R.J. Simpson

Thank you. Currently, we do not, and I can't speak for ITI because ITI is also involved in the arts, but that is something that we are looking at with ITI in the development of the new arts strategy. That's something I've always been critical of myself. I appreciate art. I appreciate artists. If we're doing it as an investment in the economy, are we getting a good bang for our buck? We're doing that work to find out. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Our budget is going to continue to be our budget. Then there is this supplementary funding coming from the federal government. In the long term, like the previous Member stated, we do have to consider this. Is there a need for these 173 positions? If there is, why aren't they being funded from within the department? Why isn't that part of our funding formula? These are big conversations we have to have.

Some of the schools I have been to have an amazingly high amount of Jordan's Principle workers there, whether they are support assistants or teachers. You talk to the teachers in...

Yes, I do.

Thank you. Recently, we started working with the territorial support team, which is a group of professionals centred in Yellowknife. There are three positions right now, and they assist teachers in schools with instructions for children with higher needs. There is a speech pathologist, occupational therapist, and a mental health specialist, and they travel around the territory to the schools to do visits. They also offer remote support through telephone, email, et cetera, but that's what that increase is reflective of. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate what the Member is saying. It would be nice if we had the resources to send the team out to the regions on a regular basis, but the fact is, they just don't have the time. We don't have enough people. This is intended to augment what's already going on in the community, not to replace that. It's not the only service that these students would be getting. It's valuable. For the students who need it, it's very, very valuable for the students, the parents, and the teachers. I would love to do what the Member is asking and get them out into the different communities on a...

Thank you. There was no change in the budget. Just the actuals were low that year because it was undersubscribed. Thank you.

If you don't mind, I'd like to hand it over to Mr. MacDonald.

Thank you. Yes, we are meeting the goal we set out three years ago now. We will be expanding in the coming year to 20 communities. Thank you.

Thank you. To answer the Member for Kam Lake's question, there were 112 graduations at the college. There are also completions, which aren't graduations. I will get those numbers for the Member by tomorrow. Thank you.

The interpreters at the Legislative Assembly do an amazing job, and I'm sometimes in awe of all the languages that are spoken in this building. It is really like nowhere else. No other legislature around the world, I'm sure. To the Member's point, one of the additional actions that I discussed under the action plan is going to be updating the different terminologies. ECE is going to undertake that with Indigenous language experts and update the different terminologies for the legal terms, medical terms, et cetera, and are going to provide support to interpreters and arrange training...