Mahsi, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, certainly the early childhood has been brought up. We certainly will get into more detailed information at a later time, but certainly this is one of the areas where there are no impacts on the services on a moving-forward basis. There is sufficient flexibility within the existing budget to make plans in that respect. So that’s one of the areas that we have highlighted.

Of course, the $700,000 plus $500,000 for arts, that’s a worthwhile investment and we will continue to focus in that area.

The museum, the displays, whether it be the residential school era or the past histories, those are the areas that we will continue to monitor and work with and produce more funding if we need to in these areas. We’ve been told over and over in the communities that we need to tell our stories, our traditional stories, our elders’ stories. So we will continue to keep an eye out for that and then work with it.

Of course, the Literacy Strategy, there is literacy funding highlighted here to deal with the Literacy Strategy that I have announced in Inuvik. I think that’s an exciting part of the year, I guess, to start implementing that. As a department, we are looking forward to working with the communities, the regions, on making that a success.

Apprenticeships, of course, we are investing quite a bit in the apprenticeship area. Those are the areas that we needed to focus on as a Northwest Territories because, as you know, the Northwest Territories are lacking trades people. Not only that, but within Canada. So we’ve been told we need to produce more trades people in the North, so we will continue to work with that.

Immigration services, that has been brought to our attention. Finally it’s coming before us to deliver the program to meet the needs of the businesses in the Northwest Territories to have highly skilled people brought to the North. So the Immigration Program that we will be initiating will be part of the process. Not only that, but those services are also being provided by Aurora College. I am thinking long term in the immigration area, but Aurora College does deliver that through funding through the federal government. There is going to be another submission to the federal government for additional funding. The organization that you referred to, Aurora College is willing to work with the organization on having a storefront operation, per se. So we are in discussions in that respect.

Portable trades, Trades on Wheels in Inuvik, has been a success to date. Certainly one of the key focuses is to deliver those trades into most isolated communities. As the Member alluded to, we’ll be going to Tuk and different small communities. That certainly is in the works and we’re looking forward to having those three super-B mobile trade units into the communities, and we’ll certainly be producing more apprentices out of that.

I think we certainly are open to other interested training areas, such as heavy equipment, if it’s needed in the region. There are all kinds of activities happening down the road, so we need to prepare ourselves. We’ll certainly be open to discussing more ideas in that area. We need to take advantage of all training that’s required, the programs that we need to deliver.

Training component to capital expenditures, that is another area that we’ll certainly keep an eye out for other departments who are pursuing capital planning into the communities. Certainly there should be training attached to that because it does involve apprentices.

Women and aboriginals in trades. This was an area that we needed to tackle. The apprenticeship and trades in general perspective we are on focusing that area as well. But, more specifically, the women in trades and also the aboriginal people. That’s one of the next focuses that we are pursuing. Certainly they are areas we need to improve on.

Income support, making positive choices. I think this is the area that we have made several changes since its inception. Ready to Work Program, just having subsidies available to individuals that may find employment in the community but with a minimum wage that can’t get by. So we provide additional subsidy for them to get by, because that’s one of our goals. Our goal is if the individual is willing to work, we can assist them to enter the workforce. We do provide training as well, basic life skills training, to get them ready for the workforce. So we’ll continue to provide those key areas. Certainly we’re not in a position to penalize those individuals that are seeking out employment. We’re here to support them and will continue to do so.

The Seniors Support Program, yes, this is an area we talked about earlier; that seniors’ fuel subsidy. Maybe some seniors are being penalized because their kids are living with them. Household income. Those are the areas we talked about that we need to sit down and work out a solution of how we can get around the system. It’s across the board in the Northwest Territories, the 33 communities that we serve. We’ve heard over and over why some elders and some seniors are not qualifying, because of the regime that we have. So we clearly highlighted that and we need to work on resolving those issues.

Official languages, that’s an area that I’ve highlighted on numerous occasions that we need to do more in this area. The Member also talked about short-term and not knowing if there’s going to be long-term funding. That’s an area that we also need to highlight on a going-forward basis. The TLCs that we work with, the teaching and learning centres, teacher and language centres, and not only that but the 11 official languages, nine aboriginal official languages that we have in the Northwest Territories. So we’ll continue to make some improvement in those areas.

Skills Canada, the $80,000 that’s been talked about, the reinstatement of that. There’s been, I met with...My department has met with the Skills Canada group in 2007. I do believe that was the first time we met, in the fall time. That’s when we talked about the broader perspective of covering the whole Northwest Territories. They came back late 2008, I do believe, and they came back with a plan to offset that and cover the Northwest Territories on how they deliver services. So we will continue to work with them and there are some talks about the program that we’ve proposed in the women in trades area. Maybe it could fall under the Skills Canada area. But we need to discuss it further, on how we can integrate and how we can make it a successful program.

The Interpreter and Translator Program, there have been several modules delivered and, yes, it had very positive impact several years back when Aurora College was delivering it. We highlighted that and we need to relook at this area as well. Due to low enrolment, the program was dropped at that time, but we need to look at the overall program itself. How many interpreters, how many translators do we have in the system to date in the 33 communities? Is there a lot of interest? Those are areas we’ll continue to talk with the aboriginal language group and get direction from them to say this is what we should focus on. Those are just some of the key areas that Members have touched on.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The committee has already agreed that we’ve concluded general comments. Is committee agreed to move on to detail?

We’re going to defer page 10-7, which is the departmental summary. We’ll move along to 10-8, which is an information item, infrastructure investment summary. Any questions? Mr. Krutko.

In regard to the recovery from CMHC of the $13.3 million, I’d like to know exactly how that flows to the department. Does that come

through the Department of Finance or direction from CMHC?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Devitt.

Thank you, Mr. Devitt. Mr. Krutko, page 10-8.

I’m on page 10-9.

We didn’t finish with page 10-8. Committee, page 10-8, infrastructure investment summary, information item.

Page 10-9. Mr. Krutko.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In regard to the recovery from CMHC for the subsidy, what is the subsidy supposed to be used for?

Thank you, Mr. Krutko. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. That funding has been identified to cover or offset the overall public rental subsidy area.

In regard to the $13 million that we’re recovering from CMHC, where is the rest of the housing funds in the budget for the remaining $30-odd million?

This is revenue that’s coming from outside, but there is another $15 million that’s coming from within the GNWT itself.

If the Minister or his deputy could point out in the budget where the remaining $15 million is.

That information clearly highlights on page 10-27 the $33.967 million for public housing rental subsidies.

Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Mr. Bromley.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just a quick question on the early learning and child care. I see revenue of $265,000. I’m wondering what the source of that is. Who are we collecting those dollars from?

Thank you, Mr. Bromley. Mr. Lafferty.

Mahsi, Mr. Chairman. That $265,000 is from Human Resources and Social Development Canada funding to support early childhood and child care program.

Thanks to the Minister for that. I see in 2007-2008 we were at a million dollars. Is there a reason that has decreased? Is that coming back? Are we getting the other $800,000 or $750,000 somewhere else? I’m just wondering if there’s some potential that we’re not realizing there for more revenue.