Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Monfwi.

Well, they are the bridging program so why not just offer or extend it for the students who wants to go south? Why just only limited to take to attend Aurora College in the Northwest Territories. You know, there are some families that are not like -- where they can send their kids south to go to school or live with families or live down south because, you know, their kids can take hockey or attend or play hockey. We don't have that luxury. So that's -- the bridging program is the only options. I don't have families that are in my ridings that will fund or send their kids to Edmonton so that the child can play hockey and at the same time receive the best education. So that's why I am saying that, you know, the bridging program should be offered to other students, should be funded by the student finance assistance program. Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, as a government, we've spent a lot of time talking about the funding that's going to Aurora College. This further supports that, and it's something that we are already in -- heavily investing in as a government. And in addition to that, the programs lead to further education as well within Aurora College and so act as kind of a laddering program within Aurora College to their nursing program, their business administration, and then in the future their social worker program and their education program as well, so continuing to work to invest in those much-needed careers in the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker -- Mr. Chair. I don't mean to discredit the students because I know there's a lot of young people from my region that are taking business administration program and they're taking the nursing programs. I really do appreciate, you know, they're making every effort so that they don't be -- you know, so that they don't depend on the system to survive. And I really do appreciate their choice. But I am just asking that to fund the bridging program -- you know, like, it shouldn't be only -- the bridging program should not be only to the Aurora College should take the OCAP program. That's what I am saying. It's just that they should just freely fund the bridging program for students that wants to go outside of the Northwest Territories. Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I certainly hear the Member on this one. It becomes a question of where we, at the end of the day, want to be able to put added dollars and invest. I am working very hard right now to make sure that we're investing more in our JK to 12 education system, especially with the review on inclusive schooling. And if we are to increase funding to a program or programs outside of the Northwest Territories, we are faced with the decision of either finding more dollars from somewhere, and that can be quite a challenge right now. I am trying to funnel those as best as possible into our JK to 12 system so that, you know, down the road we have more graduates from programs that are ready for post-secondary, or it becomes a matter of continuing to remove dollars from Aurora College, which could, in turn, reduce the level of programming that they're able to offer if we are kind of spreading that out. And so there's challenging decisions, of course, to be made, and right now my focus really is on making sure that we're putting as many more dollars as possible into the JK to 12 system. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. To the -- I will allow one more to the Member.

Okay. Well, the funding for the SFA is not enough, you know, like, for single students where many of our young people they leave. From my communities or from my regions, they're young, single, no dependent, and they're living on $850 a month. I just want to ask the Minister if -- is there a plan in place where they're going to improve or increase the student financial assistance program for students that are -- you know, for the independent -- single students, I mean, $850 to increase that. Even for the family as well because family that goes -- that leave the community to go to school, it's a big -- it's a -- it affects them culturally. It's a cultural shock for them because they go from living on unlimited income to fixed income. So I just want to ask if there's a plan in place to increase the student financial assistance program. Thank you.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, the numbers used by the Member were numbers that were in play when I was a university student. The numbers today are -- for a single person is $1,000 a month. With a spouse is $1,400 a month. With one dependent is $1,700 a month. Two dependents is $1,950 a month. And three dependents is $2,200 a month. And in addition to that, students can also elect to have a repayable loan portion as well. That's another $1,400 a month on top of that. Thank you.

Thank you to the Minister. We will move on to the Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My first question is around targets in the business plan. On page 13 of the business plan, there is the overall goal or action to increase the number of employed income assistance clients. And we've spoken a lot about that amongst ourselves and in this House about the importance of trying to encourage people to seek out employment wherever they can. And so the goal was to increase clients by 10 percent over the course of this Assembly. The baseline that was identified from 2023-2024 was 934 but actually, as of May last year, that number has declined. We're down to 803. The explanation right now that's in the business plan said well, maybe that's because some of the clients are moving over to the income assistance program for seniors and people with disabilities.

Can I get the Minister to clarify what would lead us to believe that, you know, these 131 clients are likely to be seniors or people with disabilities that are actually employed in this context and on income assistance? To me, that seems like a stretch because those seem like categories of people who would face the most challenges and be least likely to be employed, but I wonder if the Minister can comment on their rationale there or any further reasons they see as to why we're seeing a decrease in the number of employed people on income assistance. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member, Yellowknife North. To the Minister.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. So, Mr. Chair, it also includes earned income. This includes honorariums. We have a lot of elders and seniors in the Northwest Territories that participate on boards using their years of experience, and so this is something that seniors and elders would be accounted for within that section as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Minister. To the Member, Yellowknife North.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Chair. And thanks to the Minister for that rationale.

So how do you define employed, then? It talks about the use of earned income exemptions. Is there like a minimum? If someone gets one honorarium in a year, are they employed, or what is sort of the minimum amount of income that you would consider someone to actually be employed? Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. So there is no minimum. It is somebody who receives dollars for work that is paid work. Thank you.

Thanks, Minister. To the Member, Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So my recommendation, if anyone's asking, for this target in the business plan, for it to be like a useful measure of people seeking and gaining employment, I think there should be some sort of minimum threshold for what someone is earning in a month or in a year or on average for them to be considered employed. To me, it's not that useful to say well, we're trying to increase the number of people with employment but that could include someone who got 100 bucks one day, and that's it, and so now they're considered employed for the year. I think most of us, that would be too much of a stretch for the imagination to really fulfill the goals that we're setting out for ourselves in the Assembly. So my two cents there.

I had another question related to the senior home heating subsidy. And the Minister might not have this offhand. But a number of my constituents do not live within a municipal boundary. They're living rurally. So in my case, out on the Ingraham Trail. And I know there have been barriers for many of those people accessing many programs that the GNWT has to offer just because they're not within any municipality. So for this senior home heating subsidy, are folks who are seniors eligible for that if they live outside a municipal boundary? Say they live rurally somewhere in the NWT. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the Member. To the Minister.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, in short, yes. And if they own their own property, seniors qualify. In addition, you know, Mr. Speaker, an example of that for the Members riding would be Prelude Lake. Thank you.