Thank you, Madam Chair. Is any of this communicated to the schools? Because, you know, we are talking about trades, I guess to say specifically, just to give an option to people instead of going post-secondary route? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. With the current education advisers that are quite recent positions at ECE, they have been communicating this type of information with schools. We have some people on that team that have trades experience, and they've really been champions of this.

We now have I believe nine positions, and the majority have been moved out into the regions. Their work has been hindered by COVID and the inability to really, you know, meet face-to-face with a lot of students. But there is definitely a push to get exactly this type of information and trades-related information out to students so that as they are planning out their careers, starting with their school career, they have some guidance and some direction and they know how to get where they want to go. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm pleased to see that, you know, that this is expanded to third and fourth years and also to women in trades. I think, you know, it's so important with the amount of work and the houses that we need in the territories and other things as well. So, you know, what I'm hoping is that, you know, if this -- this line item, if it's fully subscribed now and, you know, I'd look to -- like, I'd like to see us throw more money at it at some point and really push it because it's meaningful to people in the Northwest Territories.

The next point here is I just want to go to the workforce development agreement, and I just ask the Minister maybe give me an idea of what that really is and, you know, it's grants so, you know, subscription to it, you know, how many businesses or individuals or whatever were looking at it? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a large list of recipients here. So perhaps for a more comprehensible breakdown, I'll ask Mr. Saturnino to speak to it.

Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Line item literacy funding, one thing I, you know, that I noticed, you know, being in business is that you do get a number of people that, you know, that can't read or write that well. And one thing we tried to do was, you know, to provide them with a few hours a day or a week to, you know, and pay them for that, to -- and to take some courses or have somebody tutor them. And there's always a cost associated with that. Is that something the department provides funding for above the wage and occupation subsidies? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. That may be something that the workforce development agreement could help out with but I'm really not sure so I'll ask Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald.

Thank you. Member for Hay River South.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just one quick question, and it is I'd like to know I guess what the uptake is in the communities outside Yellowknife in like the trades and occupation wage subsidies and workforce development versus I guess in Yellowknife? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. There's a pretty good uptake across the territory. I'm not sure if there's a regional breakdown that departmental officials might have. I'll send it to Mr. MacDonald. Thank you.

Thank you. Deputy minister MacDonald.

Just provide that to us in writing, that's fine. Okay, thank you. Labour development and advanced education, Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just have a couple of questions for the Minister. One of them is about financial assistance to medical students.

Is there any financial assistance to medical students after four years? You know, because I had a constituent from Fort Smith who is going to be a surgeon, and she had a lot of problems in the last couple years getting financial assistance for graduating -- I mean, she's going to graduate but she had to get loans. And I just want to make sure that is there any program for our own students of Indigenous descent that decide to go to medical school and to advance to that level and this person is going to be trying to -- or will try to get a job at Stanton. That's her ideal situation. And so I'm just wondering, do you have -- they had those programs years ago because we used to hear about it but we don't hear much about that anymore so I'm just wondering, Madam Chair, if the Minister could answer that. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.