Shauna Morgan

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the topic of out of territory hospitals and physician services, does the Minister have any sense of how this number has been changing over time? Is this typical that for a number of years now, you know, just over $6 million we've needed to spend this much extra in out of territory physician services and hospital services, or, yeah, is there any trend or pattern that we can see? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, I mean, one particular concern that I've heard related to the way we budget for agency nurses is -- I think people on the front lines have a sense that there are strong attempts to limit the budget -- the regular budget for the NTHSSA so there's resistance to, for example, you know, adequate levels of staffing or putting new staffing positions in place because that would increase the budget that, you know, we're trying to keep under control and yet by not recognizing what is needed to keep the system sustainable, those costs are actually inevitable and they keep...

Thank you. Does the Minister know, does this reflect a sudden spike in, for example, children being apprehended or taken into care or something different that has happened, or these are just sort of run-of-the-mill incremental sort of forced growth costs? And if she is not aware, I can follow up later with the health and social services Minister. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to table the Dechinta Return on Investment Report prepared by the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you for that answer. So in my discussions with the NWT Literacy Council, I understand that there's huge demand for those family literacy programs and they could definitely be much expanded to meet that demand. So, in this era of fiscal sustainability, has the department examined not only the costs, you know, in grant and contribution funding but also the short and long-term benefits that could come from an even more concerted focus on family literacy programs? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Okay. Can the Minister confirm what will be the next steps in terms of her interaction with Aurora College to help sort out what parts of this adult education space Aurora College still wants to continue filling? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And the Minister preemptively answered my next question which is whether it's a competitive process when we decide to lease general purpose office space, but. So it is publicly tendered.

So my final question, then, is does the Minister know if we are currently paying rent in any buildings that are currently empty? So perhaps we've moved office space somewhere else, but are there cases where we move to a different office space and continue to pay rent in the previous space which sits empty? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for confirming that, in fact, the actions taken by the college went against what communities had been saying in the consultations about the CLCs.

What has the Minister heard from organizations other than Aurora College, such as Indigenous governments or development corporations, the literacy council or Dechinta, regarding their interest in offering the kind of adult education to fill the gap being left by Aurora College? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you for that. But has there been analysis done specifically to what extent the value of the leases are concentrated with one single company; has that analysis been done? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Speaker, I want to join some of my colleagues today in highlighting the importance of adult education opportunities in NWT communities. What makes adult education different from early childhood education is that it needs to be more immediately practical and useful to folks to tie into an individual's life goals. We need to stop treating adult education as remedial, something people feel obliged to do because of a lack of failure, as if it's a punishment for somehow not passing school classes in the first place. Instead of being remedial, it should be something that's useful and even...