Yes, I do. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I am here to present the Department of Education, Culture and Employment's main estimates for the fiscal year 2023-2024. Overall, the department's estimates propose an increase of approximately $24 million or 6.7 percent over the Main Estimates 2022-2023. These estimates support the mandate objectives while continuing to meet the GNWT's fiscal objectives to prioritize responsible and strategic spending.
Highlights of these proposed estimates include $16.9 million to support new initiatives. The amount is comprised of:
- $10.326 million in additional federal contribution related to the Canada-NWT Canada-wide Agreement on Early Learning and Child Care;
- $5.149 million in additional funding for improvements and changes to the Income Assistance Program; and,
- $1.458 million for further investments aimed at enhancements and changes to the Student Financial Assistance Program.
The proposed estimates also reflect a total increase of $5.197 million for other adjustments, which include:
- $2.028 million for additional federal contribution related to the Canada-NWT Cooperation Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second Official Language Instructions for 2019-2020 to 2022-2023;
- $1.87 million in additional federal contribution towards Building Skills 4 Success;
- $511,000 for the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association for 2020-2021 to 2022-2023 collective agreement cost increases;
- $500,000 in new funding to support the operational needs of heritage centres; and,
- $368,000 for the school funding framework to provide consistent and administrative support to small schools, which is offset by $80,000 in interdepartmental reallocation of French language communications and services budgets.
The proposed estimates also include $4.205 million in additional operations budget related to the reprofile of Labour Market Development Agreement from Fund 3, third party, to Fund 1, operations, and $51,000 in inflationary adjustment increases to core funding for non-government organizations.
The estimates are partially offset by other decreases of $752,000 broken down by the following target adjustments:
- $662,000 in contract services budget reduction that supports the items identified in the 2022-2023 Main Estimates;
- $80,000 in amortization adjustment for 2023-2024; and,
- $10,000 in insurance transfer to the Department of Finance.
The increases are further partly offset by a total decrease of $1.672 million reflecting funding scheduled to sunset on March 31st, 2023. The sunsets reflect year-over-year changes in the departmental activities in the Canada-NWT Workforce Development Agreement, Canada-NWT Agreement on French language services, Education Act Modernization Research, student records coordinators related to the federal Indian Day School Class Action Settlement records, Canada-NWT Early Learning and Child Care Agreement Extension, Specialized Territorial Support Team resources specialized funding, Education Renewal and Innovation and Northern Distance Learning budget changes.
This concludes my opening remarks. Thank you.