Debates of Oct. 20th, 2025

Committee, we will begin on page 3 with the Department of Education, Culture and Employment. Supplementary Estimates (Operations Expenditures), No. 2, 2025-2026. Department of Education, Culture and Employment, not previously authorized, $15,697,000. Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So regarding the $14 million that's being allocated to address gaps relating to educational support assistants, I understand that this is an attempt to fill some of the gaps left by the removal of Jordan's Principal funding. Can the Minister confirm how much of that $14 million has already been spent up to now? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there have been a number of requests received, but my understanding is that they're not necessarily fully allocated yet. And so I don't have a final number in terms of the allocation. There is still some funding available even with the applications that have been received, but a good portion of it has already been applied for. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member for Yellowknife North, do have you a follow-up?

Thank you, Madam Chair. So does the Minister have a sense of what is the timeline for when education bodies that have applied for this funding, when those applications will be processed and how soon they would get an answer and actually get money in the door to be able to hire these educational support assistants? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there's no delay in terms of receiving or processing per se. I understand that one element of the request is that there be some amount contributed from school boards, those that have surplus funding available to them within their own budgets and that there's some discussion happening with at least some of the school boards in this regard. So, again, until that discussion is concluded, that's the state of some of this. Others, I think, Madam Chair, my understanding is that the funding should be already processed and already flowing, and then there's some that just in terms of making sure that the allocation of funds under this program can apply to all of the different types of programs that may be affected by Jordan's Principle, which that one may be resting with us but I believe that that will be dealt with this week. So a few different reasons for why different school boards may not have received their funding yet. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And so the line item specifically says gaps relating to educational support assistants. Would this funding also -- could it be applied to not just EA's, educational assistants, but also other supports needed by education bodies, for example speech-language pathologists, other sort of therapeutic supports? Can the Minister clarify what actually is eligible under this $14 million of funding? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, this particular gap-filling exercise was focused on support assistants specifically. I understand there may be other work happening between education, culture and employment and health and social services to assist in the space of speech pathologists for example, but this specifically is for supporting of the support assistants. Thank you.

Thank you. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So this other work that may be ongoing to address gaps left by the removal of Jordan's Principal funding around therapeutic supports like speech-language pathologists, is there money planned for that? Is that located anywhere else in this supplementary budget, or is the government contemplating bringing forward another supplementary estimate in the next round? I'm glad to know that there's work underway, but I'm concerned if there is no money allocated or new money allocated then, and if we're just sort of shuffling around existing funding for education bodies then we might not be able to meaningfully fill those gaps for the therapeutic supports and the other kinds of things that Jordan's Principal was finding. Can the Minister clarify where that funding will come from? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, when the federal government changed a program that was legislated earlier this spring, the resulting impacts to just the education system alone, not including necessarily what may have been funded under sort of a more health care sort of focus, but this left a gap of $58.6 million, which is one that built up over the course of several years as school boards became more aware about Jordan's Principal and were able to develop programs to support Indigenous students. And so when the changes came down that altered the way in which school boards could line up to apply, the gap was huge. Now, there's been some modifications, I understand, coming from the federal government. This is not -- I'm not in a position here in the context of the supplementary appropriation process to speak to what the federal government has modified in the intervening months following some significant advocacy by many leaders. Certainly happy, I'm sure -- I'm sure the Minister would be happy to speak to it, but -- so this, simply put, does not fill all of the gaps from Jordan's Principal, not by a stretch, but this is really meant to focus in on one very specific area which is support assistants which was an area that we were concerned was not -- that needed to get dealt with as early as possible before the school year because of the concern that folks who were in these roles may well leave or be in different positions. So that is all that this is meant to cover, and it's only meant to cover the ones, again, for this coming year who were immediately affected. Some school boards have multi-year funding. They wouldn't be under this program because this isn't sort of for those that are denied their applications by the federal government. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Member for Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I do appreciate that clarification, and we'll have to follow up in the coming days or weeks about how those gaps can be addressed.

Finally, I just wanted to ask about for us to not fully lose sight of the second item there which is funding to support the national school food program agreement. And I understand that this is offset by federal revenues. Can the Minister explain whether that money then will be able to cover school -- well, what exactly it covers. Are we now going to ensure that there are meals being provided in every school in the territory? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, there is -- I would sort of direct, if you may, the Member and others interested to the Healthy Food for Learning foods program that is in the national school food program which has a one-year action plan here for 2024-2025. That is now being actioned and funded through this funding, and then the funding is allocated to different education bodies at different rates depending upon the I presume the size, although again I don't have the breakdown as to exactly whether it's entirely based on, you know, just pure numbers or some other qualitative assessment. But it is allocated by education body across the Northwest Territories and what each body then does with that, again, I would point back to the school action -- or sorry, the food action plan. But I can't say exactly as to what each individual education authority might be doing with their funding. Thank you.

Next I have Member for Monfwi.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, first, I want ask the Minister why Jordan's Principal application were denied in Yellowknife if they had -- yes, I want to ask why, if they know, why was denied.

Thank you. Minister of Finance.