Jay Macdonald

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's always a bit difficult predicting when we can conclude formal negotiations with the federal government but we're actually optimistic that we'll be able to complete this fiscal year. And as the Minister I think mentioned when responding to a previous question, we're looking for a threeyear extension to the existing Indigenous languages agreement. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Luckily with the recent conclusion of collective bargaining with the Northwest Territories Teachers Association, so my what I think I believe the Minister is speaking about has been addressed. So, for example, there is a provision within the collective agreement for a language bonus for Indigenous language instructors. So that's been increased. I think it's a little over $6,000 per year now.

As well, in the table, the certification and the salary grid for teachers, the parties agreed to remove the initial step which was one year or less of experience. So Indigenous...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We don't have specific funding for those categories, but it would just be included in our base funding under land use and sustainability. For land use planning, our budget for 2021-2022 is $2,357,000. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We've been working with the federal government since November, and they have told us that we can expect to receive our agreement within the next few weeks. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. In 2019-2020, we were oversubscribed in our contributions related to land use planning initiatives. There was a lot of work done in the south, south east of the NWT. In the current year, we are still providing funding, but a lot of the meetings that would be face to face have either been cancelled or done virtually. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just with respect to the Early Learning and Child Care Agreement, we have an action plan associated with that agreement, that is a bilateral action plan with the Government of Canada, and we are obligated to report annually on the actions within that plan. That is a good place to highlight some of the commitments that we made to Canada in order to obtain that funding for the Northwest Territories. I would probably add that, in terms of strategy, how we have tried to deploy that funding on an annual basis over that three-year period is to enhance the programs and services...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this is the territorial funding. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is definitely an interesting question in terms of protocol. One of the things that we have wanted to look into is whether a name change for the facility would trigger any issues with His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, other issues such as that, so, from a protocol perspective, we are still in the research stage, to try to understand what that would entail and who to actually speak to. However, we are hoping to wait until after there is a bit more clarity on the planning study, itself, before we really dive into some of those questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, federal funding is actually divided into two separate programs, both delivered through Indigenous Services Canada. One program is the better known. It's Jordan's Principle, and that program is funded based on a Human Rights Tribunal decision, so the federal government has a long-term policy and funding commitment for Jordan's Principle. The second program is known as Children First, and it's basically a similar program, designed for Inuit children who need those same services. That program does not have the same degree of permanence to it at this time, as far as we...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, just to build on what the Minister said, the teachers are employed by the various education bodies across the territory, so ECE does not participate in the hiring process or exit process for those individuals. However, we do conduct teacher surveys to help understand what types of issues are working for them, as well as where their challenges may be. In fact, in that recent education renewal and innovation evaluation, as well as in that STIP evaluation, there were teacher survey components to that, so that we could help understand what some of the challenges were...