Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I should have mentioned that with that small community funding, employment funding, there were 670 jobs in 2018-2019 that were directly funded. 750 the next year. And then of course 2020, we saw a decline to 430. But it is obviously producing jobs.

So what this strategy is about, a lot of it is about ensuring that we have the right information so we can provide the right training. So in the next two years, we're going to continue to support communities to develop their labor market plans. Often there's a community that wants to do something or there's a project that comes up and they don't have the workforce to take advantage of those jobs, so by creating these plans and looking forward, we can have training in place so when a job project comes up there are local people trained for that.

There was a review of the Small Community Employment Support program a couple years ago and there are a number of changes that came out of that. So how we make the decisions about where funding goes, that was moved to a regional level.

There are additional labor market information -- there's a labor market communication strategy to increase the awareness of the different programs in communities, so that's going to be rolling out. Because often -- I know personally, I look at what's happening in government in the territorial government and the federal government, and it's really hard to wrap your head around all the different programs and where to find them and what they do. And so we're making that information more accessible.

We're also introducing multi-year funding agreements. So right now, the funding rolls out year to year, and it's hard to create an economy with year to year funding so we're introducing multi-year funding, establishing formal regional labor market training partnerships so not just at a local community level but in a region we will know better what information, or what labor market needs are and then we can combine forces and ensure that the appropriate training is in place.

So that's a bit of what's happening. And I also want to take a moment, because these are questions I was hoping to answer yesterday. And so I had a lot of time to think about it so I want to say some other things.

This strategy, it has a few pillars but really when we talk about creating employment in small communities, it goes beyond the strategy. It is something I think about when I'm making decisions, any decision. The Ministers of Infrastructure and Housing who really play a role in that as well, we also have discussions about how we can increase employment in small communities. The Premier talked about working together as departments and it takes work to do that. You have to make a point to get out of your silo and go have those conversations, and we make sure that we do that. And so it's always on our mind. It's more than just what's in this strategy here.

In the coming years, we are going to be increasing employment in small communities as we roll out, as we move towards universal child care. We have been focusing our efforts on increasing infrastructure for child care in small communities because they don't have that infrastructure, and with that infrastructure comes more jobs.

We're expanding the Aurora College community learning centres so that there is going to be access in every community. So every individual in the territory will be able to get a foot in the door and get the type of training they need.

We heard yesterday a statement about the procurement review. There's a clear recognition that we need to keep more money in the territory and keep money in small communities.

And I'll say as well, Mr. Speaker, if you look at what happened the last couple years, we've kept a lot of money in the territory. And in my community, you can't find anyone to work. In the outlying communities people are coming to get jobs because we're keeping jobs in the community. And so those are some of the things that the Member can expect. Thank you.