R.J. Simpson

Thank you. And, you know, with recent events in the world's biggest natural gas producer, perhaps there will be an increase in oil and gas activity in the territory. If that's the case, then we'll have to see what the operating budget would need to be under those circumstances. But the OROGO is funded from the general coffers of the GNWT so it goes into the general coffers of the GNWT. Thank you.

Thank you. So I'm not aware of any plans to increase it at this point. But it is a very I think it's a successful program. I like programs like this where they're communitydriven and, you know, local communities or businesses have an idea on how to employ people and we give them money and they employ people, and that money flows directly into their pockets. Thank you.

Thank you. And just to correct the record, I never said integrated services cannot be put into communities outside of Yellowknife. I said integrated services can be put into communities outside of Yellowknife, and that's exactly what we're working on.

The integrated case management program is a Yellowknifebased program designed for Yellowknife. And the idea of case management is you have a clientele or an integrated service delivery is you have a clientele, and you cater to them what are their needs? And so I can't put a program to cater to the needs of the people in Yellowknife into Hay...

Thank you. The RCMP's collective agreement is not reflected in this budget. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. Yes, as we look at SFA and, you know, how we want to improve the program, we can look at things like that. You know, there's always considerations. You know, we have to follow the rules in other legislation and there's other financialrelated legislation that might be requiring us to do certain things but, you know, with the review, I want to ensure that we are developing a program that is responsive to the needs and the circumstances of all residents. And if those residents are in small communities and they have different circumstances that require perhaps some a different way...

Thank you. I will say that these numbers here don't actually reflect the actual numbers of people employed. These numbers reflect the positions that are funded by ECE. But that being said, we can fund a school board for a number of positions and they can do whatever they want with that money. Generally, they if we fund them for a principal position, they have a principal. But there is a lot of flexibility.

I can get that information in terms of the number of northern or at least Indigenous teachers for the Member. We did provide that to the House not long ago in the form of a written question...

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I have very little to do with OROGO as it is a regulator and it is parked in Justice. So what happened was this division or this activity, and as it is in the main estimates, what was continuously lapsing, money each year, around $600,000. So the department contracted somebody to or a company to have a look at the operations and work with OROGO and make a determination about how much they would actually need to operate, understanding that OROGO was relatively new and it was provided with the budget before it had done anything. And so it was someone's best guess at...

Thank you. So as for the $20,000 difference, I will pass it over. But we do fund Skills Canada $70,000 in here as well as another, I think $85,000 to labour market agreement. And, yes, I agree. I remember when they used to go to the regional centres and have their competitions outside of Yellowknife. I think it was great. So I'd like to work with them to make that happen again to you know, to get more kids, students interested in the trades. But on some more of the detail, I can ask Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.

That's the dream, that we find ways of delivering services in Yellowknife and in outside of Yellowknife in a way that is meeting people's needs. This program, ICM, is meeting the needs of a small group of people in Yellowknife, and it's very tailored to their needs in this community. We need an approach that's going to work everywhere. You know, these oneoff programs are great but they don't you know, ICM is not going to transform how we deliver services. ISD is going to deliver transform how we deliver services. And so that's the work that we have to do. Thank you.

Thank you. And this did used to be with Minister of ITI in the previous Assembly, and it came to Justice so that the Minister would have no skin in the game essentially.

But I have started the conversation with my Cabinet colleagues about, you know, these arm's length regulators and how we structure them and what departments they sit in because it is rather ad hoc, so. Maybe somewhere down the line, we can figure this out and have a unified approach. Thank you.