Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, at this point, you know, there's been conversation about putting extra dollars into early learning and child care. There's been comments about expanding the  or removing the cap and putting dollars in there. There's been requests for putting more money into seniors' home heating subsidy. And there's only so much that I can move dollars around within the department in order to accommodate those. So some difficult decisions are going to have to be made on behalf of this whole government as a team. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm too long, I'm too short; I just don't know. I'm happy to provide information.

School education bodies receive funding directly. People can also apply for separate funding. There is also funding available through Aurora College when they participate. They get funding directly from ECE to participate when they're doing their training for the early learning and child care certificate and diploma program. And so there's a multitude of different kind of avenues that funding comes from. But I am happy to provide more detailed information to the Member for sure...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the draft NWT adapted curriculum is streamlined, and it focuses on competency building more than content retention. So this actually ends up providing more opportunities for placebased learning, which in our northern communities translates into landbased learning. The adaption of the BC curriculum ensures that many explicit references to the BC curriculum to Indigenous ways of being and knowing are NWTspecific. So this curriculum adaption almost gives us more opportunities than working with the previous curriculum in order to ensure that there are landbased...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in addition to the items that I have already mentioned, there is also a gender support plan that schools have which provides a guide for staff members to understand ways a student's gender can be affirmed while the student is supported at school. ECE also supports evidencebased healthy relationship training for school staff and a safe school regulations mandate that safe school plans must include, like I said before, the bullying prevention, intervention, education strategies that integrate evidencebased healthy relationship programming into the...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to start today by letting the Member know and letting residents of the Northwest Territories know that as the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment, I will not endorse or support policies that or legislation that I see is harmful to residents of the Northwest Territories, including our youth. What is being done today, Mr. Speaker, under the Education Act and safe schools regulations, schools in the Northwest Territories are required to provide a safe and caring environment for the school community. So ECE hosts a territorial safe...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm not the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for Yellowknife; I'm the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment for the Northwest Territories. So yes.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I find that the news isn't all bad. A lot of people that I've had the opportunity to speak with, parents included, are quite excited by the opportunity presented to the Northwest Territories by the BC curriculum. That said, I do have meetings booked with education bodies in April, and I'm very excited to get their feedback at that time. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. No, I hear what the Member is saying, absolutely. But whatever I provide right now has to be provided to future students down the road, and I am  I've done the research in the previous Assembly on this one. I've spoken to students who are part of that minority of students that are looking for that. I understand that trends in postsecondary education are changing across the country and that people are taking on average five years to do their bachelor degree these days instead of the four, and they are wanting to continue on and potentially do a law degree or a...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this was  this idea was explored in the previous Assembly when the review of Student Financial Assistance was done and, at that time, the decision was made to not expand the cap and to put dollars from ECE, in fact, into other programs. There was changes made to the Student Financial Assistance Program at that time, but this change was not one of them. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.