I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I received a letter from Aurora College chair on Thursday indicating that they are requesting funding to reinstate that entity. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's nice to know that the chair of the board has been listening to session the last couple of weeks. Obviously, he feels there might be an opportunity. Yeah, no, that's it for me on that, I think, Mr. Chair. I certainly appreciate it. And, yeah, we look -- I mean, again, that funding, I think, is crucial, and I hope the department's considering looking at that program and maintaining that program so, again, we can continue down the path of getting to a polytechnic, where we need to be. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Are there any more questions for information item on pages 46 to 48? Yes, I got a Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So I appreciate the questions and comments from my colleagues on post-secondary education, so I will pick up the baton here and focus on JK to 12 education.

So we see some significant reductions in JK to 12 education system services and student services. System services is reduced by about 25 percent -- actually both are, and student services. And then we see reductions in contributions to education authorities.

So my question is how will this affect students on the ground at the end of the day? And just to back up for a sec, I just want to point out, so earlier there was comments that because -- there was a focus on just reducing positions that were vacant or retirements, that that wouldn't impact programs. And so I don't think we can make an assumption that because someone's retiring and we're not replacing them, that doesn't impact the program. It doesn't affect a staff person in that we don't have to fire someone, for lack of a better term, but it will impact the program in that if we're letting someone retire and no one's replacing them, that, by definition, impacts something. So I just want us to be clear that just because we're not creating affected employees, that's not the same as not impacting programs. Anyway, but the question at hand here is about impacts to JK to 12 education in terms of those significant reductions. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And just to clarify, so my comment on the issue of whether retirements would impact programs, that was just sort of globally in general whenever we talk about retirements and vacancies.

Anyway, so is the Minister suggesting that enrolment has gone down by 25 percent from last year to this year? I mean, and it's also significantly lower than the previous year. Is that what we're talking about that student enrolment has gone down 25 percent in the past year?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister to the question.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, no. I'm looking at the actuals from 2022-2023 of $139 million to the main estimates of 2024-2025 which are $136 million -- $136.6 million. So not a 25 percent reduction in attendance. I'm talking about that particular line item. If the Member would like me to give her information on additional line items, I'd be happy.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Okay, thanks for clarifying that. The line items that I wanted to focus on at the moment are under junior kindergarten to grade 12 education system services, the first one, which goes from $8.1 million to just over $6 million from last year to this year's main estimates. And maybe you can explain the difference to me. But further down in the list, there's JK to grade 12 student services, which goes from $6.1 million to $4.6 million this year. Can the Minister (audio) will impact services or whether that's primarily due to a drastic decrease in student enrolment?

Thank you. To the Minister to the question.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, in that top line item there, the $8.2 million to the $6 million, that line item reduction is due to some fiscal sustainability reductions. So for starters, there is a sunset of education renewal and innovation funding but from our fiscal sustainability plan, there's also a switch to virtual meetings related to committee meetings and a reduction of the number of training sessions as well by our student support and wellness programs. There's also a true-up of mentorship allowances and substitute wages to support the budgets under the school funding framework as well. And there is a discontinuation of an education operations coordinator, which is a headquarters position, a discontinuation of an Indigenous language and culture coordinator position as well as a discontinuation of a junior kindergarten to grade 6 curriculum co-ordinator. We were also able, in this line item here, to reduce the number and frequency of training for northern teachers. So previously principals did an annual inservice, and so what we have looked at doing is actually combining that with a summit at a conference in order to save some dollars there and bring that together with some other PD that happens. We've also reduced the number and frequency of training for -- oh sorry, I'm repeating myself. And we've also discontinued, for example, our -- or sorry, switched to virtual meetings with education authorities in order to save some additional funding. And then that, of course, is offset by some federal dollars we received for the national action plan to end gender-based violence as well. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And so were these reductions done in consultation with education authorities or based on recommendations from those education authorities or -- I understand some of these are with -- you know, solely within ECE, but there may be impacts on education authorities and the work that they do. So can the Minister speak to any consultation that was done there or recommendations from the authorities?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the department did put out a call to education bodies as a whole to ask them, you know, what would work, do you foresee a possibility to offer up some dollars from your budgets. And without any surprise, of course, the answer was no, which we a hundred percent respected because, like many members have said, you know, our foundation to -- our economic foundation begins with educating our youth. And so we absolutely respected that. But what the education bodies did offer up were some suggestions of where to create some savings within the department. And so those recommendations were absolutely listened to, and some of those recommendations as well included switching to virtual training sessions or meetings because sometimes when we're taking teachers out of, especially small communities, it can be incredibly disruptive to the learning of students. And so some of those suggestions were definitely incorporated within this budget here. Thank you.

Thank you. I'm going to go back to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, well that is somewhat reassuring to hear. The question -- so on page 46, we look at the budgets for building Skills 4 Success in the NWT, and that has gone from $3.368 million last year to it looks like nothing this year. And so can the Minister explain whether that funding appears somewhere else in the budget? Is it a shifting around of where funds are coming from or going, or what programs are we losing if that program disappears?

Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, that was a sunset of a federal program that was not reinstated, and there was a significant impact to labour market programs across Canada and one that we have heard a lot about from provincial and territorial labour Ministers across the country for sure. Thank you.