Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I don't have the information of dates at my disposal or at my fingertips right at this time, but I would be happy to follow up with the department and ensure that I get that back to the Member. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to ask the Minister if the Minister can make a commitment to come and visit Tlicho region, to visit some of the schools that needs a lot of help, that we need a lot of program and services, if the Minister can come and visit our school in the near future? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, every moment that I have had the opportunity to spend in the Tlicho region has been nothing short of incredibly rewarding. I appreciate the time that the Member has invited me and I have gone, and I would absolutely love to accept. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Oral questions. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Finance today. Mr. Speaker, as the Member -- or sorry, as the Minister responsible for the public service, what is the government doing to ensure change management principles are entrenched in our processes? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, there are some efforts underway already. For instance, in terms of the GNWT's core competencies, which is what we use to evaluate the employees that we have in our workforce, we do have within that action management as being one of those core competencies and obviously associated training to try to support that, which isn't to say, Mr. Speaker, that more emphasis and highlighting can't be done, and so I appreciate the opportunity today to do that here on the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what processes do we have in place to assess the effectiveness of changes that we implement at the GNWT? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, there are specialists in change management within the GNWT. Their roles though more typically would be in terms of developing the programs that we have. For example, there's a change management senior advisor within executive and indigenous affairs that's helping to lead some of the whole of government work that is underway within this government around being strength-based and trauma-informed and trying to manage that type of cultural change within government.

That said, Mr. Speaker, I hear the Member's question. It's about assessing effectiveness. That in and of itself is a cultural change that needs to take place. It's part of the government renewal work that we're doing to try to include a more evaluative process, but that work certainly does take some time, and I do acknowledge that. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what is the government doing to ensure staff understand how to lead and respond to change effectively in their roles and in the changes that they're working on? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this really is a cultural issue and one that we want to ensure -- I mean, I've certainly spoken in the House many times about having an inclusive and a diverse workplace but having one that also can manage change, lead change, thrive in change, that too is workplace culture. I certainly acknowledge that. Again, I know there's a lot of public servants who are watching and who always watch, and wanting to encourage them to have those skills and to seek out those opportunities. The GNWT's Aurora -- or sorry, leadership development program does include elements of change management within it, and that is certainly one way that I would encourage people who are looking to move through the organization, to go and undertake that program. But if there's other opportunities -- I know that the Member quoted a book -- we want to encourage that. We want to get to that place to have an evaluative and supportive culture. So that's one opportunity here, and I'm looking forward to finding others. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Finance. Final supplementary. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my final question is what steps is the government taking to encourage change resiliency throughout the public service, and does the Minister feel that we could be doing more? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, we can always do more. There's always room to improve. There's no doubt about that. And quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, the last five years have had a lot of crises and a lot of difficult times and a lot has been asked for the public service in the last five years. So learning through those processes and managing those changes and managing them into the future, absolutely, we can continue to improve. And, again, whether that's through doing the development training that is already on offer, that includes change management, whether that's in terms of our own processes and how we communicate change, leaning on those folks who do have that change background, those are all areas that I certainly do want to commit. Having had this debate here now, I'll certainly commit to going back to the department and making sure we are maximizing all of those resources. Thank you.

Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. After that exchange, I have a lot of questions for the Minister of Finance myself, but I'll keep it to the Minister of ECE for now.

So like many issues in the North, the federal one-size-fits-all approach isn't working for the territory, and recent federal limits on temporary foreign workers are concerning to my constituents. Has the Minister formally asked the federal government to increase the quota of nominees? Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in short, yes, absolutely. This is our first time -- 2024 will be our first time ever filling our quota for the nominee program in the Northwest Territories. We have requested an increase, and this is similar to other jurisdictions across Canada. We've requested an increase from 300 to 500. In the meantime, I can also -- and sorry, while we have not heard back from the federal government on that one, I intend -- I am expecting to hear back from them by the end of the year. And I could also confirm for the Member that we have asked about an increase to our allotment in this calendar year, both politically and at the officials level, but our allotment currently sits and remains at 300. Thank you.

Thanks, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the Minister for that. That's good news.

I'm also wondering in the solution that she is proposing with her federal counterparts whether there might be part of it that would look like the deal that the Yukon recently secured earlier this month to secure temporary measures to extend work permits. Mr. Speaker, if she could elaborate on that. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, temporary measures that the Yukon joined allows the Yukon nominee program to support the extension of work permits for applicants in their assessment queue that they currently have and who have work permits that expire in 2024. One of the things that we did here in the territory is that we prioritized those applications in 2024 and expect to be able to work our way through them in this calendar year. So the Government of the Northwest Territories did look at the option and opt in program that Yukon is currently partaking in but decided that they would be able to process the applications in this current calendar year and so it wouldn't serve our needs. Our needs are to continue to work as quickly as we can through applications. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So we're nearing the restart of this program in January for a new batch of, I guess, up to 500 now, hopefully, but 300 definitely, which brings fears for my constituents about a bottleneck. Can the minister explain how ECE is preparing for applications in 2025 and whether the applicants who are affected by the pause will be prioritized? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, so applicants with an expiring work permit in 2024, as I said, we're still able to submit their applications to the nominee program and are being assessed within the queue based on that priority. Applicants who have not been able to apply because of the pause that was put in place will be able to apply when the program opens up in January of 2025 again. So in acknowledgement of the increase to applications that we have received, Education, Culture and Employment is doing what they can to ensure they have a full complement of staff in order to receive the increased -- expected increase in applications again in the next calendar year.

The other thing that is happening that we talked about during the last sitting of this Assembly was the amalgamation of our immigration programs from Education, Culture and Employment and Industry, Tourism, and Investment and both being placed within Education, Culture and Employment. So that will help in the future with staffing capacity as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. Final supplementary, Member from Great Slave.