Thank you. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. The Minister spoke briefly to conversations with the federal government, and I'm wondering if some conversations with the federal government are occurring and hopefully gaining some success in giving us some advanced payments on some of the dollars that we've spent that they know that they're going to be reimbursing us down the road. I know that it sometimes takes years for those payments to catch up. And are these conversations progressing, and would those dollars actually help this situation that we find ourselves in now so that our purse strings aren't quite so tight? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. First, apologies to the translators. I think I'm speaking quickly.

Yes, so the short answer is most definitely there have been conversations with the federal government, including from the Premier's office but also from other Ministers' offices, including in particular ECC as our EMO lead, and their counterpart at public safety. The federal government is aware of the challenges created by this huge outlay of cash without an advance on what will otherwise be at least some amount of funding coming from the federal government to help offset those costs. The trick is I don't know when -- and although the response has been positive and, really, the federal government invited us to put in a request for an advance. So that, I would suggest, indicates that they are well aware that we need it and that we need it to happen quickly.

For 2022's flood season, we received a 50 percent advance, but we only got it in this fiscal year. So, again, you know, we are quite hopeful right now and, you know, optimistic that we will see an advance on the current wildfire season in this fiscal year, but I would be remiss in this role to say that's good enough and we'll see what happens. So that is why we are before the Assembly saying that the borrowing authorization, that's what gives us the appropriate cushion and legal authority to borrow short term if we need so that we can pay venders and pay staff and pay our bills in cash. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to without the approval of the supplementary appropriation and the increase to short-term borrowing limit will the GNWT be in compliance with the FAA? Thank you.

Thank you, Member. Minister.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, it would depend. And it would depend, again, if -- I mean, and, really, there are other steps that we could take to ensure that we remain in compliance. If the advance from the federal government were to come in, if other anticipated transfer amounts come in, and that offsets, you know, the outlays of cash that are going out by bringing in more, then we may not find ourselves in as difficult a position. Right now, that's -- our projection is that over the course of this fall, we will need something extra and if we didn't have that something extra then, yes, we wind up -- if we take on more borrowing not authorized by the Appropriations Act, then that puts out of compliance.

To avoid going out of compliance, we could simply stop spending, which means putting holds on our payments and, you know, or other project delays, which is also not a situation that we want to find ourselves in. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Kam Lake. Short question.

A short question. Would the approval of this create room to pay for additional resident and business supports for people who are evacuated from the territory? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister.

No, Madam Chair, this is not new money to spend. This is the ability and the authority to borrow money to pay the bills that we already have. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. Are there any further questions?

Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2023-2024, Department of Finance revised borrowing authorization, $120 million. Does committee agree?

Thank you, committee. Do you agree that you have concluded consideration of Tabled Document 974-19(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2023-2024? Ms. Cleveland.

No, thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I move that committee defer further consideration of Tabled Document 974-19(2), Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 3, 2023-2024, at this time. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion?

Question has been called. All those in favour? All those opposed? Abstentions? The motion is carried. Consideration of Tabled Document 974-19(2) is deferred.

---Carried

Thank you, committee. Thank you, Minister. Thank you, witnesses. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the Chamber.

Committee, we've agreed to consider Committee Report 61-19(2), Standing Committee on Social Development Report on the Review of Bill 81, An Act to Amend the Education Act, No. 2. I will go to the chair of Standing Committee on Social Development for any opening comments. Member for Kam Lake.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, the Standing Committee on Social Development has advocated for improvements to education in the Northwest Territories over the life of the Assembly. While Bill 81 represents just phase 1 of the department's proposed improvements to education, which focus on operational and administrative amendments, the committee, along with overwhelming public concurrence, was disappointed in the phased approach. The phased approach lacked a thorough engagement process in which to inform meaningful change to address the uneven and poor state of education in the territory.

The Minister did provide a commitment that phase 2 of the Education Act amendments will include robust engagement and result in substantive amendments to the act aimed at improving educational outcomes of Northwest Territories students.

While Bill 81 is very limited and technical in nature, because it proposes changes to education, the committee took on the task to review the bill very seriously. Through the engagement process, the committee received six written submissions and met with residents and stakeholders from Inuvik, Norman Wells, Deline, Colville Lake, and Yellowknife. The committee took the concerns received in the engagement process and moved amendments to the bill to address these issues. The committee received ministerial concurrence to amend Bill 81 with regards to student transportation, education oversight committee and parental consent, and student education program modifications.

Based on the breadth of grave concerns the committee heard from stakeholders in the engagement process, the committee provides recommendations to the government to inform phase 2 of the amendments to the Education Act expected in the 20th Assembly.

Recommendations for phase 2 amendments of the Education Act include improvements to the approach and engagement process, absenteeism, wraparound services, and support for students with disabilities.

The committee expresses gratitude to everyone who met in person with the committee and provided their thoughts in writing. The committee acknowledges the disparities in education outcomes in small communities and lived experience of small community residents. The committee acknowledges many stakeholders shared very personal and even shocking experiences as a result of gaps in the education system. The committee would also like to recognize this information was shared in an effort to address the desperate need for improvements to the education system in the Northwest Territories. Committee would like to thank all stakeholders for their contributions.

Madam Chair, individual Members may have additional comments at this time. Thank you.

Thank you, Member. I will now open the floor to general comments on the committee report. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Member for Great Slave. Are there any further comments on the committee report? Seeing none. Member for Kam Lake -- oh, Mr. Bonnetrouge.

Mahsi, Madam Chair. Yeah, I was on the committee that travelled with social development on this Education Act. Although it was specific to several items that would give some leverage to the department in accessing school records from the communities, we did hear, as my colleague from -- the MLA for the Great Slave spoke passionately about here, she pretty much captured everything that was out there. But there was other ones that I heard from the Beau-Del, you know, education council members up there that they're saying well, all these changes we're looking at making on this first round, you know, how is that going to improve the education of the students? And I was really, you know, taken aback by that because that was -- that's been my, you know, concern since the start of the 19th Assembly when I took on education as a campaign issue from all the concerns I've been hearing from even my community, which is quite surprising. And then finding out a little bit here and there that, you know, even the attendance records were being fudged, you know, they were being overbloated compared to what was actually in the school. So there is -- you know, and the grade levels as mentioned before, that was very dismal. It's surprising that I'm just hearing -- hearing like oh, the grade 12 graduates, they only have grade 8 or less as an actual grade level. And I hope the Minister appreciates why I've been after, you know, what were the actual grade levels in our schools because it becomes important when you have to go out into the world and we don't have our students getting grade 12. And then, you know, I've been saying that before, too, even for the university that NWT is contemplating is that our people are not going to be walking those halls. You know, I really believe that there are, you know, very good educated students out there who we just need to push them a little bit more. We need to challenge, you know, challenge them at the community levels. We grew up; I think everybody -- everything was all right, you know. My aunts and my uncles, they were Dene. They spoke the language. They didn't have the education, but I turned out okay. That's because it was the fundamentals of the three Rs - reading, writing, arithmetic. That's what I see is kind of lacking in the schools. We don't know what's really happening in the schools either because nobody is having meetings with the community. It was just specific to parents, they get little notes. There's no community meetings, you know, and nobody knows what's going on in the school.

I know some of the problems that I've been hearing from parents, you know -- I'm not against the Dene Immersion Program. I know that the Dene are really concerned that there will be a total loss of language. When I was a leader in 2000-2001 for my community, there was a group of people tasked with putting up a language wheel where it showed, you know, the fluent speakers and it goes out and out and that. It really showed that we were losing our language. And with the Dene Immersion Program, I realize it creates employment. That's what it was doing. It created employment. And when we went to school concerts it was just, you know, glorious to see that our students were singing in the Dene Zahtie language. But I'm wondering if there's a different way we could approach it because there's concern that our students weren't learning English or the alphabet in English until grade 4. That's what I was told, grade 4. They didn't know how to read the alphabet. They didn't know how to write the alphabet. That's what I was told. And that became a concern to me because I always said at graduation ceremonies, I always said what the elders -- I still remember what they said. You know, we want good education for our children so they can become doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and such. That speaks about what we expect from the education system. And from what I see in the small communities, we're not even going to get there. We've lost it.

So everybody that's out there in the district education authorities or councils, the DDECs, the divisional educational councils, chiefs, mayors, Metis presidents, we all have to start talking about the education in the NWT and specifically in our small communities because we've lost -- like, in my community, we've lost a lot of really good southern teachers that were gung-ho about teaching our children. They had the drive but after social passing, all I've been hearing is, you know, out -- it's out there. Teachers are saying well, I don't need to teach them this because they're going to pass anyways. So that complacency is hurting us from the vision of what our elders had been saying, that message that I still preach at graduation ceremonies.

But education is a pretty big topic because everybody says you need the education to get a job. We know there's always other avenues but, you know, to our technical schools you can go to work on equipment and everything else that way, nursing, whatever. But as I've been saying, you know, if we know the student's not going to have grade 12 level when they graduate, at least we should be helping them so that they can pass a trades entrance exam. That's almost like a cop out still.

And we don't have enough teachers in our school systems in the small communities. We've got two, three, four grades for one teacher. And perhaps we don't have enough students. Now that comes another problem.

So everything that I'm saying here, you know, it really warrants almost like a royal commission on Indigenous education in the small communities. In the next Assembly, I really would encourage them to really consider that. We need to go to every community, not cop out and say oh, regional centre and fly them there. Go to every community so you can even see their living standards and what is happening in their community. You really have to understand what's going on here with education. And we need the education department to be a lead in a lot of areas for us as I've been, you know, jumping all over the department because they weren't doing their job I'm saying. Maybe they were doing their job but they just weren't doing it the right way or something. We weren't focused in the area. Because I don't know, I see education, like it could be having a major shift is what I'm kind of seeing. I thought I would mention that. Mahsi for listening.