Thank you. And there are funds that are provided to Indigenous governments, both from the federal government through the GNWT and from the GNWT. This funding right here is specific to schools. And the reason it's broken out in its own line item is because we provide the schools with essentially a lump sum of money. We provide the education bodies with a lump sum of money and we say, you spend this however you need to spend this. There's very strings attached. There's two strings that are very attached, though. We say that this portion, you have to spend on Indigenous languages and education. And this other portion you have to spend on inclusive schooling. And so we do that because we want to earmark the lump sum that we're giving these education bodies for Indigenous languages and culture. So I don't want to remove that component from here and take, you know, $10 million out of the -- $12 million out of the education system and that -- especially the money that funds that cultural component. So that's my answer. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

No, I am not saying that remove this because we do need this in schools. In the early years in residential school, it had an impact on a lot of our people, you know, because a lot of them lost our language and way of life. And so I will not ask, you know, to get rid of this in school. But I'm just saying that in general, like, here Indigenous language and education secretariat, you know, some of these cultural and heritage, why not transfer some of those to the Indigenous governments so that they can run their program or, you know, like, that they see fit based on -- you know, according to their culture and needs. So that's what I'm asking for. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. And I know if we go back into the culture section that we've already passed, that's where those funds are. And the Indigenous governments, you know, we provide them with funding for language and culture. But we also want to do something as a government. I mean, if we gave them that money, the next call would be why aren't you doing anything for languages and culture; put money in the budget for languages and culture. So that's the money that we have there for languages and culture. I will say as we, you know, work on modernizing the education system and the governance system, we can have -- we will have those discussions with the Indigenous governments about how language and culture are incorporated into schools. So what the Member is bringing up are discussions that will be had. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Monfwi.

Yeah. No, no. As long as they're going to be having that discussion, that's okay, that's good, I'm happy. I hope we make some progress in this area because I strongly believe that, you know, Indigenous government running, operating some of these programming and services is good, you know, because they are -- our language is important to our people. So that's why I was just suggesting that. So thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, my first question is in regards to education renewal and innovation. This line item appears to have come down a little bit. And my concern is that in the following fiscal year, hopefully the 20th Assembly which will be part of that fiscal year, will be able to dive right into the education renewal. And so I'm wondering if the education renewal, in fact, some of it comes out of here or is it largely centered within the corporate management section? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So the budget is here, and it is decreasing because this -- education renewal and innovation was a fund used to try different things, to try to renew and innovate. And so a number of those projects have become permanent, and now they have funding elsewhere. So things like northern distance learning, that's no longer funded out of here; that has its own pot of money. So as they move from being sort of experiments, they move into getting their own permanent streams of funding and that's why we see this dwindling. And this was also a ten-year strategy I guess, and we're -- must be in the last year of that strategy now, or very near. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering why we wouldn't maintain a consistent value -- or dollar value in this pocket so that ECE, especially, you know, given what we just heard from MLA Martselos in regards to the importance of education, why we wouldn't, rather than having a ten-year strategy innovation, just be constantly innovating in the way that we are delivering education in the Northwest Territories. And so I'm wondering why that's not a fixed amount that is constantly there for us to continue to do better. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. And I think that speaks to the need for why we don't need this, because we are constantly innovating. We don't just need this sort of project-based innovation fund; that's what we do. I heard someone the other day saying that, you know, the government doesn't acknowledge the negative issues or the, you know, problems with the education system and they're not doing anything about it. And I looked at what we had ten years ago and what we have today. We didn't have junior kindergarten. We didn't have northern distance learning. We didn't have career and education advisors. I have a whole list somewhere of these things that we didn't have. So there has been massive changes in the last ten years. And, I mean, I see what's happening on the horizon. There's going to be massive changes in the next ten years as well. So there's constant innovation. And that's also, you know, why I do appreciate the system of governance that we have where education bodies have the freedom to innovate on their own. When you travel to different regions and different schools, they are doing -- they are innovating in ways that are supporting their students. They're very tailored innovations. And so that still does occur. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm sure that a lot of the changes that happen from here on in for a few years in regards to education will be largely driven by the Education Act amendments. And so I'm wondering where that funding is coming from; is that found in corporate management and not here? And I'm wondering if the Minister can provide clarity on that one. Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So there was funding for that, like in this current fiscal year but that is sunsetting. Originally, this project was supposed to be completed by the end of this term and so that funding is sunsetting. But going forward, from what has been learned during this process the department has a better handle on how things work and will be able to fund that work internally going forward. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And thank you for that clarification from the Minister. I just don't want to leave the 20th Assembly without dollars to do the work that needs to be done for that one.

I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to why there's been a decline in the education operations and educator development fund? It looks like there is about a $200,000 decrease there.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So the department increased capacity with two employees who worked -- student record employees. So they were responsible for ensuring that all of the requests for day school records were handled. And, you know, they were very busy and we actually brought in a bunch of other staff from throughout the department to help with that as well. But that -- those jobs, or those funds are now sunsetting as well because that -- the deadline for those -- for that class action has passed. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.