Thank you, Minister. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you, Mr. Saturnino. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I am just looking at the line item for the Small Community Employment Support. To me, this seems like a great area where we could be advancing our mandate to increase employment in small communities. I do notice that we spent more in 2019-2020 than predicted, but we've gone back down. I'm just curious to know if there's a push to increase funding to this fund or to this contribution as well as some of the others similar to it to get more money into the small communities for employment there. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you. I agree this is a great program. It gives money directly to communities, and they employ people, and they get work done in the community. It is straightforward, and it is getting money into people's pockets and getting them experience. The increase in 2019-2020 is due to a supplementary estimate. I think it came through a supplementary estimate that I think was the result of a deal between Regular Members and Cabinet in the last Assembly. We have gone back to the base funding for this program. Going forward, I am always looking at programs like this to see if there are opportunities through different avenues to increase them, but there is nothing on the books right now. The plan is to maintain the status quo for this year. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Great Slave.

Back to the workforce development agreement my colleague was raising, the numbers are sort of a little bit over around, I know the department said it's a federal program. I am just curious to know if the fluctuation is just due to uptake on the program or whether or not there were other situations that occurred that caused such a low number, just generally a bad COVID year. I am not sure, so maybe some clarification. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

I will ask Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes. Thank you for that. I completely missed the line item in the grants. It's been a long day, so I appreciate that being pointed out. Just one quick comment: I always want to get a plug in for Skills Canada. They are not getting any increased funding. I do think it's a great program where we could be looking to keep some of our youth busier as they are not able to maybe do other things, like some of their sports travel, et cetera. I am just going to always put the plug in to increase their funding. Then I think that is it for me. I am good. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Members, just to remind you, this goes right to page 63, so it has a lot of information. It's not just the first little two or three pages. Member for Nunakput.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just in regard to the small community employment support, I am wondering: the trailers that we have sitting in Inuvik outside Aurora College, what is happening with those trailers, and why are they parked in Inuvik when they could be used in the communities? Are they looking towards that, or do we have to apply to get them into the communities, per community? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. If the Member is speaking about the mobile trades units, they have not been utilized this past year because the Chief Public Health Officer has limited in-person instruction for adult education. That has really limited our ability to use those, so they have not been active. In 2019 was the last time that they were used, and they were scheduled to be used in 2020. The pandemic happened, so they have not been. However, we are anxious to get back to using those and delivering programs and utilizing them more, as well, because it looks like they run maybe one or two programs a year, and I am sure we can do more. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No. Just in regard to that, is there a list? Who do you talk to in regard to getting those mobile trade units into the communities, for instance Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok, or to get them out for woodworking programs and that? People are in their bubble anyway in regard to social bubble because you cannot get in there, only fly. Everybody is watched when you do land, and they stay away from those outsiders, so to say. That being said, we need that access to the communities for trades, especially woodworking stuff. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Yes. I am sure that the Member can call the college, or whoever wants to use them could reach out to the regional Aurora College representatives. There is a plan to get them out, and I can provide the committee with information about what programs have been run out of those and what are the plans for the future because I know that we are chomping at the bit to get them out there. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions? Member for Frame Lake.

Thanks, Madam Chair. Yes. In the last Assembly, the Minister and I, we were on the same side of the House, and we did fight for an increase to the small community employment fund. Part of the problem that we had identified at that time was that the funds could not really be used for job creation. They were only sort of a subsidy to small communities to try to subsidize. There had to be somebody matching the funds. Can I hear from the Minister whether that has actually transitioned to more of a job-creation program and whether there has been any evaluation done of the effectiveness of it? Thanks.