Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yeah, I also agree with the Minister around this conversation as well. I think there's so many great opportunities there around that these roads, and I've often spoke about how we need to have roads in order to do anything in our territory and, really, it is a basic need that we are lacking.

This may be slightly not the Minister's area, but maybe the Minister could speak a bit about -- I've talked about linear infrastructure corridors in the past, and one of those would be the transmission line to Whati and whether or not there would be the opportunity to run that along the taser versus across sort of pristine or untouched land.

Can the Minister speak to whether her department or ITI is facilitating or leading discussion around this type of multi department approach?

The reason I ask is that, you know, if we were to run power along the taser and along the highway to get to the taser to begin with, this would allow us to start developing along the highway and along the taser as well as offshoot projects.

So could the Minister speak a little bit to where she sees that going and whether or not she's working with the Department of Infrastructure to facilitate those linear infrastructure corridors? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, yes, I'm happy to say that myself and Minister Archie, as the Minister responsible for Infrastructure and Northwest Territories Power Corporation, do meet regularly and are -- the teams of the departments do meet regularly.

It's not only with respect to the taser and Whati and a connection into Whati; this is something that we're looking at on a much larger scale as well with respect to the Taltson, for example, and ensuring that as the Taltson is moving forward that potential projects around the southern half of the -- of the Northwest Territories are connected, that they are connected in with what that project might look like, that they have MOUs signed and ready with NTPC, Northwest Territories Power Corporation, so that -- and, you know, to ensure that we're moving forward in a way that's going to provide the best possible business case to Taltson but also a good business case for those industries and for these projects. And so that definitely is a role that ITI plays as a pathfinder and that my colleague is playing as we're preparing work on the Taltson. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment on the rollout of our childcare subsidies.

My understanding is that in order for childcare providers to sign on to an agreement, they have to agree to a 2.3 percent cap on a fee increase.

Now, Mr. Speaker, I recognize that if the goal is to get to $10 day, $10 a day childcare, clearly, our agreements are going to have to put a cap on how much fees can be raised. But I think in a year with record inflation, starting our negotiations at 2.3 percent is putting some day homes in a very difficult position. And I don't know if we want to start year one of a multiyear roll out with such a hard bargaining position.

So my question for the Minister is would he consider increasing that cap to at least be allow -- more aligned with inflation? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We -- I've stated before that the increase that is laid out in the contribution agreement is 2.3 percent, and if there are legitimate reasons why a business or a childcare centre needs to increase that, we're happy to have those discussions.

I think that a lot of the concerns that we're hearing are increases of 20 or 30 percent from programs that are already at the top end of what is being charged for childcare. So we are accommodating, but we're not accommodating increases that essentially wipe out a reduction in parent fees. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I guess I'm looking for a bit more of a commitment on -- from the Minister and when he says they're happy to have that conversation. I know the 20, 30 percent number can be complicated. In some cases, it's day homes who haven't raised fees in years, and so they're well below their competitors. And in other cases, I'm hearing from, you know, daycares who recently decided to give their staff a living wage, something that we are hoping to roll out in the coming years with the pay grid, but now they're essentially -- they're taking the step themselves, and they're ahead, and they're concerned that the 2.3 percent is putting them in a position to either roll back the living wage or not sign on to the agreement.

So I guess I'm looking to the Minister for a commitment that exceptions will be made for cases where, you know, a day home hasn't raised fees in years or where, you know, someone has taken the step to already do what we want them do and provide their workers a living wage. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So I don't have much more to add than what I've just said in that we are going to sit down with providers who are saying that they need to increase their rates and have those discussions. So I guess if that's what commitment that the Member wants, but to say that I'm going to commit to doing these things that are very specific to each individual provider is just something I -- I can't make a commitment to something when I don't know what I'm committing to. But those conversations are happening, and we realize that we want everyone on board.

This is a major shift in how things are done. We are trying to roll this out. We're trying to get money in -- or into the pockets of parents, and it is a learning experience. And so based on the experiences we're having here, we realize that perhaps the plan we have going forward needs to be adjusted.

We have a table with the federal government where we can go back and we can say this has been our experience so far; perhaps we need to move some money around from different places to adjust for the realities that we're facing.

We also have money that we provide to childcare providers from the GNWT, and those programs are all up for -- they've been reviewed, and we're looking to change those so they work better as well.

So there's a lot of room to move, and we want to make sure that we get money in the pockets of parents and we don't negate those returns that they're supposed to see. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate that there is a lot of work to do, and the Minister seems more than willing to have conversations and, you know, find solutions to those exceptions.

I guess I'm hearing from multiple organizations they're getting some conflicting information; they're still not quite sure how much money they will actually get and how it relates to potential fee increases. Some were told on March 24th that if the fee increase happened before end of fiscal before April 1st, that then -- that it wouldn't -- they would not be denied and then later they were told no, no, that 2.3 percent increase still applies.

So I guess I'm looking for clarification from the Minister on is there some sort of deadline of when we're looking backwards at the fee increases and if the day homes or childcare providers are told that if they did it before April 1st, it wasn't going to affect the subsidy, can we honour that commitment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. There have been meetings with all the childcare providers, and they have opportunities to ask those questions. You know, these discussions that we're having are great opportunities for us to find out exactly what the issues are and zero in on those.

And so as, you know, the MLAs have brought additional questions and concerns to me, I bring those to the department, and, in turn, the department then brings -- finds ways to answer those for the programs.

So the best thing to do for a program is to sit down with their early childhood consultant and go over those numbers. And it's not a simple process to determine what, you know, they will be getting. So there is some work that needs to be done, and I know that everyone -- or people often want an answer right now, but there's a bit of work to happen, especially given the magnitude of this undertaking. But I encourage everyone to have those conversations with the early childhood consultants. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. Minister responsible for Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we have a service desk already. It is not specific to Ukraine, but it can handle the calls and the requests for information. So anyone who wants to contact them by email can contact [email protected] or by phone at 1-855-440-5450. Thank you.

Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, given the success of the Atlantic, Yukon, and Manitoba pilot programs, is the Minister willing to work with the federal government to establish an NWT pilot program for immigration that allows for labour market assessment exemptions? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And those conversations have begun. I will say that -- that the pandemic has done a couple things. It has really shifted the focus from immigration because no one was coming in for a couple years. So there was very limited thought about travel. But it also highlighted the labour shortages that we have here in the territory. And I think it's actually refocused us now on the need to improve our immigration services and increase the number of people settling in the territory, bringing their services here.

And so we are looking at making some changes. The program that the Member is referencing is -- it was years in the making. It is a substantial amount of effort and time to create such a program. And I would love to say, yeah, we're going to do that, but it's going to take years of work with the federal government to do something like that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that things take time, but I think we also have the benefit of the fact that we're not trying to reinvent the wheel, that the Yukon really has already established a program that works well in the North and that it is something that the NWT could potentially take and change to suit the needs of the Northwest Territories and what Northerners here in the NWT want to see. So I hope that the government will continue taking the steps to move that forward.

Mr. Speaker, my next question is given the vital role of -- that immigration has played in economic recovery of other jurisdictions, will the Minister establish an immigration advisory council co-chaired by the Minister himself so that the GNWT can work both with local businesses and those with lived experience in immigration to help improve our immigration processes and also supports for people going through that process so that we can proactively work to increase our population size? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And just to be clear about my previous answer, the federal government will make it take years for us to get the program that the Member's talking about. They have processes in place that they take immigration very seriously, and they have a very robust process that does take time. So even to -- we can't just transplant a program from the Yukon. There is a lot involved.

In terms of an immigration advisory council, we're not looking to establish something like that at this time; however, I understand what the Member is getting at. And right now, ECE and ITI are going out and proactively reaching out to -- to businesses and people who are familiar with the Nominee program to find out what we can do to improve the program.

So some of that work is beginning, and we'll see what comes of that. Perhaps there is some sort of a formalized body down the road that can then help us focus our efforts, but that's not what -- something we're looking to establish right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary, Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I hope that the work being done with engagement on the Nominee program will one day lead to just a really long series of yeses for me for the Minister in this House.

My last question actually relates to an answer that was given by the Minister of Health and Social Services earlier today about trying to work with people coming from the -- for example, the Ukraine in order to access additional health care workers. And similar to that, other jurisdictions have set up MOUs. And a great example is Manitoba has set up an MOU with the Philippines in regards to internationally educated nurses and facilitating that process.

And so I'm wondering if there is an intent with ECE working in conjunction with potentially Health and Social Services to set up MOUs with different countries in order for us to increase our health care workers here in the territory. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We're not looking to do something like that right now; however, I will say that I have been involved in meetings with all of the ministers of education from across Canada, and we talk about these exact type of things. So I definitely see the value in it.

And I think that as a government, we have to choose what our focuses are, and we can't do everything. We don't invest as much money in immigration as places like the Yukon do. I'm not sure what their budget is, but I know that it is more, and they have more employers, and they can put more emphasis on this.

And so in the coming years, we're going to have to decide is our labour shortage worthy of having investments in areas like immigration, and if so, then we can perhaps make the program a bit more robust and do a bit more of these initiatives that the Member is speaking of. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Inuvik Twin Lakes.

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Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I guess just further to my series of questions, I know that -- that we're -- you know, potentially the GNWT is not currently looking into different ways to access immigration, and I understand that there are a lot of different pulls within the government. But one of the things that is very clear is that increasing our population size is the biggest way to increase our revenue source here in the territory. It's -- it's one of the easiest ways to increase our revenue source.

And so having people working at increasing our -- our population size off the side of our -- of their desk maybe is not the most effective way to go about it. And so further to looking at the Nominee program through community engagement, what other ways is the GNWT working at not just immigration but population growth here in the territory?

And I guess my question maybe -- I don't know if -- direct that at ECE or the Premier. But I think that this is a very important topic and one that requires a little bit more conversation. Thank you.