Mahsi. MLA O'Reilly.

Yeah, thanks, and I agree with that assessment. I'm just a little bit concerned that we haven't found a way to extend that benefit, in particular to our students that are born here and largely educated here. And I would suggest that the department make another run at that and try to do that because I think -- yeah, I think that's the right thing to do. We want to encourage all the students that go to schools here to go off and get as much education as they can and come back and stay here. And I think we want to try to eliminate barriers. So I'll just leave it at that, Mr. Chair. Thanks.

Mahsi. No further questions? Yes, go ahead, Minister.

Thank you. And so there used to be a limit on the number of semesters that, as the Member said, P2s could access remissible loans. We have -- or we are proposing to remove that as well. We've tied the amount of those remissible loans again to the Canada market basket measure. We've increased them again. We are proposing to remove income testing for spouses and not tying them to the years of schooling in the NWT. Thank you.

Colleagues, we'll take a short break. Mahsi.

---SHORT RECESS.

I call Committee of the Whole back to order. Member for Nunakput.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I get started, I'd like to welcome in the House today Shannon Steen, daughter of former Member Vince Steen and former Minister, and back in the day my uncle. He's my uncle also, Uncle Vince Steen. Did an awesome job representing the people in Nunakput and he's passed on now. But Shannon's down here visiting me. So I'm really honoured to have her in the House. And hi, Shannon.

Then I have Ms. Mavis Adjun. I grew up with her back home in Tuk and she lives in Kugluktuk. She's Shannon's auntie. Her husband, former fiddler extraordinaire Colin Adjun, and played a lot of music all of the country and awesome fiddler. And she has a son that -- Gustin now that took over his dad, and he's travelling around doing a lot of good things for the people in the communities that he goes to play. And so I'd really to like to welcome her in the House too.

I got nine minutes and 11 seconds, Madam Chair.

Of ECE on income support, income security. Okay. Welcome, and go ahead, Mr. Jacobson.

Thank you, Madam Chair. No, Madam Chair. I just want to really congratulate the Minister and staff in regards to the increases that we're giving to the income support across the territory. That was in my Member's statement today so it's really good news to see. And I just want to keep -- like, if we just keep working together to try to do betterment for the people that, you know, are less fortunate, that don't have jobs and just keep working and plugging away for them, and let them know that we're working for them on their behalf, and I'm working with the Minister that really wanted to do good for that. So I'm really thankful for that, Minister Simpson. And for that, I have nothing else to say, Madam Chair. Thank you.

Thank you, Member for Nunakput. And thank you for the comments. We'll move on to Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I don't have much question too for the Minister. I mean, other than that -- actually, it's actually great working with the Minister and your office and your staff as well. The only one that keeps coming up is that -- is the fuel subsidy in my riding. And I went through your policies really quick. I understand the zones and one, two, and three, and the levels, etcetera. The only thing that sometimes I get calls on is that sometimes the subsidy doesn't go far enough in terms of going over the amount or whatever it may be coming towards the end of the year. So I'm assuming case-by-case basis -- I'm assuming that your department probably will work with individuals and that kind of thing just to get through the year? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So if someone -- a senior needs assistance with their seniors home heating and they run out of their seniors home heating subsidy, they can always apply for income assistance and there's the chance that they're -- they could be topped off. I've seen that a number of times. As an MLA, I've had a number of constituents who they used all of their senior home heating subsidy and income assistance was able to provide them support. I've had -- as Minister, I've seen that come across my desk from every region in the territory and for the most part, they're always provided with support. We don't want anyone's home to freeze up. That being said, not everyone is going to be eligible for all the programs but we -- between income assistance and the seniors home heating subsidy, we do manage to support many, many seniors. Thank you.

Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh.

Madam Chair, anyway thank you for your response Mr. Minister. I was going to also just say that I put out an invitation a few weeks ago in the House here, tabled it, and I just want to know if maybe you want to make a time I'd like to see if you could come along in maybe May or April, May sometime into our -- my riding just to meet with the chief and council and the Metis council just to meet and greet and maybe listen. And so I just want to put that out there. Mahsi.

Minister of ECE.

Thank you. I know that -- I think I'm travelling every week after session for maybe a couple months. But if we're talking -- if the Member's talking about Fort Resolution, that's an easy day trip for me from Hay River when I'm in town so I'm happy to find the time to do that. Or if the Member's talking about other areas, then we'll work that into our schedule as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh, did you have any further questions?

I have one more question. And thank you for that. And I really appreciate that. And my last question would be is that I know coming in here a year in my term already and I'm trying to throw some luggage on the train, and I mentioned this to the Premier the train left the station back in 2019 and -- but anyway, it's something that -- when I go to the community of Dettah, one of my home communities, they always talk about a new school. And I was apprentice back in 1981. We were still doing the maintenance on that building. So I'm just wondering maybe it's something that we could probably get a chance to also meet with local DEA even and when we meet with the chief and council, this issue's going to come up. So anyways, I just want to put that out there. And I don't have any other questions on the budget. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. And I think that's probably the next section but I'm very well aware of that issue. I've spoken with the DEA chair about that. It's been raised by the leadership as well with me. So we'll continue those conversations, and we are going through the capital needs assessment process where all of the DEAs provide their requests for capital and then they make their way through the process. So we are working on that. But I'm happy to have further conversations. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. And then I would like to say the same thing too. Congratulations, you guys did a good job, especially with the student finance assistance program, lifting the cap for the Indigenous students, because that's good. That's going to help a lot of our students in the small communities because usually the first year that they leave, you know, after graduating high school, they spend their first or second year upgrading and that's not -- it's a concern for a lot of parents. I'm not discrediting the teachers or anything because we have a lot of good teachers. We have a lot of good Indigenous teachers as well. They're doing good. And the only thing that's lacking, the reason why they're going through all this or going to upgrade, is because you know that -- I've said it many times too that we need a lot of programs and services. We need more resources to help so that -- so we can improve our education system.

So I think that's where -- and, like, even with the speech and language pathologists, and we need that. And then even for multigrades or for, you know, elementary, even some junior high, there are -- you know, like, it's a multigrades, you know, like, where -- one teacher's for two or three class -- or grades, you know. So that's a disadvantage, especially in the small communities. So this really helps, this lifting the cap for the Indigenous students compared if our students were living in the larger centre, you know, where the education system is good, you know, like in Yellowknife, Hay River, Fort Smith, Inuvik or, you know, larger regional centre where they have more resources.

And we don't hear much of those young people going into upgrading program unless it's an Indigenous student, you know, because of the residential school, there's a lot -- still a lot of them are still affected by the trauma. You know, they're still affected by what happened in the residential school. So that has an impact on them, you know. So we cannot dismiss that. So I am very grateful and thankful that you guys did that because a lot of students were asking about that, you know, because some students they use up their student finance assistance program by taking two or three, four access program, you know, at one time, so. And by the time it came for their career choice, they have no more money or not enough money to carry on to finish their studies so that's good, you know. Like, I'm -- I'm happy about that, which I was against that cap too myself because it's not helping our young people, our students coming from the small communities. So I'm sure a lot of parents will probably be happy, especially in the small communities. So I just want to say thank you for that. I'm happy with that.

But on the other hand, I just wanted to ask can we get a -- is there a data available about how many of these students, especially from the outlying communities, from the regions, are accessing student finance assistance program?

Minister of ECE.