all these facilities in a couple months? Thank you. What will be the fate?
Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
