Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you, I'm glad you came prepared. So yes, well, thank you. Well still, you know, I mean we could do better. You know, like, I mean -- and it's good there's 1,650 applicants -- our applications received. But how many of those were successful -- or not successful but how many of those -- because I know that at the list minute a lot of those young people who applied, you know, if there's always a backup plan. So how many of those did actually left the North or actually went to post-secondary?

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. I don't have that information. We do try to track that. I can provide the information that we do have to committee. But I don't have it on hand here. But the Member makes a good point. That's important. Data collection is always difficult in all the areas that we do our work, which makes it difficult to design and evaluate programs. But we are getting better, and I believe we do have some information that the Member will find useful and we will share it with her. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Yeah, well, that's good because we need that too as well because in the region, like, so we can, you know, do better or try to do something that's going to help benefit our young people because maybe this, A, is not working, maybe B will work, you know, whatever it is that, you know, we're trying to do to help our young people. So I'm glad.

And then another one too is that here I see income support. So there's a huge increase. I just want to ask our Minister what are they doing to help the income support assistance client to get off income support to become more self-sufficient?

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So ECE offers a number of different programs that employers can access and that individuals can access. We also have the Student Financial Assistance program. So someone might need income assistance but perhaps they might decide they actually want to go to school and with the increases that we're proposing for student financial assistance, that makes that a possibility as well.

So, with the unlimited semesters, it's possible that someone could, you know, do their best to pursue their post-secondary education and if they have difficultly or if they take a longer time, we're supporting them in that way. We are not -- we're taking a bit more of a hands-off approach with the income assistance program. We are proposing to eliminate the productive choices. And I know that that's one program that clients would sometimes use to -- you know, to perhaps advance their education to do volunteering that could lead to a job and things like that. But what we are doing is we're providing clients with the opportunity to retain more money so that they can go out and they can earn money on income assistance and the government won't be clawing it back the way they used to. Right now, if you earn more than $200 the government starts reducing your income assistance. They start counting that against your income assistance. We're increasing that to $500. So there can be $500 earned per person as well as 25 percent of whatever else they earn. And that will not be reduced from income assistance. As well if you get a job and you do your best; you know, say you are -- you get fired because maybe you were relying on someone to give you a ride to work and that ride fell through and then you get fired, under the current program you would be cut off from income assistance. What we're proposing is that if you work and you try to work and it doesn't work out, we're not going to cut you off. So those are the types of things that we're doing. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Yeah, thank you. Another one too is that, okay, Yellowknife, I know they have income counsellors because I heard about them. And I think we don't have any in Tlicho region, you know. So I just wanted to know why Tlicho region does not have income counsellors when we have a lot of people who are on income support that are unemployed? I think we need something similar to what Yellowknife, North Slave has, or headquarters, yeah, regarding employment counsellors.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So, again, with the changes to the income assistance program, we want to make the reporting less onerous so that it frees up time for the clients and for the client service officers so that eventually we hope they will have more time to work with the clients. I know that the Tlicho region is a very busy region when it comes to the workload for the CSOs and because of that, they don't have time to spend with the clients. So we're looking at increasing the number of positions there as well at some point in the very near future. So the Member can look forward to that. And the whole idea of -- like I said, of income assistance, these changes, is to move towards a more integrated way of delivering these services. So eventually down the road an income assistance client will be able to get that assistance from the person that they're working with. That's the ultimate goal. So we are going in that direction. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any further questions under this section from Members? Seeing none, please turn to page 48.

Education, Culture and Employment, income security, operations expenditure summary, Main Estimates 2023-2024, $66,723,000. Does committee agree?

Thank you. We'll now go to junior kindergarten to grade 12 school services, beginning on page 52 with information items on page 53 to 55. Questions? Member for Thebacha.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to reiterate that, you know, in the South Slave I'm very proud that my community is a leader in education, and education is extremely important to the South Slave. And a couple of things that I want to talk about today is, you know, I always -- when we're always talking in AOC or other places about the small communities, we used to have a leadership program that was run by -- in Fort Smith, where they had an extra teacher and they had house parents, and it was only based only for the small communities. Very successful.

We got lawyers out of there from the Tlicho. You know, I know that the former Commissioner's daughter was one of the people that was in that program. There was a lot of success with that program. And everybody -- a lot of those people that were in those programs, including the now grand chief of the Gwich'in, they all went through this leadership program. And a lot of the -- I'm just wondering if the Minister would consider, you know -- I know it's late in our mandate but education is probably one of the most important things that you could give a child, not only as family but as a government. And we have to think about that again to ensure that the small communities that we have, you know, children that go there and they have house parents, they have their meals there, and they have programs that are extra, they have tutors at night, they have a teacher at night on staff, and we start mentoring some of those leaders -- the future leaders of the small communities.

And some of those future leaders were also -- that went through those programs became Premier, became Ministers, became MPs. I think that's extremely important that we start looking at that whole concept again.

The other concept that I really want to talk about is the Phoenix program. The Phoenix program in Fort Smith has got to be expanded to the small communities because I think that -- I know that the teachers in Fort Smith are very dedicated to this Phoenix program. And in the last few years, the Governor General medals were granted to students who took the Phoenix program. It wasn't the people that all graduated from grade 12 but it was people that were from the Phoenix program. And I'm very proud to say that, you know, when students go back to school and achieve that, the Governor General's award from the high school, it's a big feather in their hat. And I'd like to see that expanded to other schools. I think it's extremely important.

I consider Fort Smith a leader with the education system, and we're the education capital of the Northwest Territories. I've always said that. And education is the one thing that all of us want to push on our children no matter where they are. Whether they're from -- we've had people even from -- like, a lot from the smaller communities and from the larger centres that come to Fort Smith, and we really appreciate when they come. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. And I appreciate the Member's comments about the leadership program. And I have spoken with people about programs like that and, you know, what it -- sort of what happened in the past, why we don't have it, and what we can change to do going forward. So, you know, I'm definitely not opposed to that. It is late in the government, as the Member mentioned. And it is on the department's radar. I think that once we get into our discussions with Indigenous governments about the future of the education system and governance and how it all works, you know, that's one of the areas that could be explored.

And in terms of the Phoenix program, you know, the Member's correct that it's a valuable program. There are other programs in the territory like that Phoenix program. And they are available to small communities as well. It is something that the local education authorities would initiate, and we have supported smaller communities to begin programs like that.

There's a lot of different things happening around the territory in terms of education. The education bodies have a lot of initiatives that they've come up with on their own, and there is sharing of that information among education bodies. But I think this is one example of where perhaps we can highlight that a little better and share that information with the other education bodies so that they become aware that perhaps they can access funds to provide these types of programming in their small communities, because it is a possibility right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Did you have any further comments, Member for Thebacha?

I just want to recognize the dedication of the staff of PWK and of the elementary school in Fort Smith. You know, a lot of that time and effort, even in the Phoenix program, they can bring their children there at night. And a lot of the programming is done at night. And, you know, the staff are very dedicated to what they do at both schools.

And the one thing that is outstanding, of course, is the replacement of the 65-year-old school with -- the elementary school. There's got to be a start at some point. And, you know, I don't want to take away from any other school. Any school that's built for the betterment of students in the North is a plus. I'm not going against any other place except that that was a federal day school that -- and there's a link to the residential school. I was part of that; I went to school there also. And I just want to make sure that we keep those things in mind, and I'm sure that the Minister has a good overview of what happens, and it seems like he does. I will tell you when you're not because that's just the way I am. I've always been very honest about what I feel because I'm very happy about what's happening with education. And it's up to the whole community to make -- to make sure that the child is developing in the right way. And we all have to take part in that.

And a lot of my volunteer work was at the high school because everybody likes to volunteer for the elementary school. So all through the years since 1995, my volunteer work was with the high school, and everybody says oh, the kids are older. So I always did a lot of volunteer work with the high school, and I just want to commend the people that are there. And I know this coming year we're going to lose an important person at that school, and that's Al Karasiuk, he's retiring. And that guy, I mean, you know, he's -- he'd go around the clock with the students if he had to, to make them successful. And I really appreciate that.

And education is the most important thing you can give. You can have everything else in the world but if you don't have the grounds for -- and the background for the education, it could be a big, big problem. And education's the most important department, I think, for the future of the NWT and the economy. And I just want to thank the Minister for all the things that he said in the last little while, even with the other things that we just discussed. I didn't go into because everybody else was involved in that. And I think this is a well thought out department. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Sure. Well, I appreciate the comments from all the Members. And the Member's correct, it takes the whole community, needs to be involved and engaged in education. The government can't do it alone, absolutely not, so. And I will say that the Member's correct. In Fort Smith, they do value education. They have a lot of long-term educators who are able to mentor a lot of the younger educators that come in and so they don't run into the same issues that you might see in the smaller community where your whole staff, you know, has one or two years of experience. So they are -- you know, they're lucky that way and then they foster that environment so I have to agree with the Member there. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Monfwi.

Thank you. And I see here at Indigenous language and education, okay, it's the same all the way across, and it's good, because it is important to have Indigenous language or education. This is -- compared to the early years of residential school, it's good that we have that. That's the only way that's -- that's another way of keeping our language alive and support it. And it's beneficial. I know that it is beneficial. But I just wanted to ask the Minister in general, because I did miss the other one, but I wanted to know if the Indigenous language funds can be transferred to Indigenous government because they are the authority over language and culture. I think it's appropriate to do that, you know, and I just wanted to know what the Minister thinks of that.