Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, given that the transformation of Aurora College into a polytechnic is far from anywhere near done, are we expecting additional influxes in cash flow from the federal government for the purposes of that work? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. I sure hope so. We have been engaging extensively with the federal government. As I've stated, the Premier has spoken directly to the prime minister about the importance of this initiative and the need for federal support, and I've engaged with a number of my federal counterparts as well. So we are very hopeful. Thank you.

Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I hope so as well because I've noted on the next page as well that the -- under contributions that it is marked as zero there and that's a big concern to me because that can be a very expensive venture.

Madam Chair, my next question is in regards to the apprenticeship and occupational certification. I'm wondering how many apprentices does this budget serve? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. We are supporting about 300 apprentices right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Given that the goal is always to increase the number of apprentices and given that also Housing is taking on a bigger role in ensuring that apprentices are present on all of their contracts for their builds. There's also been asks in the House for apprentices to be included on more government contracts and for Infrastructure to look at also building that into their contracts, I'm wondering why this line item isn't increasing given the increase in demand and the different avenues that Members are asking for the government to increase the number of apprentices across the territory? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of ECE.

Thank you. So we haven't been expending all of those funds and so what we've actually done, in the last fiscal year, was increase the amounts and increase the eligibility that -- increase the number of people who are eligible to receive funding. So we are taking steps to spend the money we have and if we need more money, you know, there's always opportunities to go back to the feds. So, again, these are great problems to have when we're running out of money to support apprentices and trades people. So if we get to that point then we will ensure that we have the funds to support them because it is -- you know, obviously it's a priority here in the Northwest Territories. We need trades people. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering how many apprentices can this budget support at $2.249 million?

Thank you. Minister.

I'll hand it to Mr. Saturnino. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I'm wondering if the SNAP apprentices also come out of here?

Thank you. Mr. Saturnino.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I should get started at ten minutes, not seven; I was hoping you wouldn't notice that.

My next question is in regards to the wage subsidies for SNAP students and apprentices. Are the wage subsidies for SNAP and apprentice students the same? And there's also been talk of wanting to see SNAP students expanded into all the communities in the Northwest Territories. And is this budget built to actually support that type of increase in SNAP students across the territory, or is this budget actually built to support a certain number of SNAP students in the territory? Thank you.