Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during a time of fiscal restraint it's easy to few arts as an extra, a nice to have when times are good but a budget line that should be cut when we're tightening our belts. Mr. Speaker, I think it's time we stopped viewing arts as simply a budget line. It doesn't need to be something that's separate from our real priorities, like education, economy, health care, housing. It can be a way of doing things and a way of approaching problems with more creativity, more humanity, more connection.

Art is more than something that professionals do on stage when they...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so were these reductions done in consultation with education authorities or based on recommendations from those education authorities or I understand some of these are with you know, solely within ECE, but there may be impacts on education authorities and the work that they do. So can the Minister speak to any consultation that was done there or recommendations from the authorities?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to clarify, so my comment on the issue of whether retirements would impact programs, that was just sort of globally in general whenever we talk about retirements and vacancies.

Anyway, so is the Minister suggesting that enrolment has gone down by 25 percent from last year to this year? I mean, and it's also significantly lower than the previous year. Is that what we're talking about that student enrolment has gone down 25 percent in the past year?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. That at least helps clarify the situation a bit more in terms of starting to lay out a path in concrete terms of, you know, what's needed and how might we get there. I think it's probably more than just adding $7 million into this budget and saying, go, create all the spaces. There's some different steps required here that we need to order properly. But I am encouraged that we're at least talking numbers to be able to fill this gap and see a path forward. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just wanted to get clarification. So you're talking about a need of $3.5 million for wages and $3.5 million for compensation benefits. Are we talking about topups for existing staff, or that money would be needed to hire new staff? Can you just explain what we're how you reached that number and yeah, thank you.

That's fine, thank you very much. We will be following up online, thank you.

MR. SPEAKER:

Oral questions. Member from Yellowknife Centre.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So the hesitation to make the same changes for all recipients, who are not seniors or those with disabilities, is that because of a concern that it wouldn't be in the best interests of the clients, that people would take advantage of the system, or that the system would lose too much money in that you'd have people sort of going through the cracks or going over the space of the year and making more money than they're supposed to and the system wouldn't be able to claw that back as it is now? So I guess the question is, is the aim to really hold on to that ability to...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Clause 14 of Bill 2 requires the RCMP to prepare an annual report to be provided to the Minister of Justice on the total number of emergency demands, a description of the types of records specified, and any other prescribed information. In public meetings, there were questions about where unsolved cold and historical statistics on missing persons cases in the NWT are to be recorded and published, and whether and where that information is currently located or published. Participants requested that the year and reason for why people are missing in the NWT also be published...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to be clear that this motion deletes just over $200,000, so it will not allow more on the ground people in communities, in schools, language, educators. This motion just deletes money from the budget, and even though the Member's vision might be to add in programs and services, this motion cannot and does not accomplish that. So I just want us to all be clear that that's what we're talking about here.

I do think there's a place for us working with the department in terms of their business plans and the way they do things to try to encourage more on the ground...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Overall, I definitely appreciate that the department seems to have gone through with a fine tooth comb looking for reductions and efficiencies to be found, and some of them seem to make sense. But what I am struggling to see is a clear vision for what we are trying to achieve besides saving money and being more efficient. And the message that comes out to me is that we're committing to do more with less. You know, we're shaving off here and there, we're making do, we're doing more with less, which could be possible, but my main concern is that we actually know what we're...