Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, certainly the business plans were developed specific to the nominee program with the previous allocations in mind, not expecting -- I don't think anybody across the country expected their allocations to be cut in half, and so we will certainly have to pivot to ensure that we remain in line with the guidelines afforded to us by the federal government.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And, yeah, specifically, I'm interested in the action under access to health care, continue to promote this program as a tool to attract internationally trained health and social service professionals to the NWT.

Madam Chair, will the Minister have anything to pivot to that she is aware of to help us seek out those health professionals in any federal discussions she's had so far? Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, our conversations with the federal government have largely been at increasing numbers across the board. Certainly, as other jurisdictions, we have not seen success in that one. One of the things that we are going to do this year, once we do our allocations for 2025 in preparation for 2026, we are going to work with stakeholders to develop a plan of if our nominee program looks the same as it does this year with 150 allocations, then we want to ensure that we're being as strategic as possible, and so one of the pieces of work we need to do is to review our strategy with stakeholders to figure out, okay, what do we do if we are yet again in a position where we only have 150 allocations because we know that there's far more demand, and we want to ensure that benefit retention for the Northwest Territories is certainly paramount in this conversation along with ensuring that we are serving all Northerners that live here. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Great Slave.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm good.

Thank you. Next, I have Member for Range Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker -- Madam Chair. Oh, that's not like me. Long night.

I also have questions about the NTNP program. So there's 60 applications that have been held over from the previous fiscal year, and -- or sorry, sorry, from the last intake. Not fiscal, but the last intake. And that leaves 90 new applications. Why -- given the kind of very serious situation we're in where the quota's been cut in half, there's lots of people with uncertainty, why are we not basing the intake on, you know, true equity where there's a level playing field for everyone and then when they evaluate the applications, they base urgency into it? Because we're already doing that, I guess. With the 90 applications, we are basing urgency of permits -- well permits -- of expiring work permits. That's what's getting the most attention after the random draw. But now we have these kind of 60 things that have -- 60 applications that have been grandfathered in because they weren't seen last year. This is not my bright idea. This is a concern that's coming forward from the community, both the worker community who missed out on the window and also businesses as well who would have been more diligent in applying if they'd known they got their applications in, it would have been held over for next year. So can the Minister explain why this decision was made? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. So, Madam Chair, those 60 applications came in prior to the pause last year. So that was a commitment that was made last year before we paused the program in July. And so, really, the decision to honour that commitment was made to be fair to the people that the commitment was made to and then beyond that, we used the 90 -- the 90 allocations that we had left to ensure that we were focusing on urgency and retention. Thank you.

Thank you. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you for the clarification. Were those commitments made -- how were those commitments made? Was it, like, on an individual basis for each person who applied from the departmental level, or was it a political commitment? If the Minister can jog my memory. I'm not sure if it was made in the House, but just what level of commitment was this? Thank you.

Thank you. Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. It was not a commitment made on the floor of the House. It was a commitment made to the people who put their applications in because they had applied before the deadline last year and so wanted to honour the fact that they had done that. And I think at the end of the day, it's important to reflect on the fact that no matter how this program rolls out, there are always going to be people that are disappointed and incredibly emotional about this. There are people who are in situations where they're looking for certainty as far as family reunification. There are people who have spent an incredible amount of personal finances to move to Canada and to set up their lives here. And so at the end of the day we're certainly not talking about numbers, we're talking about people. And this is very, very difficult knowing that we, at the end of the day, are not able to make everyone happy with this program.

Thank you. Member for Range Lake.

Thank you. And thank you to the Minister for that. This is absolutely about people, not about numbers, and I appreciate that recognition. That being said, are we -- is this hangover thing, is it a policy that people who apply, you know, during the intake but there's not enough spots are held over to the next year; is that how it's always been done? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.

Thank you, Madam Chair. We've never met our allocation before. So this is new. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Member for Range Lake.

Thank you. So is that policy, then? Thank you.

Thank you. I'll go to the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment.