Caitlin Cleveland

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, at my fingertips right here, I couldn't share with the Member the history on when that was increased. But I do believe that there was work done on this in the 19th Assembly. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I just had a meeting yesterday at an FTP table for the federal labour Ministers' meeting where we did talk about labour market agreements, and we continuously bring that up with the federal government. There's also discussions with Canada Council of Directors of Apprenticeship, Skills Canada, and other groups as well who are really strong advocates in their sector and ones that we try to work with to gain additional funding.

In addition to that, we've submitted two proposals to CanNor that were submitted for recent calls. One of them spoke...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. So when we did receive that funding within education, culture and employment, it was indicated that it would need to be a go-forward funding, not just a one-off funding. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that when you're in these positions, regardless of what side of the House you sit on, you take these jobs very seriously. You've been given the trust of the people that you serve and also Northerners right across the territory. And so taking every opportunity to tell people about the Northwest Territories and explain to them what our context is is something that I do on a daily basis in this role.

Specifically with immigration, I started my day today by meeting with MP McLeod. We talked about the nominee program and talked about how we are...

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Member certainly has my commitment to treat this living document just as such, a living document that continues to grow and continues to get better every year. Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, certainly the department is incredibly compassionate to where people are at right now. The department has been fielding a tremendous amount of phone calls and inquiries about this and has a tremendous amount of empathy for people. Certainly, the department is letting people know what the criteria is, why it has changed for the nominee program, and is also making sure that they're steering perspective applicants to federal sources of information on federal immigration programs trying to be as helpful as possible and also letting people know that...

Mr. Speaker, it's very hard for me not to speak for the next 12 and a half minutes about this question, but I won't. I won't.

So, Mr. Speaker, with this high level -- what is meant by this high-level statement, obviously we want to grow our workforce. We want more people involved in our workforce. We want to enhance our workforce. We -- I will slow down, my apologies.

We want the people who are involved in our workforce to have the opportunity to grow their skills and to take advantage of other opportunities. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the apprenticeship housing maintainer program is delivered at the Thebacha campus in Fort Smith, but it's my understanding that there may have been opportunities in the past for the non-apprenticeship version of that course to be delivered in other communities. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the existing spaces that are being used by this program are not spaces that are owned by Aurora College, and so certainly that space is not one, for example, that I could confirm on the floor of this House but I can confirm that -- you know, first of all, thank the Member for her advocacy and our conversations in regards to adult literacy across the territory. But second, let the Member know that we are certainly following up on this one and seeing what can be done. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So, Mr. Speaker, I can confirm that Aurora College was provided $350,000 annually to operate literacy outreach programs, as the Member had indicated, and those programs are found in Inuvik, Fort Smith, and Yellowknife. In addition, education, culture and employment was providing $85,000 to Inclusion NWT to also partner with Aurora College to offer those programs. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I couldn't confirm what that will look like going forward, but I can certainly reassure the Member that ECE is looking at options on how literacy programming can continue to be...