Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to start off I'd like to answer the Member's previous question. So we currently fund 1,956 spaces in the Northwest Territories.

As far as the background on where those spaces come from, I would like to, please, pass to assistant deputy minister BarnettAikman.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I think it's important to note that not everything that the government does lands in the business plans. There's still action plans that are still daytoday efforts that are done by public servants and by Northerners day in and day out that don't land themselves in the business plans per se. But educating children and making sure that we are preparing them for the rest of their lives is something that is constantly top of mind for northern educators, for parents, for community members, and something that we need to continue to do. So while these...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member's excitement and ensuring that we're continuing to work on this. I think that it'll be a exciting term for creating systems for people wanting to come to Canada and make the Northwest Territories home.

We have a staff member within Education, Culture and Employment at this time. Moving forward, we will be transitioning a second staff member from ITI over to Education, Culture and Employment. And so being able to really double that team, I think, will do a lot of good for ECE in being able to support people within this space. And...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, ECE receives $5.9 million from the federal government that is immediately distributed to Indigenous governments for the purposes of Indigenous languages. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, just to go back really quickly, I do have the number for the Member in terms of the change in enrolment for Tlicho region, and it's 4 percent. So a decline of 4 percent for Tlicho region schools.

And then in regards to the degree programs from Aurora College, Aurora College has spoken about having their first degree program be general studies, and they pushed that back by a year. Originally, they had intended that that would start this fall, and so that would mean that it would start next fall. Beyond that, I do not have that information as of yet from...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I appreciate the Member's comments for sure. I can reflect on some recent decisions that were made that came out that were not  well, that were fully baked, we will call them. And so it's  you know, it's definitely one where finding that sweet spot of how people want to see ideas come out of the oven is definitely one that depends who you're chatting with. And so I appreciate the Member's support on this and look forward to being able to update him on what those timelines look like once we've had the opportunity to make sure that we're going about...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I'd love to see a day where, you know, people can put themselves on a list, and we have a centralized database that is shared among licensed child care providers. But we simply do not have that type of digital technology within ECE, let alone most of the government at this point in time. I would, for sure, love to see significant investments in digital technology and innovation in that area within the GNWT, but it would take significant investment, and it's one that I simply don't have the dollars for at this time within the department. That being...

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, it would depend on the extent of renovations and what was required, but there are funding arrangements that the department does have to help people set up their familyrun day home out of their houses, and so it would be on a casebycase basis as to what exactly a resident might be looking for to help with that. And so if there is somebody within the Member's communities that would be interested in that, I know that the ELCC coordinator would love the opportunity to be able to hear from that person and work directly with them. That way they could...

Sorry, I just wanted to make sure that residents know that they can either choose one or the other or both and that they can work with their client navigator on that one. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So Mr. Chair, this line item does not speak to the program that the Member is referring to. This line item, it speaks to the diploma program through Aurora College. So ECE has been funded for that program for multiple years but, unfortunately, that program does not exist yet. And so to ensure that we're using the dollars as committed to by the Legislative Assembly, those dollars have been removed until such time that I can come forward to FMB with a proposal from Aurora College in order to accurately request dollars for that program. Thank you.