Julie Green

Thank you to the Minister for that. I guess that is as close as we are going to get. The Senior Home Heating Subsidy is a popular program because it offsets one of the greatest household expenses. Is this program due for changes of any kind; income testing, increased accessibility, or any other changes? Thank you.

Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Justice. The 2016-2017 NWT Rental Office Report shows an enormous increase in wait times from the norms of the previous five years. Why has the turnaround time between the dates of application filing and the dates of hearing become so long? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am unclear what the barrier is to the Minister advocating for indexing this benefit to inflation. Could he please elaborate on that? Thank you.

Mr. Chair, thank you. What I am most concerned about is that, because this program is being starved of students, the staff will soon find other jobs, because they are not going to be able to wait for all of the wheels of government to turn ever so slowly to decide their fate. My concern is that these decisions will not be made in a way that is timely enough for the staff to stay in their positions. Does the Minister share this concern? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, my questions are about page 46. The department increased the Senior Citizens Supplementary Benefit for the first time in many years last September. I am wondering if the Minister will consider indexing this benefit so that it retains its value to seniors according to the cost of living.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Minister makes it sound like this program woke up one day and decided to phase it out. The Minister told us in this House that he made the final decision on phasing this program and the Teacher Education Program out. It was not the choice of the program to phase it out or the choice of the instructors or of the students. It is my understanding that he has the final say here. At what point will he be making a decision about the future of this program and the staff who currently are employed by it? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I see I'm not going to get a specific answer at this point. I will register that we shouldn't be the last to know. It makes absolutely no sense that we're not going to know about this until after the deadline for getting a capital funding project application in. Related to this and still an outstanding issue is the actual plan for early childhood development with money provided by Canada. We know that action plan is complete. There is some to-ing and fro-ing around when it's going to sign off. Are we looking at the same kind of a delay in making this information available...

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, let me talk about the Social Work Program. It is the one of those two programs I am more familiar with. The people who are teaching the Social Work Program have expertise in social work. They cannot be redeployed to, say, heavy equipment or personal care worker. What I don't understand is when these people are going to be told whether they have a future at the college or not. I am sure there are some collective agreement considerations there. When will these people know whether they have a job with the college or not? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Could the witness please say what kinds of services are being brought in-house that were once contracted? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, I am looking at page 33, and I am seeing that there is a slight increase in planning, research, and evaluation, and I am wondering what the additional funds are being used for. Thank you.