Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, when we look at the population growth numbers for the territory, we're not a territory that's growing. I know that the Yukon and both Nunavut have seen growth in their territorial population numbers. Here in the NWT, we have not seen the same success.

And while I understand that there are there is work, sorry, going on within Health for recruitment, I laid out four different suggestions today as to how we can be very proactive as far as increasing our labour pool, increasing our population here in the territory. And I while I understand that we...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the work being done with engagement on the Nominee program will one day lead to just a really long series of yeses for me for the Minister in this House.

My last question actually relates to an answer that was given by the Minister of Health and Social Services earlier today about trying to work with people coming from the for example, the Ukraine in order to access additional health care workers. And similar to that, other jurisdictions have set up MOUs. And a great example is Manitoba has set up an MOU with the Philippines in regards...

Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the success of the Atlantic, Yukon, and Manitoba pilot programs, is the Minister willing to work with the federal government to establish an NWT pilot program for immigration that allows for labour market assessment exemptions? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to acknowledge Taylor Maxwell who is in the gallery today. She is the Legislative Assembly's newest intern and a resident of Kam Lake. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the committee's report was read into the record yesterday, Tuesday, March 29th, 2022.

For the past year, the Standing Committee on Social Development has been conducting our statutory review of the Child and Family Services Act. This has been very difficult, personal and emotional work, Mr. Chair, but it is also very important work, vital work, and work I am proud to have been a part of.

I want to thank all Members of the Standing Committee and all other Members who contributed to our work. We are stronger when we work together, and I believe we have...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Bill 39: An Act to Amend the PostSecondary Education Act received second reading in the Legislative Assembly on November 25th, 2021, and was referred to the Standing Committee on Social Development for review.

On March 24th, 2022, the standing committee held a public hearing with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and completed its clausebyclause review of the bill.

Committee passed two motions with concurrence from the Minister. Committee has read its report into the record and did not make this is and did not make recommendations. I thank the...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The clause-by-clause review of Bill 39 was held on March 25, 2022. At this review, the Standing Committee moved three motions. The Minister concurred with two motions. The Minister did not agree with the motion on the composition of the Post-Secondary Education Advisory Board.

The Minister concurred, and clause 3 has been amended.

The Minister did not concur. The amendment will not take effect.

The Minister concurred with the motion. Clause 15 has been amended.

The Standing Committee on Social Development's review of Bill 39 resulted in three motions. The Standing Committee...

Yes, thank you very much for that, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that response. It's one that I'll continue to come back on because although we have 22 priorities, we also have to pay for them. So we have to look at different revenue sources, and people are definitely our greatest resource, and the North is an excellent place to come and set down some roots. So thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess just further to my series of questions, I know that that we're you know, potentially the GNWT is not currently looking into different ways to access immigration, and I understand that there are a lot of different pulls within the government. But one of the things that is very clear is that increasing our population size is the biggest way to increase our revenue source here in the territory. It's it's one of the easiest ways to increase our revenue source.

And so having people working at increasing our our population size off the side...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that things take time, but I think we also have the benefit of the fact that we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, that the Yukon really has already established a program that works well in the North and that it is something that the NWT could potentially take and change to suit the needs of the Northwest Territories and what Northerners here in the NWT want to see. So I hope that the government will continue taking the steps to move that forward.

Mr. Speaker, my next question is given the vital role of that immigration has...