Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week the honourable Member for Deh Cho asked the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment a series of questions about the Small Community Employment Support Program. I would like to follow up with some questions here today. Mr. Speaker, last session, the Minister said the department was reaching out to various organizations and business communities to see how the Small Community Employment Support Program could be improved. During the budget session, I made the recommendation that we use the new influx of money to do that as job creation because most of the communities I represent cannot afford the percentage points that they need to access the program. Can the Minister please tell us when the survey and study was completed and if the report has been done on the findings? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Masi. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As I mentioned last week, the new influx of dollars into the Small Community Employment Support Program came into effect April 1st. We are about six months into this fiscal year, and we are still looking at how we can support our communities, support our partners so that we can utilize this program. I think it is a little too early on in this fiscal year to have any of that information, but I will make sure that our departments continue to work with our partners, our communities, to make sure that these dollars are being utilized to their full capacity.
I thank the Minister for his answer. I will take his word that there is no report there, then. However, during the exchange with the Minister and the honourable Member for Deh Cho, we heard that previous funding which was allocated for small communities was not fully utilized. We made a significant increase, influx, of money to the program so that we could create employment and small programs. During the exchange, we heard the department is looking at communities such as Behchoko, Hay River, Inuvik, Fort Simpson, Fort Smith, and Norman Wells to be allocated to apply for these funds. Can the Minister advise how these communities became "small communities?"
As a government, we have a responsibility to ensure that all residents, all communities, in the Northwest Territories have an opportunity to access our programs, our services. Because of population sizes, we should not be discriminating or leaving people out. That program, back in the previous years, was not fully utilized. It was about $1.24 million. We are trying to find ways, innovative and unique ways, to ensure that our communities, our partners in our smallest communities, have that opportunity to have job creation. However, as the government, I do not think that any community, regardless of size, should not be looked at as an opportunity to create jobs in their community. That is one of our mandates, is to create employment throughout the Northwest Territories.
I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my next question to the Minister is: are we going to allow Yellowknife to apply for small community employment funds?
When the new dollars came out, we made some changes within the program, itself, so that we can help all communities. As Members know, the economy has taken a downturn. In some of our regional centres, we have fewer jobs, fewer opportunities, and we want to help every community to be able to create some kind of economy, as well as create jobs in some of these communities. That is our goal. That is our focus. We are going to continue to do that.
Masi. Oral questions. Member for Nahendeh.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the Minister for that answer. I guess my next question is: are we going to change this program, instead of calling it Small Community Employment Support Program, to "job creation" or "job support program for the Northwest Territories?" Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
We are going to continue to stay focused on the Small Community Employment Support Program. As you know, this money came at the last budget. We are going to focus on making sure that those dollars get spent. We are going to take a review after this year on how the funding was allocated and spent this year and whether or not we fully utilized that budget, and we will make some recommendations in the next fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
