Caitlin Cleveland

As I alluded to in my Member's statement today, one of the most difficult parts about this policy is the market-disruption clause. Is the Minister willing to suspend or remove the market-disruption provision in the SEED policy so that existing NWT businesses can be assured of access to this funding? Thank you.

According to the backgrounder that accompanied the announcement of top-up funding, I quote, "a flexible approach shall be taken to the provision of SEED strategic initiative funding, with an allowable funding range between $30,000 and $70,000." However, the ITI SEED program webpage and the policy itself indicate that the maximum funding available under any specific entrepreneur support category is $25,000 per year. Can the Minister please clarify first what is meant by the term "entrepreneur support category" in the SEED policy, and are there separate pots of funding under the SEED umbrella...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. For the following year, would we expect to see the same type of a budget line item for here, then? It would be consistent within that, kind of, $365,000 mark? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I was happy to hear the Minister just now speak of SEED funding, and I'd like to take that a step further with her today.

Mr. Speaker, our NWT businesses need aggressive, innovative stimulus programs and an influx of cash so they can start the long journey of regenerating our northern economy. I was pleased to hear that ITI has topped up its SEED program by $140,000, to $4 million, to support new, innovative proposals that reflect the realities of the post-COVID-19 economy.

The program guidelines provide that funding should support forward-looking business proposals aimed...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Maybe the Minister can just help me with the process here a little bit. Does it have to come to AOC before it goes online, and then, as soon as AOC sees it, does it immediately become online and available to the public? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. No, I don't think it needs to be a new line item. I think that Health and Social Services has a really strong communication team who does a lot of great work. I think that this is something that we can just simply ask them to highlight in communities right now, given that people probably do need additional support in the home; not a new line item. My next question is in regard to with long-term facilities, I see that there is not a line item for languages here. Would language requirements or language needs within long-term care facilities be involved here, or...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. My first question is in regard to the respite fund under contributions. We have a lot of people in the Northwest Territories right now who are spending an unprecedented amount of time at home with people who require a lot of care, whether that's children with disabilities or adults with disabilities. Especially with people who are used to sharing the care of loved ones, now that everybody is at home, the need for respite care, I think, is probably greater than it was before, to be able to have that support in the home. Does the Department of Health and Social...

Thank you very much Madam Chair. I absolutely agree that NGOs are crucial in that sense. As you mentioned the NWT Disabilities Council, they end up being the ones actually delivering the programming. My question is: who provides the oversight of all these NGOs? Because sometimes they end up administering the same programs, whereas, really, we could be working together to make sure that we're offering different levels of care throughout our system of partnerships. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I very much believe that child and family services is, given the changes that health and social services wants to implement, a form of preventative care because we've all seen research that says, when you invest in kids, when you invest in families, the benefits that come back to communities and the benefits that come back to your society are huge. I think my colleague from Yellowknife Centre once said, and she can tell me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure, she once said, for every dollar you invest in kids, your return is $13. I believe that was actually from...

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I have a couple of questions for this page. It's a very expensive page in our book. It's very obvious that health has a lot of fabulous health and social programs, and one of the ones we've heard the most about in the last few years has been the child and family services program. I notice that the increase for the child and family services program in the budget this year is just under half a million dollars. I'm wondering if the Minister can speak to whether or not that is enough money for this program to cover what they would like to achieve with child and...