Jay Macdonald

Thank you, Madam Chair. And the Member is correct in remembering that this was a priority, I think, of two years ago. At the time, ECE, ITI, and Department of Finance, collaborated on looking at what type of valuable art existed in the possession of various departments, what options there may be, and who roles the various departments could play to support inventory and ensuring that highvalue art was protected and maintained for the future of the territory. The Department of Finance determined that their systems could encompass tracking those artifacts or those art pieces. And as the Minister...

Thank you, Madam Chair. As the Minister indicated, the revenue study was not able to be obtained. So the department is in the process of breaking down what had previously been a substantial plan to prepare to renovate the Prince of Wales Heritage Centre. We are planning to break that into smaller segments that may be more feasible. The priority being the NWT Archives and replacing that space and enhancing it going forward. So our intention is to advance that as part of the department's needs assessment and ultimately the capital planning process for the next cycle. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And certainly lots of experience with Northern Youth Abroad. They're an excellent partner, and they have been for many years both here in the Northwest Territories and in Nunavut as well. Other than their core programming, which I think most of the Members would be quite familiar with, ECE, with the development of northern distance learning, has partnered with Northern Youth Abroad on what's called a postsecondary bridging experience. So we really rely and leverage their expertise with working with youth, organizing youth to travel. And they take northern distance...

Thank you, Madam Chair. And the Minister's absolutely correct. The Canadawide agreements that were negotiated by all 13 provinces and territories late in 2021 all focus on creating roughly equivalent a national early learning and child care system which is modeled off of the Quebec model. That system is generally focused on licensed facilities and, at least the initial focus of effort over the initial five years of that agreement, is to roll out that system. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Family day homes are treated in the regulations, Child Daycare Act standard regulations. So it's how they're licensed. They're licensed for three space types. They can have two infants, four spaces for preschools, and two for out of school spaces. So, really, there's a limit to the number of children that they can have in care. And that's really what differentiates them from a centrebased program which has another set of space and supervisory requirements. And, again, because the current Child Daycare Act is really focused on child safety, wellness within the context of...

Thank you Chair. With respect to this additional funding, one of the things that we determined was that we needed to support the various heritage centres to be able to plan to undertake any type of capital enhancements to their facilities. So in addition to the typical operational funding that we have been providing to them prior to receiving this additional funding, we've provided each of them with what we refer to as infrastructure planning funding.

So that's intended to support them, to help them come to us or to the federal government with a clear sense of what their needs are. So each of...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I think where the Minister was going was that because the department and education bodies, as well as the teachers association, as partners are all embarking on the curriculum renewal, that transition is, as you can imagine, very comprehensive and is taking everybody a great deal of effort. You know, things like training of staff, you know, changing systems, records management. It touches on every aspect of a system, including inclusive schooling. So, really, what we're trying to do is get that moved along to such a point that then once we're fully shifted toward...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So the small community employment item is a mandate item for this Assembly. So with that in mind, there is an interdepartmental working group that works to pull together information from each of the departments about what they have been doing, what they're doing now, as well as to look at what can be done better going forward. So part of that work is inventorying of programs. There's been the development of a new resource to provide to communities about the various opportunities that exist across government, as well as mapping to look at programs and how they can be...

Okay, I'm just looking through my notes if you have a second.

Thank you, Madam Chair. As of now, that change that data would be a little bit too new to be able to report. That change was only announced in January. But in terms of the current breakdown, there are 298 registered apprentices in the territory. Of these, 44 percent are Indigenous and 6 percent are women. So that 6 percent is what that change to the program is meant to address, to try to increase that percentage. Thank you, Madam Chair.