Alfred Moses

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I think it's a responsibility for all forms of government, whether it's the GNWT or even our Indigenous governments that we partner with, to ensure that the youth have a voice. I am a strong supporter of this.

In fact, in our last government, the Member and Members would be glad to hear that, when we were developing our Safe and Caring School legislation in the Northwest Territories, we did engage with youth across the Northwest Territories. We had facetoface meetings with them in their schools and in their classrooms and got feedback on that legislation. It was great to...

Mr. Speaker, the Government of the Northwest Territories has a responsibility to make sure that high school students in the Northwest Territories have access to an equitable, high-quality education that prepares them to be contributing members to our communities. We owe it to our young people to provide an environment that supports wellness, inspires a sense of identity, and builds on their strengths, because we know it means a greater chance for success both in academics and in life.

Mr. Speaker, Members are aware of some of our work to date to implement education renewal and, in particular...

As I have mentioned to Members, as we are going through our main estimates, we also have the labour market development agreements that we do have with the Government of Canada. There are funds in that agreement that we do have with the federal government that will also help with employment, so there are some dollars that we are accessing on a bilateral basis, as well, and we are just looking at hopefully signing that agreement soon. We'll get all that information to the Member and to Members as we move forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One other thing that I want to highlight is that, out of that $4.2 million that we budgeted in the last budget, up to the present we have almost spent all of that money, and I am confident that we will have all of that funding in the Small Community Employment Fund spent by the end of this fiscal year. Of course, we want to look at other ways that we can partner with whether it's another organization, possibly through a wage subsidy or partnering in share costs for projects, as well as looking at some of the other programs that are in other departments on how we can work together so that we...

As I mentioned, we are putting in career and education advisors as well this academic year. The whole education renewal that we have been working on over the past number of years is going to hopefully impact the way our students learn, the way our students succeed, the way our students are able to graduate, right from the JK to 12 system. With our new investment in the career and education advisors, I think we are going to be helping our students to complete graduation, look at a career that they might want to take, or, further, going to a postsecondary institution.

The child and youth care...

I do appreciate the concern. When students do miss class to go out and seek other supports that they need to be successful in life, we would work with the education authorities to ensure that teachers who are in a situation where their students are leaving class, whether it's for a medical appointment, dentist appointment, or if it's for counselling, that the teacher makes every effort to ensure that the student gets the materials or information that they have missed for that day or a couple of days.

Just to reiterate what the assistant deputy minister said earlier with our Education Renewal Initiatives, putting funding into certain programs as we go through the process, as I mentioned earlier, we have a lot of initiatives on the go, and providing the financial resources to that shows the fluctuation from year to year. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are a lot of programs here that the Minister is referring to: Student Financial Assistance, Income Assistance, Senior Home Heating Subsidy. With the income, I'm not sure if it's something more specific, in terms of somebody that he's speaking to; but we're also doing investments, such as our career and education advisors who can work with students on things like budgeting programs, services. If they can't find a job in the community, depending on the age of the child, there's also an opportunity for that youth or young adult to look at accessing income assistance as...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, we can definitely have those discussions. We're definitely big supporters, as well, in terms of making sure that we have apprentices in the Northwest Territories to meet our labour market demands, as well as our employer demands. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I know there are some programs out there, Moms and Tots, mothers and babies, that invite all families to participate in those programs. We have made increases and improvements to the Canada Child Benefit, the NWT Child Benefit. That puts more dollars into low- to modest-income families. We also provide daycares and funding for day homes through subsidies, where, if parents want to have a day home, we can work on helping them provide that, possibly having their kids participate in the program, as well. Obviously, there are still other options. The Member did mention one in his statement. We are...