Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier I spoke about the Small Community Employment Fund. My questions are for the Minister of ECE. Mr. Speaker, while the program's budget has been increased, it sounds like we are spending money on developing a strategy on how to spend the money. Mr. Speaker, my first question to the Minister is: what specific portion of the program's new budget will be used to develop and implement the small community employment strategy? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The department is planning to develop a small community employment strategy in 2017. As the Member noted, and as we have heard questions in the House, there have been concerns about how we roll out the program. It is a significant increase from the $1.25 million that we had in the two line items. Moving forward, obviously we are going to have to get feedback from small communities, work with the small communities to see what the challenges are, what barriers are in place, and how we can roll out some of this funding, as well as working with the committee to get their input and feedback. We heard a lot of that over the last couple of weeks.
As you know, of that, $1.2 million that we currently had in the budget was never fully utilized, so we have to do a better job of letting community organizations, Aboriginal groups, employers out there in industry know that we want to use this program. We want our small communities to benefit from that. That is going to be all in the works with that strategy and how that fund is rolled out. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
My second question for the Minister is: what is the department's timeline for developing and implementing this strategy in order for it to be effective in 2017-18?
We have already started beginning that work on that Small Community Employment Program. We have started a review of the guidelines itself. We want to have a goal, moving forward, of ensuring that the program is accessible, flexible, and is best positioned to support businesses and residents who live in small communities. We are hoping that funding will start flowing once this budget is passed, April 1, 2017. We do expect to have a strategy hopefully by the fall of 2017.
I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, as I have said, the new fiscal year is rapidly approaching. What specific actions will the department take under this program to ensure it is well promoted, fully subscribed, and creating jobs for our small communities for the duration of 2017-18?
Thank you, Mr. Chair -- Mr. Speaker. I am sorry. It was a long day yesterday in Committee of the Whole. We have already begun looking at and reviewing our guidelines. We are working with the departments on how community projects in other departments are implementing, how we can support that and also have some job creation moving forward. We are trying to find ways we can promote the program to our small communities, our Aboriginal government, industry, as well as our employers.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nunakput.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the response. Mr. Speaker, my final question for the Minister is: will this money be eligible to assist in specific projects related to each of the small communities across the NWT where it may involve more than one or two GNWT departments? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, as I mentioned, we are going to be working with the departments to identify community projects and initiatives as well as working with our Aboriginal governments, municipal governments, organizations in the small communities that might look at developing small project, so we can put this money to use, so we can get our residents the skills that they need to enter the workforce, the labour market, and help develop the skills and the training they need so that they can seek work throughout the Northwest Territories.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Mackenzie Delta.
